Altered Carbon

Mankind is strung out across interstellar space, and human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies, but some things never change, so when Takeshi is downloaded into the body of a ex-thug and presented with a catch-22 offer he shouldn't be surprised.

---

Compared to James Ellroy for its brutal intensity and to Raymond Chandler for its style and characterisation, this future-crime novel is a breathtakingly fast and violent thriller that carries a weight of ideas and speculative science with graceful ease. In Takeshi Kovacs it introduces a brooding new hero who propels the vivid strength, violence and singularity of purpose of James Ellroy's best characters into the 26th century.