Engagement:
Genre:
Science Fiction
Published:
2002
Page Count:
526
Where to Buy:
Altered Carbon
Takeshi Kovacs
#
1
Content Ratings
Intense Themes
The novel is a sustained exploration of what personhood means when the body is merely a vehicle, the economic stratification of mortality, corporate violence as normalized behavior, and the psychological cost of operating in a world where bodies are disposable.
High Violence
Extreme violence is pervasive and graphically depicted throughout: torture, murder, bodies destroyed in combat, and the philosophical horror of 'real death'—the destruction of one's digital backup—are rendered with unflinching physical specificity.
Synopsis
In a future where human consciousness can be stored digitally and transferred between bodies, former soldier and criminal Takeshi Kovacs is resleeved into a new body to solve what the police ruled a suicide—but the victim was so rich he could afford to be reborn, so the question is why he would want to die. A noir detective novel with extreme body horror and graphic violence set in a world where death is temporary but physical suffering is very real. A relentlessly dark and inventive cyberpunk thriller.