Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

Richard Morgan got a hit on his hands with this stunning sf noir thriller set in the 25th century where real death is only a memory to a select few! Technology exists in this future society where a person's consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack and download into another body(sleeve). Ex Un envoy Takeshi Kovacs is killed in a firefight with the authorities and he finds himself in another body on Earth in Bay City which use to be San Francisco. He is hired or threatened by the rich Laurens Bancroft to find out who had him to kill himself! Morgan's sf thriller has it all: scenes of brutal violence as Kovacs uncovers a rather sinister conspiracy that will rock this future society to it's core. Morgan's vision of the future where human life is bought and sold and where death loses it's sting to select few who can afford it.

Another thing I love about this novel is wonderful characters both good and evil who inhabit this world: Takeshi Kovacs: a man who finds his conscience as he battles his corrupt enemies. Kristin Ortega: the cop who has ties to Kovacs that makes her distrust him at first. Laurens Bancroft: centuries year old man who's hires Kovacs to find out who tried to kill him. Miriam Bancroft: Laurens wife who has some dark secrets of her own as she tries to seduce and stop Kovacs.

I love the gritty feel of this book with it's scenes of future eroticism and gory violence and it's theme of in the future technology changes but human nature doesn't!