Mass Market Paperback, 544 pages
English language
Published Feb. 28, 2006 by Del Rey.
It's the twenty-fifth century, and advances in technology have redefined life itself. A person's consciousness can now be stored in the brain and downloaded into a new body (or "sleeve"), making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen. Onetime U.N. Envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Resleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats existence as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning.
At first I was kind of put off by the noir-style narration but once I got over that, it is a fun story in a very interesting cyberpunk setting. There are quite a few surprising twists and reveals which kept me guessing until the end. If you like crime novels and/or cyberpunk, you'll probably enjoy this.
I really enjoyed this book. An hard-boiled, engaging story which aligns with the themes and the style of its genre, but succeeds at the same time in creating something really unique. Language is simple, straight to the point; explicit at times, but under no circumstances vulgar. A Dense, intricate plot, a crescendo of suspense.
