Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs Novels Book 1)

In the twenty-fifth century, humanity has spread throughout the galaxy under U.N. oversight. Technology has advanced to allow consciousness to be stored in a cortical stack implanted at the base of the brain and transferred into new bodies, or "sleeves," effectively making death reversible for those who can afford the procedure. Divisions of race, religion, and class persist despite these advances. Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has died before, but his most recent death was particularly brutal. Sent one hundred eighty light-years from home and re-sleeved into a body in Bay City—formerly San Francisco, now featuring a rusted, deteriorated Golden Gate Bridge—Kovacs becomes entangled in a far-reaching and dangerous conspiracy. In a society where existence itself has become a commodity that can be bought and sold, this conspiracy proves vicious even by those standards.