Altered Carbon (Vol. 1)

Altered Carbon is the thrilling sci-fi thriller that inspired the Netflix series.

In the 25th century, humanity expanded throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eyes of the United Nations. Although divisions based on ethnicity, religion, and class still exist, technological advances have served to redefine the very concept of life.

This is a time when a person's consciousness can be stored in a cartridge at the base of the brain and downloaded into a new body when the current one stops working. Death, now, is nothing more than an inconvenient setback, a glitch in the program.

Takeshi Kovacs, a former UN envoy who had never set foot on Earth, has died before. His latest death, however, following a botched mission, proved particularly painful. Now in Bay City, formerly San Francisco, Kovacs is brought back to life to solve the murder of a tycoon—a task imposed on him by the victim himself. Little does he know, however, that this cat-and-mouse game will throw him into the center of a conspiracy that is perverse even by the standards of a society that treats human existence as a commodity to be traded.

For Kovacs, the bullet that hit him square in the chest was just the beginning.

Altered Carbon is the first volume in the series.