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Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan

Altered Carbon
In the 25th century, it's difficult to die a final death. Humans are issued a cortical stack, implanted into their bodies, into which consciousness is "digitized" and from which - unless the stack is hopelessly damaged - their consciousness can be downloaded ("resleeved") with its memory intact, into a new body. While the Vatican is trying to make resleeving (at least of Catholics) illegal, centuries-old aristocrat Laurens Bancroft brings Takeshi Kovacs (an Envoy, a specially trained soldier used to being resleeved and trained to soak up clues from new environments) to Earth, where Kovacs is resleeved into a cop's body to investigate Bancroft's first mysterious, stack-damaging death. To solve the case, Kovacs must destroy his former Envoy enemies; outwit Bancroft's seductive, wily wife; dabble in United Nations politics; trust an AI that projects itself in the form of Jimi Hendrix; and deal with his growing physical and emotional attachment to Kristin Ortega, the police lieutenant who used to love the body he's been given. Kovacs rockets from the seediest hellholes on Earth, through virtual reality torture, into several gory firefights, and on to some exotic sexual escapades.

This was a great story, no doubt about it. So often, when reading books of this sort, I'll think, "Yeah, but if people could do that, then why wouldn't this happen?" Richard Morgan hits on every contingent and possibility that might pop into your head, and turns it into part of the plot. This is a fantastic story, and I recommend it to anyone.

11/22/63, by Stephen King
Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan
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Deadline, by Mira Grant
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Decipher, by Stel Pavlou
Digital Fortress, by Dan Brown
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Dune, by Frank Herbert
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Eragon, by Christopher Paolini
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