Altered Carbon

Takeshi Kovacs is not a nice man and that's putting it mildly. In a land where death means nothing because you can be resleeved and get a download of your stack anytime you only have to be bothered about your stack getting totally destroyed. Add to that the fact that Kovacs is a convicted criminal who, if he doesn't complete his allotted task, will just get sent back to prison and you get main character who is totally unlikeable, has no respect for anyone or anything and no fear of any consequence of his actions.

In the main this is quite a simple detective story - Kovacs has to find out who killed the man who hired him (yes, I know that sounds weird). The plot pretty much follows Kovacs in a linear way as he works out who did what when. I did get a bit lost occasionally as you have to remember who's sleeved in who's body so if you stop paying attention you end up doing a double-take and nipping back a page or two to work out who's where.

The idea of the stacks and sleeves is a really clever one and it's pretty well explained but if you don't get the concept you'll struggle with the book.

I gave it 3.5 stars. Probably should have given it more but I got put off by the profanity, so pretend it's a 4.