Altered Carbon

In the future, humans have achieved virtual immortality. Most people have cortical stacks in their spinal columns that store their consciousness. If their body dies, their stack can be stored indefinitely. Their stacks can be downloaded into new bodies, or "sleeves", after death. Roman Catholics do not allow their stacks to be re-sleeved after death, as they believe that the soul goes to Heaven when they die, and so would not pass on to the new sleeve. This makes Catholics easy targets for murder, since killers know their victim may not be re-sleeved to testify. At the start of the novel, UN Resolution 653 is being debated. This proposition reverses precedent and would allow authorities to temporarily re-sleeve a deceased Catholic woman to testify in a murder trial. Dual-sleeving, or controlling two bodies with one personality, is strictly prohibited by U.N. law.

While most people can afford to get resleeved at the end of their lives, they are unable to update their bodies and most go through the full aging process each time, which discourages most from resleeving more than once or twice. Thus, while people can live indefinitely in theory, most choose not to. Only the wealthy are able to acquire replacement bodies on a continual basis. Those who have lived for multiple lifespans are called Meths, a reference to the Biblical figure Methuselah. The very rich are also able to keep copies of their minds in remote storage, which they update regularly. This ensures that even if their stack is destroyed, they can be re-sleeved. People who commit serious crimes are imprisoned "on stack". Their consciousness is preserved and stored virtually, sometimes for decades, while their body is sold to the highest bidder to be used for re-sleeving another person.

Numerous colony planets exist apart from Earth; many were previously inhabited by an extinct alien civilization referred to as the Elders. In order to deal with the challenges of interspace warfare, the U.N. created the Envoys. They are an elite military group with extensive training in re-sleeving and psychological modification, as well as combat. Envoys are so successful and dangerous that they are generally prohibited from holding elected office on any world.

On the colony planet of Harlan's World, Takeshi Kovacs and his partner Sarah Sachilowski, former Envoys who had returned to a life of crime, are killed by a U.N. colonial commando unit. Kovacs is sentenced to a long term in stack storage. On Earth, a Meth named Laurens Bancroft has died in mysterious circumstances in Bay City (formerly San Francisco). The re-sleeved Bancroft has no memories of the previous two days, including his own death. Though police officer Kristin Ortega believes he committed suicide, Bancroft is convinced he was murdered. He hires Kovacs to investigate. Kovacs discovers that Bancroft has been involved with numerous prostitutes, including recent murder victim Elizabeth Elliot. Elizabeth's mother Irene was imprisoned for illegally hacking Bancroft's memories. Elizabeth's father is too poor to re-sleeve Elizabeth or to free his wife from the stacks.

Laurens' wife, Miriam, seduces Kovacs and bribes him to end the investigation. A high-level Russian operative named Kadmin tries to assassinate Kovacs, but fails and is captured. Kovacs investigates the brothel where Elizabeth worked. He learns he is wearing the sleeve of Elias Ryker, a corrupt police officer and Ortega's lover. He is tortured by physicians from the Wei Clinic, who deal in black market sleeve theft. He tells his interrogators that he is an Envoy and they release him. A mysterious woman named Trepp says she will bring Kovacs to Ray, who is behind the clinic's operations. Kovacs escapes, destroys the brothel and clinic, and murders the employees in the process.

Kovacs and Ortega are injured in an explosion orchestrated by Kadmin, who has escaped police custody. Trepp brings Kovacs to "Ray", or Reileen Kawahara. Kawahara is a Meth mob boss with whom Kovacs has dealt in the past. He had rejected her offers of partnership, believing her to be cruel and manipulative. Kawahara orders Kovacs to end his investigation, or she will torture Sarah, who is currently in virtual storage.

Kovacs and Ortega begin sleeping together and form a partnership. Kovacs agrees to convince Bancroft he committed suicide. His version of the story is as follows. Bancroft contracted the Rawlings virus from a brothel. The Rawlings virus is designed to scramble cortical stacks and prevent re-sleeving, causing permanent death. To prevent it from contaminating his clones, Bancroft committed suicide. Kawahara agrees to procure a copy of the virus for Kovacs. With Kawahara's help, he retrieves Irene Elliot from stack, and hires her to implant the Rawlings virus into a brothel.

Kovacs learns that Bancroft went to an airship-turned-brothel named Head in the Clouds on the night he died. This establishment is run by Kawahara. Kadmin kidnaps Ortega and threatens to kill her unless Kovacs trades himself for her. Ortega is released, and Kovacs is forced to fight in a duel against Kadmin. Trepp and the police arrive, killing Kadmin. Kovacs destroys Kadmin's stack.

Kovacs double-sleeves, controlling both Ryker and a second body simultaneously. The copy in Ryker's sleeve leaves with Miriam to draw away surveillance. Ortega and Kovacs infiltrate Head in the Clouds. Irene spikes Kawahara's personality backup with the Rawlings virus, destroying all of her clones. Kovacs forces a confession from Kawahara. After a Catholic prostitute was murdered at Head in the Clouds, her resurrection would have revealed Kawahara's illegal activity. As part of her cover-up, Kawahara framed Ryker for corruption, since he was investigating the murder. She asked Bancroft to help her kill Resolution 653 to prevent the prostitute from testifying, but he refused. Kawahara and Miriam had Bancroft drugged; out of his mind, he killed a prostitute and then killed himself in order to erase the memory out of guilt and self-preservation. With his memories gone, Kawahara's involvement could not be traced.

Assisted by Trepp, Kovacs blows out the side of the airship. As he and Kawahara fall to the ocean below, he uses a grenade to destroy Kawahara's stack, ensuring her permanent death.

In the aftermath, Bancroft is cleared by the U.N. for his involvement with Kawahara. The copy of Kovacs that stayed with Miriam is erased, as double sleeving is illegal, but he makes the surviving copy of Kovacs promise to cover up Miriam's involvement. Irene Elliot gets her body back, Elizabeth and Ryker are freed from the stacks, Resolution 653 passes, and Kovacs is freed and returned to Harlan's World.

Describing the book, Kirkus Reviews said that "The body count is high, the gadgetry pure genius, the sex scenes deliriously overwrought, and the worn cynicism thoroughly distasteful: a welcome return to cyberpunk's badass roots."[3]

The book won the Philip K. Dick Award for Best Novel in 2003.[4]

• Altered Carbon title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Altered Carbon at goodreads.com
• Interview with author Richard K. Morgan about writing the trilogy series