Altered Carbon

In a far-future human civilization, consciousness can be stored digitally and moved into new bodies, making death conditional on wealth and access. Former envoy Takeshi Kovacs is taken out of storage and dropped into Bay City to investigate the apparent suicide of a powerful billionaire.

As Kovacs digs into the case, the investigation pulls him through the city’s criminal underworld, elite corruption, and the social rules of a world built around body-swapping, backups, and long-lived rich people. The mystery keeps shifting as he tries to determine whether the death was suicide or murder.

The story follows Kovacs in first person as he navigates violence, alliances, betrayals, and the darker consequences of technology that lets people treat bodies as temporary property. The central investigation gradually exposes the personal, political, and moral costs of this future system.