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Content snapshot
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Violence
Very heavy
Graphic violence and torture throughout; the future's disposable attitude toward bodies creates extreme content
Language
A lot
Extreme profanity throughout
Sexual Content
A lot
Explicit sexual content including scenes in virtual reality
Substance Use
Some
Significant drug and alcohol use in the cyberpunk setting
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Strong psychological content: the horror of consciousness without stable identity, trauma, and the noir tradition's moral nihilism
What this book is about
In a far-future society where human consciousness is stored on cortical stacks and can be downloaded into new bodies, ex-soldier Takeshi Kovacs is sleeved in a new body to solve a wealthy man's apparent suicide — except the man himself doesn't want the case solved. Richard K. Morgan's cyberpunk noir debut is one of the genre's defining works: graphically violent, sexually explicit, relentlessly dark, and brilliantly constructed. Its examination of what mortality means when death is negotiable gives it genuine philosophical depth beneath the hard-boiled exterior.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Graphic violence including torture throughout
Explicit sexual content throughout
Extreme profanity pervasive
The disposability of bodies allows for extremely graphic content
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