Publisher, Tantor Media (December 2004)

NOTE: Tantor RETAIL EDITIONS are packaged in attractive, durable plastic albums with a ring binder and individual CD sleeves with full-color cover artwork.

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"Morgan's debut novel, the first in a series, combines noir mystery with ultra-high tech science to create a complex science fiction thriller. Featuring a hard-nosed antihero with his own sense of personal honor and ethics, this is highly recommended for science fiction collections." --Library Journal

In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person's consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or "sleeve") making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.

Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats "existence" as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning. . . .

About the Author: Richard K. Morgan was born in London in 1965 but didn't stick around for the Kings Road sixties experience. A relaxed, rural upbringing in the Fens followed, then a rude wake-up call at the University of Cambridge where study suddenly became something requiring substantial effort. Richard never quite recovered from the shock and recoiled out of academia three years later with a very average degree in political history and very little interest in any career other than writing and /or traveling. Accidentally, he became a teacher of English as a foreign language and despite his best efforts ended up building a fourteen-year career in the profession as teacher, then director of studies, then teacher trainer. During this time, he taught variously in Spain, Turkey, Scotland, and his birthplace, London. His unexpected teaching career came to an equally unexpected end when Hollywood was kind enough to option his first novel, which you now hold in your hands. Richard currently lives in Scotland with his Spanish wife-to-be.

About the Performer: Todd McLaren was involved in radio for more than 20 years in cites on both coasts including Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He left broadcasting for a full-time career in voiceovers, where he has been heard on more than 1000 TV and radio commercials, as well as TV promos, narrations for documentaries on networks such as A&E, Discovery, and the History Channel; and films including "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"