Takeshi Kovacs is the prime character of the books "Altered Carbon", "Broken Angels", and "Woken Furies" by Richard Morgan, which take place several centuries in the future. Takeshi or "Tak" as he is typically called, is an "Envoy" - a type of futuristic supercommando. Raised on the planet Harlan's World, Tak is a half Japanese/half Polish individual that was a teen gang member before enlisting in the military. After leaving the Envoy Corp, Tak became a criminal and mecenary, ending up in the future version of prison, where his "stack" is kept without a body for decades at a time as punishment before being paroled or hired out to work high-risk situations. Richard Morgan (b. ...

Harlan's World is run the Harlan family and has a powerful crime syndicate (Yakuza) and underground revolutionary culture (Quellists). It is largely water covered and has a large number of alien weapons platforms in orbit that fire on any object that goes too fast or gains too much altitude.

One of the primary plot devices for the series is the use of memory stacks (stacks) which record a person's memories and personality. At death this device can be copied to a storage system or implanted into a new body or "sleeve". There is a vast business of building and supplying custom, genetically engineered sleeves for the open market. These include models specifically designed for combat, sports, specialized work environments, or just general use. Synthetic sleeves based on non-carbon chemistry are also available.

As a result of this technology, death has effectively been abolished. However, after your death you need to be able to afford a new "sleeve" or you end up taking what is available/waiting an extended period of time for a replacement. This has led to an abolishment of people saving for retirement as they instead save for a designer replacement body and for insurance policies that pay for a new sleeve in case of accidental death. The bodies of criminals are frequently used to house new personalities of paroled or released prisoners, oftentimes with drug habits or physical problems.

Certain religious organizations do not allow their members to be "re-sleeved" upon death (Catholics, Beards).

Laws exist to prevent people from making illicit copies of stacks or inhabiting more than one sleeve at a time. The very rich and governments frequently ignore these laws when it suits them, though they keep it generally a secret when they do so.

The primary aliens that exist in this universe are the "Martians", an extinct race of winged aliens that left spaceships, technology, and mummified remains on Mars and other planets (for example Sanction IV). The Martians were apparently at war with another alien race in the distant past.

Weaponry used includes a large variety of bio-technology, plasma guns, lasers, projectile weapons and knives/swords.