<P> Kovacs is an ex-Envoy, a military unit formed to cope with the challenge of interstellar warfare . Faster - than - light travel is only possible by subspace transmission, called needlecasting, of a digitally stored consciousness to "download centers" where resleeving into physical bodies can be carried out . Transmitting normal soldiers in this way would severely inhibit their effectiveness, since they would have to cope with a new body and an unknown environment while fighting . To combat this, Envoy training emphasises mental techniques necessary to survive in different bodies over physical strength, and the sleeve they are transmitted into has special neuro - chemical sensors that amplify the power of the five senses, intuition and physical capabilities to superhuman degrees . The effectiveness of the Envoy Corps' training is such that Envoys are banned from holding government positions on most worlds . Kovacs is persistently wracked by his memories of the action taken by the Envoy Corps in a battle on the planet Sharya and especially by the military debacle on Innenin, in which the Corps suffered extensive casualties after their stacks were infected and driven into self - destructive insanity with Rawling 4851, a virus that corrupts digital information . </P> <P> Kovacs, killed in the novel's prologue and stored in digital form, is downloaded into a sleeve formerly inhabited by Bay City (formerly San Francisco, as a shown population center is the Golden Gate Bridge) policeman Elias Ryker . The plot unfolds through Kovacs' narrative . Kovacs eventually solves the mystery, but only after a great deal of violence, including torture in virtual reality, which he is able to bear only because of his Envoy training . </P> <P> 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 ." </P> <P> The book won the Philip K. Dick Award for Best Novel in 2003 . </P>

Where do they get the bodies in altered carbon