Altered Carbon

Altered Carbon, written by Richard K. Morgan, was published in 2002.  Takeshi Kovacs, the main protagonist in this novel, is so hardcore he makes Hook: the Boosted Man seem like a creampuff.  The technology in this novel is of the type designed to let people live forever.  Death is conquered now that conciousness can be downloaded onto computer chips, and bodies are re-usable sleeves to be worn like clothes.  This helps keep the ultra-violence in this novel fast and furious novel as blood runs like water and has just as much value.  And the attitude?  It's like this:

"The personal, as everyone's so fucking fond of saying, is political.  So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally.  Get angry.  The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here--it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-.  Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide out from under with a wink and a grin.  If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them.  Make it personal.   Do as much damage as you can.  Get your message across.  That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time.  Of being considered dangerous.  And make no mistake about this:  being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference--the only difference in their eyes--between players and little people.  Players they will make deals with.  Little people they liquidate.  And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it's just business, it's politics, it's the way of the world, it's a tough life, and that it's nothing personal.  Well, fuck them.  Make it personal."

So in this sci-fi-noir, lots of crazy shit happens, and some scenes involving some super-phermones and a 300 year old woman in an 18 year old sleeve I had to read twice because I couldn't believe what I was reading.  So this is modern sci-fi? Wow!: Hot Stuff!