Takeshi Kovacs was once a member of the Envoy Corps, stormtroopers for the Interstellar Earth Protectorate, ultra-lethal adepts in switching bodies across the stars. While he served, he was known by a variety of names--Mamba Lev, One Hand Rending, the Icepick--all testament to his capacity for rapid response and extreme violence in whatever flesh he wore. Now he's out of the service and trying to live a different life. But the Protectorate hasn't changed its spots, no matter what world Kovacs drifts to, and with that old combat rage still burning deep inside him, will he ever really be able to walk away?

Takeshi Kovacs--once a member of the Envoy Corps, the elite, deadly troops of the Interstellar Earth Protectorate--now finds himself imprisoned... both in a jail and in an extremely weak body. When he learns that Envoys he served with in a battle he somehow can't remember have been stolen and sold to one of the richest people in the universe, Kovacs vows to rescue them and get revenge. Leaving behind a staggering body count as he blazes across the galaxy, he wonders why he has a hole in his memory... and what secrets that gap holds for understanding his future and himself.