Altered Carbon

I thought that Altered Carbon was barrelling along nicely until about the 3/4 mark and then, for me, it hit the buffers.

All the cyberpunk aspects are something that you either buy into or not. The idea of everyone having a device implanted into their spine at birth seems horrific... but in 350 years, why not - only 35 years ago it would have seemed ridiculous that everyone would willingly carry round a device that allowed them to be contacted and tracked 24/7.

I didn't quite get where all the normal bodies come from. The rich have clones, I got that. But if the poor only get to reuse the bodies of dead people, then aren't those bodies pretty useless? They just died. Were they reconditioned or something? And if so why not fix them before death? Or is medicine just too expensive for most people? (i.e. the US healthcare approach, not the UK one)

Anyway, that was all OK. But then we find out who is really behind all the chaos surrounding Kovacs. And I thought... What? That is just mad.

Was that the point? That after pursuing a cause for 250 years, by whatever means you can employ, the process can destroy the whole point of the cause you started with?

I didn't get it. That's what I think was happening. The "villain" was just insane. The original "client" was unhinged too. So I guess all the people who were very, very old just went mad. Kovacs was cool because he slept for 250 years.

Is there a sequel? I hope there is more to the madness if so.