I noticed I had a paperback copy of Altered Carbon sitting on my shelf. Going to give that a shot when I'm done my current SF short story anthology.
Finally got around to starting in on this, and I'm not sure I read it when I bought it (it had a military canex pricetag on it so it was probably bought while away on course, and the spine doesn't appear to have been bent back at all).
I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised at how closely the writing tracks with what I remember feeling about the series. The series is far enough in the past that I don't remember specifics, but actions in the book "feel" like they should have been in the series if they weren't already.
At it's core it's a sci-fi film noir detective novel.