I love this book. It was quite different from the show. There were moments that left the reader feeling jerked around, similar to Kovacs, by the people crossing paths with Kovacs. The difference between the first book and the first season of the show is that there is no sense of justice. It is hinted that Kovacs gave the pieces he had over and things sorted themselves out.

One quote that stood out the most in the novel was this, "Just as primitive sextant functions on the illusion that the sun and stars rotate around the planet we are standing on, our senses give us the illusion of stability in the universe, and we accept it, because without that acceptance, nothing can be done." -page 252
This quote, from a personal standpoint, does comment on humans constant dependency on stability. In order to obtain that stability, there are moments where people don't question anything because as long as it has the illusion of stability there is no reason to question the disturbance in their so-called stability.
The book, like the show, touches on the sense of self. Irene is put into a completely different sleeve and has a hard time accepting the change. The book talks about how the rich don't even care about the sleeves they own or inhabit. Instead, it is the poor that have a hard time coping with their physical change and coming to terms with accepting a body that was not given to them at birth. Altered Carbon shows a world that is struggling to adapt to the constant physical change of their loved ones or themselves. But the idea that human beings can live for hundreds of years is a scary concept.