It was initially an online serial, before being updated and published in 2011 by Vintage Books.

[1] Charles Neumann is a mechanical engineer working at Better Future, a military research company.

The replacements he builds are so advanced that he amputates his remaining leg in order to make full use of them.

Over the course of events, Neumann gradually replaces more body parts with machinery, suffering various psychological side effects in the process.

After first being rebuilt from the neck down as a machine soldier, his mind is eventually uploaded into a computer.