You had the right experience, it sounds like. Deaths don’t really affect people much, or it does but in a completely different way...mostly financially. That’s the problem with having this new technology, death usually just isn’t very real and impactful to them. The story is mostly Takeshi’s perspective and he’s definitely detatched and unaffected until one in the end. I suspect you mean a different character, that had to be rewritten but came out far better on the show than it was in the book, and I agree. That’s a testament to a well written show.

The other 2 books are very different, but should be good. The first was my favorite though.