About the book, from the publisher:
The future isn’t what it used to be since Richard K. Morgan arrived on the scene. He unleashed Takeshi Kovacs – private eye, soldier of fortune, and all-purpose antihero – into the body-swapping, hard-boiled, urban jungle of tomorrow in Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, and Woken Furies, winning the Philip K. Dick Award in the process. In Market Forces, he launched corporate gladiator Chris Faulkner into the brave new business of war-for-profit. Now, in Thirteen, Morgan radically reshapes and recharges science fiction yet again, with a new and unforgettable hero in Carl Marsalis: hybrid, hired gun, and a man without a country ... or a planet.Richard K. Morgan is the acclaimed author of Woken Furies, Market Forces, Broken Angels, and Altered Carbon, a New York Times Notable Book that also won the Philip K. Dick Award.
Marsalis is one of a new breed. Literally. Genetically engineered by the U.S. government to embody the naked aggression and primal survival skills that centuries of civilization have erased from humankind, Thirteens were intended to be the ultimate military fighting force. The project was scuttled, however, when a fearful public branded the supersoldiers dangerous mutants, dooming the Thirteens to forced exile on Earth’s distant, desolate Mars colony. But Marsalis found a way to slip back–and into a lucrative living as a bounty hunter and hit man before a police sting landed him in prison–a fate worse than Mars, and much more dangerous.
Luckily, his “enhanced” life also seems to be a charmed one. A new chance at freedom beckons, courtesy of the government. All Marsalis has to do is use his superior skills to bring in another fugitive. But this one is no common criminal. He’s another Thirteen – one who’s already shanghaied a space shuttle, butchered its crew, and left a trail of bodies in his wake on a bloody cross-country spree. And like his pursuer, he was bred to fight to the death. Still, there’s no question Marsalis will take the job. Though it will draw him deep into violence, treachery, corruption, and painful confrontation with himself, anything is better than remaining a prisoner. The real question is: can he remain sane – and alive – long enough to succeed?
Among the early praise for Thirteen (or Black Man, in the U.K.):
"Richard Morgan writes pumped-up steroid fuelled cyber punk. This is an unashamedly male, rip-roaring boy's own thriller for the 21st century. If Andy McNab ate a year's worth of issues of New Scientist, this is the kind of stuff he might write afterwards. Black Man is kick-ass SF from the hard end of the spectrum."Read Ali Karim's interview with Morgan at The Rap Sheet.
--Death Ray
"Brilliantly plotted and unremittingly violent."
--Eric Brown, Guardian
"Since his ferocious debut novel Altered Carbon roared into town, Richard Morgan has been at the forefront of this breed of full-on, edgy science fiction, and his latest tech-noir thriller is also looking dangerously like his best yet. Smart, gripping, and downright indispensable- the search for the best sci-fi thriller of 2007 might just have come to an end..."
--SFX
"BLACK MAN is exciting and extremely violent but is driven by passionate moral concerns."
--Lisa Tuttle, Times (London)
"Richard Morgan has produced a stunning book with this gritty tech-noir thriller. Exciting and thought-provoking, this is destined to be a science fiction classic."
--Aberdeen Evening Express
The Page 69 Test: Thirteen.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
