Product Description

From the award-winning author of Altered Carbon and Broken Angels–a turbocharged new thriller set in a world where killers are stars, media is mass entertainment,
and freedom is a dangerous proposition . . .

A coup in Cambodia. Guns to Guatemala. For the men and women of Shorn Associates, opportunity is calling. In the superheated global village of the near future, big money is made by finding the right little war and supporting one side against the other–in exchange for a share of the spoils. To succeed, Shorn uses a new kind of corporate gladiator: sharp-suited, hard-driving gunslingers who operate armored vehicles and follow a Samurai code. And Chris Faulkner is just the man for the job.

He fought his way out of London’s zone of destitution. And his kills are making him famous. But unlike his best friend and competitor at Shorn, Faulkner has a side that outsiders cannot see: the side his wife is trying to salvage, that another woman–a porn star turned TV news reporter–is trying to exploit. Steeped in blood, eyed by common criminals looking for a shot at fame, Faulkner is living on borrowed time. Until he’s given one last shot at getting out alive. . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84006 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Released on: 2005-03-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.com
Richard Morgan, the award-winning author of Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, strikes out into new territory with Market Forces, leaving behind the farflung battlegrounds of Takeshi Kovacs for the not-so-distant future of corporate Earth. Here, Morgan extrapolates a world where commodities trading reaches a brutal pitch and the outcomes of banana republic uprisings are the new market. Now, on the road to success, the brokers of the new economy compete for status and promotions via road rage on the freeways of new London.

Morgan's conflicted protagonist, Chris Faulkner, is a comer known for one spectacular kill that shot him to the top of mid-range global capital firm. He parlays his reputation and skills as a driver into a job in the emerging field of "Conflict Investment" at the world's hottest and hardest firm. Soon he finds himself running with the big dogs and rises to the top of a brutal realm, but his ascent is quickly threatened by vicious senior partners, gold-digging suitors, fame, fair-weather friends, and his own nagging conscience.

Market Forces is at once an anti-globalization treatise and anime fantasy meets The Road Warrior. Morgan employs the graphic-novel imagery of his two previous novels to create a disturbingly brutal picture of slash-and-burn capitalism run amok. There are times when Faulker's moral quandries seem hollow in the face of his actions but this isn't Crime and Punishment. Enjoy the ride and "come back with blood on your wheels or don't come back at all." --Jeremy Pugh

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From Bookmarks Magazine
Morgan (Altered Carbon ****Sept/Oct 2003; Broken Angels **** July/Aug 2004) leaves his far-future SF thrillers for a violent corporate satire. An indictment of globalization, the novel condemns economic exploitation and offers a scenario in which companies will sell anything in a world where human life is cheap. Though set in the near future, the thriller’s premise convinced the critics. Initially conceived as a film script, Market Forces contains cinematic settings (like deadly car duels on otherwise deserted highways), graphic violence, and constant tension. A few reviewers criticized the novel’s length (how much blood can one take?) and polemical tone. But it all adds up to solid, if loosely conceived, “global issues” thriller.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A good story with only a few flaws.
Market Forces is a science fiction story about the not so distant future where globalism is taken to an absolute extreme. Corporate executives who wish to score a big contract or receive a promotion have to duel each other to the death on the highways.

After reading some of the reviews here I bought this book expecting to read something of a lower quality than the Takeshi Kovacs series. I was happy to be proven wrong. The writing in this book is on the same level as the rest of Morgan's work. The one real flaw in this book is that the world the story takes place in could have been more polished. You're not given much background on how the corporations got to the point where they have more power then national governments. A couple of times characters will mention an event called the domino recessions, as if that explains everything. One of the characters gives a decent background story about how the executives started dueling each other on the highways. It's just too bad we're not given a similar background story for the rest of the world.

There's a few other things about the story's world the leave you wondering. For example the book is supposed to be about a world where capitalism is taken to an extreme. As a result there's a small executive class who are extremely wealthy and then there's everyone else who's dirt poor and have to live in the "zones". The zones are the slum areas of the city which are sectioned off from the corporate areas. They receive little police coverage or any other type of service. Everyone living in the zones is depicted as being mostly unemployed and members of a street gang. The problem I have with this is that if so many people in the zones are unemployed they should all have starved to death years ago. A purely capitalist society wouldn't give out any form of social welfare. Also there's no mention at all of the middle class. They obviously exist because there's plenty of minor characters in the book who hold middle class jobs. These people aren't rich enough to be executives, but you'd think they'd be killed in the zones by all the out of control street gangs. I suppose there must be some middle class neighborhoods that receive police coverage, but the book makes no mention of this. Probably because that would take away from the coolness factor of the rich vs the poor that the author tries to play up throughout the whole book.

Ultimately the book is still a good read with a solid story. I just wish the author would've let his world evolve from the story rather than trying to force it into a anti capitalism viewpoint.

Not as good as his other books
I liked, but didn't love this book. It had some interesting premises, and I did finish the book, but it isn't as good as his other books.

An Unpredictable Ride
I had read the Kovacs novels and looked forward to reading more of Morgan's work.

When you read about the beginnings of the book - a short story, a screenplay, then finally a novel - you can feel those roots in the story. The future is unapologetically presented without a lot preamble. The reader has to put together the social climate and try to sympathize with the characters. I felt like an anthropologist observing a culture.

Morgan presents a possible future, perhaps even a probable future, but does not preach for or against it. The morality of his characters are only questioned by each other, not an omniscient voice.

I was constantly surprised by the unexpected turns. Sometimes Sci-fi uses technology in place of good writing to create conflicts to move the story along or resolve plot holes that could only be resolved via technology. Morgan uses people, not tech, to move the story along.

I never believed that car chase scenes would work so well in a book. He didn't overwork a major premise in the book. Each road scene is well treated and interesting to read.

If you are intrigued by concept Noam Chomsky meets Mad Max, you need to read this book.