Product Description

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.

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?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29166 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-26
• Released on: 2007-06-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 560 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This stellar new stand-alone from Morgan, known for his compelling future noir thrillers (Altered Carbon, etc.), raises tantalizing questions about the nature of humanity. Future governments have used genetic manipulation to create subhumans twisted to fit specialized tasks. Normal people are intrigued as well as repulsed, but they instinctively dread variation thirteen, an aggressive, ruthless throwback to a time before civilization. When a thirteen escapes from exile on Mars and apparently goes on an insane killing spree, Carl Marsalis, a soul-weary freelance thirteen hit man, is hired to help track him down. Morgan goes beyond the SF cliché of the genetically enhanced superman to examine how personality is shaped by nature and experience. Marsalis is more empathetic than the normal people around him, but they can see him only as an untrustworthy killer. At the same time, surveying corrupt, fractured normal society, the novel questions whether the thirteens are just less successful at hiding their motives. Without slowing down the headlong rush of the action, the complex, looping plot suggests that all people may be less—or more—than they seem. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award for Altered Carbon (see below), his debut novel, and the author of successful follow-ups Broken Angels (**** July/Aug 2004) and Woken Furies, as well as the stand-alone Market Forces (*** May/June 2005), Richard K. Morgan and his characters are hardly strangers to violent dystopias. Thirteen, published simultaneously in Britain as Black Man, tackles some difficult issues, including race and identity. The result is perhaps less compelling than some of Morgan's previous work, and the novel could have been shorter. Still, the author can hardly be accused of simply retreading familiar ground. Thirteen is a solid effort for Morgan's devotees, as well as a good read for fans of military sci-fi with a twist.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
Human-breeding experiments gone awry, faith-based prisons, cannibalism, and huge corporations controlling shadow governments. It's all taking place 100 years into the future in Morgan's darkly imagined, far-reaching, insightful novel. In this genre stew of science fiction, adventure, murder mystery, and noir, Simon Vance reads with commanding sureness, keeps the many English and Third-World accents distinct and listenable, and displays a wonderful vocal naturalism as he navigates through Morgan's inventive terms of the future. The bounty-hunting, genetically altered, brooding antihero, Carl Marsalis, takes on corrupt agencies and broken promises in graphic style. Further, Vance's poignant handling of Morgan's moving discussions of faith and mortality makes this book a one-of-a-kind experience. B.P. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

One of Morgan's Best
Morgan continues on a role with a complex and intricately plotted tale where tech and politics mesh wonderfully. I'm not a sci fi addict and Morgan is one of the few folks I read. His vision of a future divided states of America is too damned dead-on these days. Ranks up there with Altered Carbon and Company...Can be read by itself without a sci fi fascination...

Slow, not
Not recommended

If you like fast-paced, hard sci-fi, you will not enjoy this. Way, waaay too much character development and far too little plot development. The violent passages are just lame. If you like chatty, introspective dialog, then you may find this book to your liking. It has a few interesting ideas none of which are very original to those who have read many S.F. books.

This story could have been edited down to a short story and published in "Analog".

Not his best work in my estimation.

Spectacular: thoughtful, intense, and action-packed
I've been on a sci-fi kick lately, and Morgan is my newest discovery. I've been binging on his books like a prom queen on nonfat ice cream.

A lot of people write off sci-fi without exploring it, a problem that I think has something to do with the plot summaries, which almost always sound either lurid and low-rent or impossibly high-brow and abstract. For that reason, I'm going to limit my summary here; let me just say that it's a book about a manhunt, and that the protagonist is the result of a government program to produce genetically enhanced soldiers.

More important than the specifics of plot, though, is the incredible breadth of territory Morgan covers -- racism, politics, science, religion, sex, love, biological determinism, the role of government, on and on. Better still, he has that rarest gift, the ability to explore philosophical questions while simultaneously making you tear through the pages. The action is relentless, the sex is hot, the twists are multiple, and yet on almost every page there is something worthy of more serious consideration. Highly recommended.