Rent: Thirteen

Like many authors with first time block busters, Morgan has been trying to recapture the glory of that first work. Sadly, there has been a steady devolution in quality as more and more political, economic and religious ideas and sharp opinions are introduced until finally, in THIRTEEN, they add such weight that the story sinks. Who can forget the incredible ALTERED CARBON or wonderful BROKEN ANGELS? Things start going down with WOKEN FURIES, then more with the preachy MARKET FORCES and now, the nadir, THIRTEEN, a thinly disguised morality tale about modern politics, race and mind altering drugs as a societal need.

It's the 23rd century but some part of the country (and the book) are stuck in the 20th with a vengeance. Racism rages (red state folks use the "n" word casually, those "GD Republicans" the author proclaims). The nation has split into Jesusland aka The Republic (red states), the Union (Northeast) and the Rim (West coast). Jesusland, allegedly religious zealots, act like the Rim folks - cursing, drug use, hatred, fornication. The "Christian" aspect ex exemplified in preposterous dialogue circa the 1920's Bible Belt. Muslims, by the way, have become moderates who also curse and screw. On top of that they are now female friendly unlike those terrible creatures in Jesusland.

Back to the story. Marsalis, a Martian thirteen (artificially enhanced fighting machine/person) is offered a release from a Jesusland prison to find a fellow rogue Thirteen who has embarked on a murderous rampage. The writing is rough, edgy, gritty and hard but after a while one begins to suspect that it is all for show, without meaning. Edginess for the sake of Edginess. Morgan is, if anything, consisten in his vision of the future. It is a horrible, Orwellian place with humans racing around on drugs doing, doing, doing. People do little more than drift from one artificial high to another, escaping the daily grind through behavior and brain modification. What's missing from all these books is any depiction of human happiness, satisfaction or pleasure beyond that gotten by sadism or violence. Looking for Love? Get serious. One can understand the fears of the Luddites among us - this is the ultimate worst nightmare, a faceless, cruel and savage world of technological progress and human misery.

One can help but notice that the action in the book seems forced as the author tries to impose what could have been a fairly good action plot onto a totally unrealistic and even silly social scene in order to make a political statement. There is an attempt at addressing issues like race and religion and natural vs augmented humanity but he does so with all the finesse of a sledge hammer. My grade: C-.

I've read all of Richard Morgan's novels so far. Of course, the Takeshi Kovacs books are fantastic, and this novel doesn't challenge them as his best work. It is, however, still a lot of fun. Although I'm usually all snobby and literary about my fantasy and science fiction, a bit of drugged up, military grade martial arts with a nice little mystery to solve never hurts, and Richard Morgan delivers here.

Having read Market Forces, and enjoying it without loving it (just too bleak for me...believe it or not), this was a nice return to form.

The novel starts a little disjointedly, with a lot of POV swapping between chapters. It's not too bad, and once the story kicks in it's mostly hard-bitten angry men and sexy women shooting/beating 3 colours of snot out of various baddies. A lot of fun, actually. You do need to accept the premise of the novel, that a lot of human behaviour is more genetic than environmental, although the issue is questioned occasionally.

Interesting side note: this book was called 'black man' originally, which is a much more appropriate title. I am guessing some sort of racial paranoia forced it to be renamed for the US market...

Ah...Jesusland...

I loved all of Morgan's other books so I had to read this one. Well, this is my favorite so far (although, I just finished it so this judgment probably isn't fair to the other works). Morgan is a master of creating believable future worlds. While his protagonists are intentionally larger than life, each is fascinating. Based on entertainment value (and what other reason is there to read scifi?), this is a top choice.

While Morgan's previous work, the Takeshi Kovacs novels (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies) explored the dehumanizing aspects of technology and the shattered remains they leave behind, this book takes a different path. In Thirteen/Black Man he uses the progression of technology to explore the base human desires and emotions that we all have, and turns them to 11. We must look into the mirror at our own inherent racism, sexism, propensity for violence and mortality.

He fleshes characters deeper than his other novels given more substance and form, inviting readers to emotionally invest in them. To this end, he has noted he has received some hate mail. The book... make you feel vulnerable, especially in one particular part which I will not reveal. Readers should be advised that this is *not* a Takeshi Kovacs novel... you are not along for the ride of an avenging angel, here you are a vouyer into the darker parts of humanity. However, I believe the work is more powerful for this. So few works these days ask us to think deeply, and I treasure the books like this one dare request us to.

I've seen this happen to too many good authors. They publish a handful of commercially and critically successful novels and suddenly it seems as though their editors stop telling them to cut the fat. In 'Thirteen', Richard K. Morgan shows he has become the latest victim.

In the Kovacs novels, Morgan demonstrated his mastery of the neo-noir, weaving complex but tight plots and creating interestingly dark characters with well-hidden motives. There are lots of genuine surprises, and much to wonder about in those books.

In 'Thirteen', however, it is though Morgan has lost faith. He's either lost faith in his ability as a storyteller, or lost faith in his readers' ability to deal with not knowing everything about every character and plot point. It's as though he wants to make sure we 'get it,' so there's excruciatingly long scenes in which nothing happens but talking, talking, and more talking. There are flashbacks, not to the distant past, but to conversations that happened between the chapter you're reading and the one you just finished. There are too many chapters when the main characters and plot momentum are left aside to unnecessarily fill in backstory. And too often does the main character commit some act meant to yet again reinforce his 'badness' but unrelated to the main plot.

200 fewer pages and 'Thirteen' would have been a masterpiece, rather than a bloated 3 1/2 star book.

Should you buy it? If you're a Morgan fan, like I am, you probably already have or will despite what any reviewer here says. I would. But, if you haven't already read everything else by him, buy those books instead (except 'Market Forces') or pick up one of Chris Moriarty's books, or hunt down a copy of 'Gun, with Occasional Music'. Or wait for his next novel and hope that it is a slim 300 pages.