Spellbinding Post-Cyberpunk Novel From Richard K. Morgan That's Definitely His Best

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	• Thirteen Richard K. Morgan Del Rey, 2007 - 560 pages average customer review:based on 61 reviews view larger image
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Not Morgan's best but still good

Fans of the Takeshi Kovacs series might be a little disappointed with Thirteen, but only because the Kovacs books set such a high standard. Thirteen drags a little in one or two places, then throws in a plot twist out of left field. At 500-plus pages, it's a little too long.

Having said that, it's still a worthwhile read for both Morgan diehards and those new to his work.

not great

this book reminded me a lot of of the altered carbon series. a lot of the same ideas, but with different names. this surprised me a little, because "market forces" was very different and clearly showed me that morgan isn't a one trick pony.

the book seemed to be continuously trying to strike up awe and wonder about genetic variants, but i just kept thinking that these people's behavior easily fit into what the norm of standard humans. carl's (karl? i listened to the audio) ceaseless rambling about the motivations of variants and how different they are didn't ring true.

the whole sergei (? again, sorry for spelling) death issue was annoying. the author seemed to be doing anything he could to bring a tear to my eye ... every dirty trick possible. the whole thing was over the top and took way to many pages.

overall, not a bad read but not up to the altered carbon series and market forces. i look forward to morgan's next novel.

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Spellbinding Post-Cyberpunk Novel From Richard K. Morgan That's Definitely His Best

In "Thirteen" acclaimed young British science fiction writer Richard K. Morgan has written one of the finest novels published not only this year, but among the best in recent memory in the realm of science fiction literature. Best known for his cyberpunk space operas devoted to his antihero Takeshi Kovacs in the novels "Altered Carbon", "Broken Angels" and "Woken Furies", Morgan returns once more to explore the nature of individuality and what it truly means to be human in his latest novel, adding to its spellbinding, compelling mix, a heavy dose of the gritty realism seen in his recent novel "Market Forces". Stylistically, Morgan's novel is his closest to those of William Gibson's early "Cyberspace" trilogy, and that is indeed high praise from me, since I have noted before Morgan's frequent expropriation of classic cyberpunk themes in his fiction, but also wondering whether he has used them effectively. In "Thirteen" he has most certainly breathed new life into "post-cyberpunk" literature, in a compelling tale that's as memorable as "Neuromancer" and "Count Zero" - Gibson's first two novels, which are still regarded as among the founding father of cyberpunk's very best. Furthermore he has crafted an antihero whom I regard as far more memorable than Takeshi Kovacs, Carl Marsalis, a soldier of fortune and bounty hunter who belongs to a unique, genetically-modified strain of humanity known as Thirteens. And, best of all, Morgan has written some of best realized, most vivid, descriptive prose, which demonstrates that he is truly a literary talent to be compared favorably alongside fellow British science fiction writer China Mieville, perhaps the finest science fiction writer currently working in Great Britain.

Morgan's "Thirteen" can be viewed as a classic crime noir novel in a futuristic setting, a fast-paced piece of detective fiction in which Marsalis and his partner, Sevgi Ertekin, a young Turkish-American ex-NYPD detective, are hot on the trail of another Thirteen - a genetic variant of humanity designed to become the ultimate warrior - who has escaped from the Pacific Ocean crash landing of an Earth-bound shuttle from Mars, causing wanton death and destruction in his wake. Soon, however, both Marsalis and Ertekin stumble upon a tangled, almost Byzantine, web of political and criminal intrigue that spans the Americas and distant Mars too. Morgan expertly handles the suspense, and then, unexpectedly, introduces new elements of the tale nearly midway through the novel, as though they are billiard balls spinning out of control on a pool table. Marsalis proves he's an excellent detective, as well as bounty hunter, in his own right, tracing fragile leads across North America and the Andes of South America, that will lead inexorably to one final bloody showdown between a Peruvian crime lord and his half-brother, another Thirteen. Along the way Marsalis will question not only his own relationship with Sevgi, but also his sanity, as his obsessive pursuit of the murderous Thirteen from Mars will take him to Turkey, as well as a few memorably violent visits to Peru (Readers familiar with Morgan's literary riffs emphasizing violence and gore may find the body count quite diminished, until the final hundred pages.). I found "Thirteen" impossible to put down, and a compelling piece of science fiction literature that should earn for Morgan not only ample critical and popular acclaim, but also, many of the finest prizes awarded to science fiction literature.

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... and the new captain of the inter-planetary debate team is

Ironically, priests are typically the first to go in Morgan's novels so why does he preach to us? Yes, there was an awesome story buried in here and I wanted to like it. In fact, I agree with Morgan in most cases - but, some things are better left unsaid. I doubt that people whom the esoteric side of this book would help will be reading sci-fi anyway. Thirteen could have been a benchmark sci-fi/action novel but who is the target audience? Sci-fi/Action fans or the Harvard Debate Team. I strongly recommend Dan Simmon's books: Hard Case, Hard Nails & Hard Freeze the next time you want a hard boiled action novel without all the fluff.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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