50bookchallenge, 15000pages
Book #111 -- Richard K. Morgan, Th1rte3n, 525 pages.
I picked this up because I thought it would be a quick, fun, no-brains-required spy thriller type book. I couldn't have been more wrong. This is an incredible, thought-provoking dystopian sci-fi masterpiece. Picture the world in 100 years. Mars has been colonized, but it's not exactly a pleasant place to live. The US has fractured -- the central mass of the country seceded to become The Confederated States of America, colloquially known as Jesusland, an ultra-conservative theocracy. This left New England and the Pacific Rim states adrift - and they've formed multi-national associations with Europe and the Pacific Rim countries respectively. The UN is a more effective organization, and COLIN, the Mars Colony Initiative, also holds immense political and economic power internationally.
Enter Carl Marsalis, a UN bounty hunter and ex-Mars colonist. Carl's a Variant Thirteen - a genetically modified super-soldier left over from an ultimately unsuccessful experiment on the part of world powers to design a superior fighting force. He's strong, fast, fearless, and damn near unkillable. And he has one job - hunt down others of his kind. See, after the programs failed, the Thirteens were deemed too dangerous to allow among the general population. So they're given two choices -- Mars, or an internment camp. But sometimes Thirteens escape, and it's up to Carl to bring them back, vital signs optional.
This is where the story *begins*, with Carl arrested on trumped-up charges and thrown into a Jesusland jail (they don't much like variants down there, or black people, or foreigners, so Carl's triply screwed). COLIN offers to get him out in exchange for his expert assistance -- they've got a rogue Thirteen on their hands who has hijacked a Mars transport, crashed it in the Pacific, and gone on a multi-territory killing spree. Carl's willing to do just about anything to get out of Jesusland, but the deeper he gets into this case, the more it becomes clear that there is more going on than just one rogue Thirteen.
Morgan's world, seen through Carl's cynical eyes, brings up uncomfortable truths about politics, government, religion, and the very nature of humanity, and the way in which the Thirteens and other genetic variants are treated brings up disturbing questions about how people deal with those 'different' from themselves.
So yeah, definitely recommended. Although I could have done without the "Lady or the Tiger" ending. This is one novel that won't be stuffed back into its covers once finished.
Progress toward goals: 353/366 = 96.4%
Books: 111/150 = 74%
Pages: 29794/50000 = 59.6%
2008 Book List
cross-posted to 15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynraven
I picked this up because I thought it would be a quick, fun, no-brains-required spy thriller type book. I couldn't have been more wrong. This is an incredible, thought-provoking dystopian sci-fi masterpiece. Picture the world in 100 years. Mars has been colonized, but it's not exactly a pleasant place to live. The US has fractured -- the central mass of the country seceded to become The Confederated States of America, colloquially known as Jesusland, an ultra-conservative theocracy. This left New England and the Pacific Rim states adrift - and they've formed multi-national associations with Europe and the Pacific Rim countries respectively. The UN is a more effective organization, and COLIN, the Mars Colony Initiative, also holds immense political and economic power internationally.
Enter Carl Marsalis, a UN bounty hunter and ex-Mars colonist. Carl's a Variant Thirteen - a genetically modified super-soldier left over from an ultimately unsuccessful experiment on the part of world powers to design a superior fighting force. He's strong, fast, fearless, and damn near unkillable. And he has one job - hunt down others of his kind. See, after the programs failed, the Thirteens were deemed too dangerous to allow among the general population. So they're given two choices -- Mars, or an internment camp. But sometimes Thirteens escape, and it's up to Carl to bring them back, vital signs optional.
This is where the story *begins*, with Carl arrested on trumped-up charges and thrown into a Jesusland jail (they don't much like variants down there, or black people, or foreigners, so Carl's triply screwed). COLIN offers to get him out in exchange for his expert assistance -- they've got a rogue Thirteen on their hands who has hijacked a Mars transport, crashed it in the Pacific, and gone on a multi-territory killing spree. Carl's willing to do just about anything to get out of Jesusland, but the deeper he gets into this case, the more it becomes clear that there is more going on than just one rogue Thirteen.
Morgan's world, seen through Carl's cynical eyes, brings up uncomfortable truths about politics, government, religion, and the very nature of humanity, and the way in which the Thirteens and other genetic variants are treated brings up disturbing questions about how people deal with those 'different' from themselves.
So yeah, definitely recommended. Although I could have done without the "Lady or the Tiger" ending. This is one novel that won't be stuffed back into its covers once finished.
Progress toward goals: 353/366 = 96.4%
Books: 111/150 = 74%
Pages: 29794/50000 = 59.6%
2008 Book List
cross-posted to 15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynraven