Thirteen
Previously published as BLACK MAN
-
-
4.3 • 39 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
"This is writing with the brakes off and the adrenaline pumped to high" - Liz Holiday, SCI-FI NOW
"... a cracking thriller which achieves the tricky sci-fi balancing act ... feeling relevant and accessible" - Amazon Reviewer
One hundred years from now, against all odds, Earth has found a new stability; the political order has reached a tentative balance, and the new colony on Mars is growing. But the fraught years of the 21st century have left an uneasy legacy ...
As genetically engineered alpha males, Thirteens were designed to be the ultimate military fighting force but, with no wars to fight, they find themselves surplus to requirements. Many of the Thirteens have left for Mars, but now one has returned, killing everyone on the shuttle on which he arrived.
Only Carl Marsalis, one of the Thirteen, can hunt him down. So begins a frantic manhunt, a battle of survival, and a search for the truth about what was really done with the world's last soldiers.
THIRTEEN (previously published as BLACK MAN) is an unstoppable SF thriller about the ramifications of playing with genetic blueprints. It is also a novel about prejudice, and the human capacity for violence, deceit and corruption.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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 clich 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.
