Show me, don't tell me | Thirteen

delightful, fun and interesting | Thirteen | Richard K. Morgan

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	• Thirteen Richard K. Morgan Del Rey, 2008 - 560 pages average customer review:based on 77 reviews view larger image
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Species Gap

"Thirteen" was originally published in Great Britain as "Black Man," because its protagonist is dark skinned. The decision by the book's American publisher to print the book with a different title than "Black Man" was undoubtedly wise, if somewhat disingenuous. Furthermore, this wisdom extended to the publisher's decision not to mention anywhere on the book's cover that its protagonist was black, and that one of the book's primary themes is that of race. The only hint for the prospective purchaser of the book that race is one of the novel's primary themes is found on the book's copyright page, wherein, buried in small print, the book's original title is mentioned.

The American publisher's decision to change the book's title for the American audience must have displeased Morgan, who is white, and who, in his dedication, credits his mother for teaching him to hate racism with "an unrelenting rage." The wisdom of the publisher's decision is confirmed by the fact that I would not have bought the book had the publisher not changed its title nor disguised the book's race theme. Having lived my entire life being bombarded with endless classroom lectures, books, magazine articles, essays, television shows, movies and conversations about the evil of racism, I get the point already. Racism is evil. It's a point that's obvious and easy to understand, and Morgan brings nothing new to the table. My point is that I don't even want to be sitting at that table, because I'm sick and tired of eating the meal that's being offered. It's not that the meal is necessarily unpalatable, it's just that it's getting a bit stale.

But since the publisher tricked me into paying $15 for the book, I read it. And I liked it, actually. It held my interest for all 540 pages. Morgan writes well, has interesting characters and some interesting ideas. I don't read much science fiction nowadays, but "Thirteen" was enjoyable.

And, as it turns out, Morgan's race theme is actually utterly dispensable to the novel's plot. In essence the story would be the same even if the protagonist (Marsalis) had been white. Thus, Morgan's American publisher was correct in changing the book's title from a focus on the protagonist's skin color ("Black Man") to his status as a genetically altered human ("Thirteen"). Marsalis' relationship witht he world is defined much more by the fact that he's a thirteen than by the fact that his skin is dark. Morgan knows this, of course: he even has one of his characters say, "'Well, it's not really a race thing where thirteens are concerned....More of a species gap.'" And that's exactly the real focus of the novel. Marsalis is not black inside, or white, but rather thirteen. Morgan is only ridiculous when he's talking about race, because rather than offering us some serious food for thought, he merely feeds us more of the same silly stereotypes that have become so common in "liberal guilt" fiction: Jesus-juiced, stupid, racist white villains and victimized, intelligent people of color. (Yawn). Morgan's novel would have been much better had he stayed away from the race stuff and stuck to the "species gap" issues--but I know, he can't help himself...as a child his mother fed him righteous anger, whereas mine fed me only warm milk and cookies.

But although the novel is annoyingly flawed in this one regard, I was ultimately able to ignore that flaw and enjoy the story. It's a little long and it's nothing to take too seriously, but it's entertaining.

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Show me, don't tell me

Very exciting premise here - in the not so distant future America has split along conservative and liberal lines into 2 separate countries and genetic experimentation has created a race of "super men" called 13's (genetic variation #13) who have either been locked up or exiled to the Mars colony. These guys are genetic throwbacks to the caveman and serious alpha males that used to run the tribes and groups of stone aged hunters. They were created to fight in wars but afterwards, were killed, locked up, or exiled.

Our protagonist (Carl) is a 13 who is licensed to track down rogue 13's and either capture or kill if need be. He is brought in to hunt down a particularly nasty 13 who escaped from mars, feasting off the frozen bodies off his shipmates on the months long haul from Mars to Earth. Yeah, wow, gritty. Morgan's strength is envisioning a world that is very very derived of our own - showing how technology can and will be abused.

But, then about half way thru the book, it stops cold. And as Carl and crew track down the vile 13, we suffer thru chapter after chapter of political and social rhetoric. I really don't like when authors stop the plot cold and start lecturing to me the details of a made of the social & political structure of a world set in the future. I could literally have skipped the middle 1/3 of the book to no effect. Some editor here was really asleep on the job.

I have read all of Morgan's books and this one just got too far off base. My advice, less preaching and more action and story. If I want to contemplate the social structure of emerging religious & political factions I'll click over to "that" section of Amazon and find something, thanks.

I'll give it a solid 3 as it starts strong & end strong.

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delightful, fun and interesting

I loved this book. Even towards the end it was interesting and exciting. Very good character development AND story/plot line AND ideas. Highly recomended!

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?

From the Hardcover edition.

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