Thirteen

By: Richard K. Morgan

Narrated by: Simon Vance

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?

©2007 Richard K. Morgan (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Stellar." ( Publishers Weekly)

Vintage Morgan!

A very entertaining picture of a pronounced dystopian future. The backstory is a rich tapestry of interesting pieces of information: vintage Morgan. A troubling aspect of Mr. Morgan???s works is that he seems to lack the vision to give his stories any satisfying meaning. They are elaborate, highly detailed ??? brilliantly detailed! ??? tapistries that ultimately have no particular point. After a fascinating and extremely violent romp from Mars to The Rim Countries and Jesusland, ???Thirteen??? peters out with an ending reminiscent of ???Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid???. This is unsatisfying because Mr. Morgan???s creative genius deserves more. His works to date are strongly based on a philosophy of scientific realism: All biology is portrayed in electro-chemical-mechanical detail. All living things are deterministic. No Steve Talbot here! As in ???Altered Carbon,??? where the ???Catholics??? are portrayed as unscientific, dogma-ridden simpletons for their belief that a digitized personality lacked a soul and therefore ???sleeved??? humans were basically zombies, here the residents of Jesusland are portrayed with unremitting disapproval. In Mr. Morgan???s works to date, religious impulses and ideas are universally repellant and destructive. The lives of his non-religious characters, though, are hardly attractive; more ???Clockwork Orange??? than desirable. Still, the rich detail of the story is worth your time.

Razor sharp intelligence

After hooking into the Altered Carbon series, I wanted more of Morgan’s work. Happily, it exists, and does not disappoint. Morgan is obviously incredibly intelligent & plugged into the worlds of politics and technology at high function levels. He writes both subjects as a master, as well as character and human interplay. And sex. Writes that pretty well, too.
Simon Vance excelled as he always does. Uber talented & masterful delivery. Again.

An OK book but not as good as his others

Doesn't hold a candle to "Altered Carbon" but decent none the less. The politcal spin didn't help either.

gritty but predictable

Super Soldier action-heroes his way through a bunch of scenes, and sleeps with every female character given more than 3 pages of attention in the book.

I mean...its basically the same format as Altered Carbon, just with a black dude from england instead of a body-hopping asian dude. Both have snarky attitudes and angst from their violent lifestyles that they don't handle well.

But at least altered carbon had something of a real ending. This one finishes on a cliffhanger like he intends to write another book.

Not the worst story ever, and Simon Vance really takes an otherwise mediocre read to extremely high levels.

Overall? Read the Altered Carbon series instead, and get "Thirteen" on sale.

Good SF, dissappointing language

The science fiction and social manipulation in this book are great. The characters are a bit predictable, the future has nice surprises, and the control of super powerful entities is believable. As an audio book, I really didn't care for the profanity. One can easily gloss over four letter words in text, but when listening to the book they got in the way.