Punched through Richard Morgan’s book Market Forces recently in two gos, partly because I read fast but mainly because I literally didn’t want to put it down. Thanks to my trusty itty bitty booklight, I kept reading into the wee hours of the morning while my wife dozed away.
It’s set in a slightly future world where there’s a giant gap between the rich and the poor, both within countries and between countries. The main character, Chris Faulkner, has just started for in the “conflict investment” division of a big UK firm called Shorn Associates. That division earns by helping manage guerrilla wars and/or propping up various governments, getting a cut for its investment in backing leaders.
While the story dwells on some of this, the heart of it really takes place on how corporate warfare has literally become that, executives killing each other to gain promotions. And the chief way they do this is through battling each other in their cars.
It’s extremely well told, with great characters, plenty of action and things to think about. Morgan’s still a relatively new SF author and welcomed to someone who loves SF and wants that fresh, great tale. I was thrilled when I found this one had hit the bookstores in paperback, when browsing not too long ago.
One of the best things about Morgan’s writing is how he sets up a complicated universe, then throws you into it, explaining the details not in a careful, orderly way but instead over the course of the book.
I always find this approach a combination of frustrating but thrilling. It’s frustrating, because I want to have it all spelled out for me. But it’s thrilling because the sense of discovering more helps keep the book moving. I’ve read other SF novels where they do the big spell out in the first twenty pages or so. They’re rarely as satisfying.
All of Morgan’s novels have been a hit with me, the two before this being Altered Carbon and Broken Angels. They both involve the same character who’s a futuristic mercenary/diplomat/troubleshooter of sorts. Writing this up, I did a search and found that character is back in Morgan’s fourth book, Woken Furies, that came out in paperback last September. How’d I miss that on the shelves!
