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Loading... Thirteenby Richard K. Morgan (otherwise under Richard Morgan)
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  cissa | Sep 18, 2009 |  Damn Richard K. Morgan can write! It's almost as if this stuff is happening in some alternate universe and he's just there copying it down. His universe is so completely fleshed out you almost expect that he's got a set of encyclopedias sitting around his house with information that relates to the world he has created. In this case it helps that it's set in America but it's a completely different future version of America. All that said, I didn't enjoy this one as much as his Takashi Kovacs novels but that's mostly because they're more "sci-fi" than this one and I tend to like aliens and gadgets. This had modified humans, combat enhancements, and a station on Mars but it wasn't really all that out there. (  ) ragwaine | Jun 19, 2009 | Fast paced thriller rife with thoughts on history evolution, racism and religion. ( ) muness | Jun 6, 2009 | An intriguing work of SF. It's definitely grounded in the conventions of the blockbuster thriller-- there's some act of violence or sex in nearly every chapter, and it's a long book --but it's smarter than it looks, and Morgan emerges finally as an author who is deeply interested in the complex interplay of ideas about genetics, identity, and race. ( ) jbushnell | May 2, 2009 | The premise: Carl Marsalis is what they call a variant Thirteen, the result of a failed experiment to essentially create super-soldiers. Now, Carl makes his living hunting down illegal thirteens, and takes on a job that might prove too big for him. A fugitive from Mars crash-landed a ship in the ocean and has been murdering his way across what the reader recognizes as the United States. The problem with this fugitive is that like Carl, he's a thirteen, but this one might just get the better of him, and there's more than one person who wants to make sure Carl never finds the guy, let alone kill him. My Rating Give It Away: in the end, I'm glad I finished it, but if I'd bought this as a hard cover, I would've been very disappointed. I didn't want to finish the book at all because it takes so long to really find its footing and bring the story together, and even then, it takes its sweet, meandering time doing so. There's certainly pay offs: the main plot comes together nicely in the end, though I still feel like something's missing, and the characterization felt solid too. The problem is that the book could've been much shorter, and while it would've required sacrificing some of the insane amount of world-building, commentary, and ideas presented, I think it might've made for a tighter, more focused book. The biggest problem is that I felt ambivalent reading the whole thing: this book lacked the siren's call, and it never made me want to pick it back up again after stopping. However, in the end, it's not all that bad. If you give this book a shot, give it until you complete a chapter in PART TWO (that's 100+ pages in) just so you can see how it comes together before making any decisions on finishing the book or not. The full review, which does include spoilers and cover-art commentary, may be found in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. REVIEW: Richard K. Morgan's THIRTEEN Happy Reading! :) (  ) devilwrites | Feb 6, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:55 -0400)
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I do have to wonder about the basis of this society, 200 years hence, and it's purported " virilicide". It seems like despite the supposed disempowering of the men, nonetheless ALL the institutionally powerful players in the novel were male. So: where was this feminization again? because although it was cited, it didn't seem to actually appear (even though, by the narrative, it seems like it'd be a really good idea...). (