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Thirteen

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Richard K. Morgan's Thirteen is near-future science fiction, very much in the vein of Bladerunner. A failed government program to produce a more violent, aggressive form of military fighter has resulted in the U.S. rounding up most of the test subjects and isolating them on Mars, a place where no one with any sense would wish to spend their days. But not all of the government subjects have been caught and shipped out to Mars. Enter Carl Marsalis, a hit man who would like nothing more than to stop killing and put his past behind him—and when he's eventually captured in Miami, it seems like the government might take care of his problems for him.


Unfortunately, around the same time a transport from Mars arrives back on earth. The entire crew has been killed by a stowaway who turns out to be one of these violent superhumans—and maybe something worse. Now Marsalis is given a choice: use his heightened powers to hunt down the killer, or face a fate worse than death.
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Human-breeding experiments gone awry, faith-based prisons, cannibalism, and huge corporations controlling shadow governments. It's all taking place 100 years into the future in Morgan's darkly imagined, far-reaching, insightful novel. In this genre stew of science fiction, adventure, murder mystery, and noir, Simon Vance reads with commanding sureness, keeps the many English and Third-World accents distinct and listenable, and displays a wonderful vocal naturalism as he navigates through Morgan's inventive terms of the future. The bounty-hunting, genetically altered, brooding antihero, Carl Marsalis, takes on corrupt agencies and broken promises in graphic style. Further, Vance's poignant handling of Morgan's moving discussions of faith and mortality makes this book a one-of-a-kind experience. B.P. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from May 14, 2007
      T
      his 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 cliché 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.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from October 15, 2007
      "Great," says a cop in "Thirteen", "just what we need: a twist for a perp." "Twists," also known as "thirteens," are genetically engineered Alpha males bred by the military to be perfect soldiersaggressive and unsocial. Reviled and shunned by "normal" humans, thirteens prove incapable of taking orders and are exiled to terraformed Mars. When a rogue thirteen returns to Earth and commits a series of brutal crimes, cops call in Carl Marsalis, a nearly washed-up specialist bounty hunter who is also a thirteen. The manhunt is buttressed by a surprisingly rich and detailed story with many intriguing sociopolitical ideas. Morgan's future is an ultraviolent, hedonistic dystopia driven by market forces; his characters are archetypes, insightfully constructed and incisively drawn. The audio keeps the author's dense, layered plot chugging along, and Simon Vance's British accent lends a wearied patina to Carl. Morgan's "Woken Furies" didn't translate well to audio, but this novel is compelling; highly recommended for all popular fiction collections.Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Hartford

      Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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