Market Forces

By: Richard K. Morgan

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

What do you buy and sell when the global markets reach saturation point? The markets themselves. Thirty years from now the big players in global capitalism have moved on from commodities. The big money is in conflict investment. The corporations keep a careful watch on the wars of liberation and revolution that burn constantly around the world. They guage who the winners will be and sell them arms, intelligence, and power. In return for a slice of the action when the war is won.

The reward? A stake in the new nation. It's cynical, brutal, and it has nothing to do with democracy and the rule of law. So what else is new? The executives in this lethal game bid for contracts, fight for promotion, secure their lives on the roads. Fighting lethal duels in souped up, heavily armoured cars on the empty motorways of the future. Chris Faulkener has a lethal reputation and a new job at Shorn Associates. Has he got what it takes to make a real killing?

©2005 Richard K. Morgan (P)2005 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

• 2005 Audie Award Winner, Science-Fiction

"Convincing and compelling." (Publishers Weekly)

The future of business?

Would you try another book from Richard K. Morgan and/or Simon Vance?

I have enjoyed other books by Richard Morgan and Simon Vance.

Would you ever listen to anything by Richard K. Morgan again?

Of course, he has great skills and imagination for science fiction and fantasy. I bet they make a movie out of his sci fi.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Simon Vance?

Definitely.

Was Market Forces worth the listening time?

Not really. I used the 2xs speed to get through and I almost skipped the end.

Not as good as I expected.

I found this book slow and plodding compared to Morgan's other two titles, which are both fabulous. I had already read Altered Carbon and Broken Angels which sold me on this author. I was hoping that the lead in this book would have a similar attitude and hero persona that Kovach did. The reason I was so dissapointed in these characters was that they are all shallow, unlikable people. I frankly didn't care what happened to any of them. Now, I don't mind that Morgan's characters possess both good and bad traits; in fact that's what makes all his characters so real, but I wanted to root for the lead character, and I found that hard to do. I would describe this book as a corporate drama with international politics thrown in. It is a futuristic tale, but takes place only slightly in the future, so not much has changed in the world. The book contains is a tremendous amount of violence and strong language, and no comic relief (unlike his first two books). One thing I really enjoyed about Morgan's other novels were the steamy sex scenes. This book has some sex in it, but it never rises to the heights (pardon the pun) of Takashi's exploits. To sum it up, If you're already a fan of Morgan, go ahead and read this one, but don't expect it to be as good. If you've never read Morgan, I wouldn't advise you to start with this book. Go download Altered Carbon instead, because then you'll appreciate the outstanding storytelling ability of this up and coming new author.

New Organization Man?

On the one hand, the concept is brilliant: take today's business world and extend its current return to stockholders mindset to the absurd. Clear, cutting, satire. On the other hand, the book was wordy, character development of the women was shallow, and the use of the f-word exceeded the number of commas. I particularly enjoyed the british pronunciation of the word: urinal.

The worst book I've ever listened too

I should start by saying that I have enjoyed all of Morgan's other books and am not bothered by his characters, dark stories, writing style, language, etc. This story is not like his others, it is thoroughly unpleasant from start to finish. I found myself wondering part way through why I was still listening, it was that bad. It is a book where miserable people in a miserable world do really nasty things to each other. Every character in the book is a worthless waste of space and then they go down hill. If you read the description of the book and think that it might not be for you, don't buy it.

Tedious

Having reading Thirteen and Altered Carbon, I had expected much from Morgan. Unfortunately, this story was a departure from his other works and not in a good way. The story rambled and lacked any real coherence. The book read like numerous short stories that the author attempted to weave together around the main character. There was, however, no attempt at creating an over-arching, unifying point. So many of these side stories could have been deleted from the main story. They didn't add to the character, the setting, or the plot.

Unlike other reviewers, I also didn't find the characters particular deep or compelling. Rather, I had the sense that Morgan was confused about who Chris (the main character) really was. On the one hand, one could say that that confusion was a reflection of Chris's own confusion of his sense of identity, but the confusion in terms of plot, pacing, and setting would suggest that the confusion was a reflection of poor development rather than thought.

Oh well.

I need to like the protagonist at least slightly

I really enjoy Morgan's books, his dark, flawed characters and his often brutal worlds. In this case, a quarter of the way through the book, I didn't care what happened to Chris, and by the halfway point I was disinterested in everything else.