The Unincorporated Man

By: Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 23 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The Unincorporated Man is a provocative social/political/economic novel that takes place in the future, after civilization has fallen into complete economic collapse. This reborn civilization is one in which every individual is incorporated at birth and spends many years trying to attain control over his or her own life by getting a majority of his or her own shares. Life extension has made life very long indeed. Now the incredible has happened: a billionaire businessman from our time, frozen in secret in the early 21st century, is discovered and resurrected, given health and a vigorous younger body.

Justin Cord is the only unincorporated man in the world, a true stranger in this strange land. Justin survived because he is tough and smart. He cannot accept only part ownership of himself, even if that places him in conflict with a civilization that extends outside the solar system to the Oort Cloud. People will be arguing about this novel and this world for decades.

©2009 Dani and Eytan Kollin (P)2009 Tantor

True science fiction vs. fantasy

I got started reading science fiction when the only SF available was science extrapolated beyond science but still plausible with real characters, action and humor that was so close to science fact that one could really "see" the plausibility of the constuct. That was before anything "social" or pertaining to society was considered of the sciences.
This book has taken the social sciences and extrapolated from them some very plausible possibilities that with the characters, action and humor, present an excellent story well worth investing time and dollars into.
I rated this a full five stars and that is something I very rarely do. It broadened my scope and understanding of an aspect of society by compairing it to another very interesting possibility. It is an enjoyable excercise in expanding concepts.
But, there is yet more! Some of the physical "hardware" the characters interact with expands beyond sliding doors and adds to the SF aspect of the story without going so far as beaming people from place to place. When a story goes too far beyond reality, it should be classed as science fantasy. I have read some good science fantasy and don't distain it. I just would like it to be labeled as such.

a book on the future

a grate book its boy as good as the next book but still a very good read

Excellent!

This is a great story, with exceptional character development & fabulous characters. The fabulous events & turns of the story keep you guessing and wanting more.

great book!

loved it, picked up the second book when I was younger and always wanted to get around to this one, much better and builds the world perfectly,
my only issue with the performance is that the male narrator's female voices were laughable and distracting at times, but only rarely

Good novel, bad voicing

I wanted to finish this book, and I will, but I'll actually read it. The concept of this novel is fresh (even if the dialogue is a bit stilted) but the voice actor (Todd McLaren) completely ruins it for me. His intonations are so over the top as to almost sound like he's mocking audio books in general. Get the novel, forget the audiobook.

neat ideas

By the end of the book I was really tired of hearing about the main character's struggle not to incorporate. The author's had some very original ideas, enjoyed some of the short stories that gave background to the main plot. Worth reading, but not something I'll be rereading any time soon.

Fantastic Book, Original Concept!

I found this book to be fun, original, and a quick listen. I found myself making time to listen because it was so enjoyable. The reader is good, and the writing is fantastic. I will definitely purchase another book written by this team! I loved the concept and the world they built. I can't wait to listen to the 2nd book and hope to see many more from these guys. Overall, a raging success and a book I could recommend to friends and to my family.

Main story is good and plausable

Would you listen to The Unincorporated Man again? Why?

This book brings us to a world that looks like the best of our possible futures from now with one glaring exception. Everyone in this world is personally incorporated. That means that everyone has stock in themselves and it can be bought and sold like any other stock. 5% of your stock goes to the government, and 20% goes to your parents. The governments stock can never be sold or increased. I would say that the 5% is basically a 5% flat tax but in this world TAX is the most foul of words. All of the rest of your stock is yours to do with as you please, of course if you want to go to school the school will expect a percentage of you, and so will pretty much anyone or anything you want. And the real kicker is that when you give up 51% of Personal Corporation then the shareholder can call a vote for anything you want to do, after all they have a vested interest in making sure you make as much money and stay as safe as possible. Want to go sky diving, we don’t think so, want to take leave to see friends or family, well that’s fine but we will tell you when it would be best for us not for you. The system seems to work well and one character, the man villain of the piece, even gives a rather compelling argument for why it’s better than our system. I really did like this book but you can tell just from this description and the title what happens next. Into this perfect system come one man who has very incorporated, the rest is inevitable. I could have told you what was going to happen at virtually any stage in the book. There was one twist with AI’s in the web but that seems to have been a tangent that was never followed up on. I don’t want to give anything away because I do recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi and alternate realities/futures but if you find yourself putting pieces together very early in the book, don’t look for unexpected twists or turns, you probably guessed right the first time. TTFN

Enjoyable

I typically listen to about a half dozen sci-fi audio books a year but for some reason this one stands out as the most memorable in about 2 years. The basics have been covered well in sci-fi with the exception of the economic strain of individual incorporation and what happens when you have a disruptive agent. It worked for me. I also enjoyed to subplot related to the AI agents in the cloud associated with individuals through the use of ipads of the future.

great book

an awesome book, a good 3rd after 1984 and brave new world. I recommend this book to everybody.