Thirteen

By: Richard K. Morgan

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 22 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Marsalis is one of a new breed...literally. Genetically engineered by the U.S. government to embody the naked aggression and primal survival skills that centuries of civilization have erased from humankind, Thirteens were intended to be the ultimate military fighting force. The project was scuttled, however, when a fearful public branded the supersoldiers dangerous mutants, dooming the Thirteens to forced exile on Earth's distant, desolate Mars colony. But Marsalis found a way to slip back and into a lucrative living as a bounty hunter and hit man before a police sting landed him in prison - a fate worse than Mars, and much more dangerous.

Luckily, his "enhanced" life also seems to be a charmed one. A new chance at freedom beckons, courtesy of the government. All Marsalis has to do is use his superior skills to bring in another fugitive. But this one is no common criminal. He's another Thirteen, one who's already shanghaied a space shuttle, butchered its crew, and left a trail of bodies in his wake on a bloody cross-country spree. And like his pursuer, he was bred to fight to the death. Still, there's no question Marsalis will take the job. Though it will draw him deep into violence, treachery, corruption, and painful confrontation with himself, anything is better than remaining a prisoner. The real question is: can he remain sane and alive long enough to succeed?

©2007 Richard K. Morgan (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Stellar." ( Publishers Weekly)

Razor sharp intelligence

After hooking into the Altered Carbon series, I wanted more of Morgan’s work. Happily, it exists, and does not disappoint. Morgan is obviously incredibly intelligent & plugged into the worlds of politics and technology at high function levels. He writes both subjects as a master, as well as character and human interplay. And sex. Writes that pretty well, too.
Simon Vance excelled as he always does. Uber talented & masterful delivery. Again.

An OK book but not as good as his others

Doesn't hold a candle to "Altered Carbon" but decent none the less. The politcal spin didn't help either.

gritty but predictable

Super Soldier action-heroes his way through a bunch of scenes, and sleeps with every female character given more than 3 pages of attention in the book.

I mean...its basically the same format as Altered Carbon, just with a black dude from england instead of a body-hopping asian dude. Both have snarky attitudes and angst from their violent lifestyles that they don't handle well.

But at least altered carbon had something of a real ending. This one finishes on a cliffhanger like he intends to write another book.

Not the worst story ever, and Simon Vance really takes an otherwise mediocre read to extremely high levels.

Overall? Read the Altered Carbon series instead, and get "Thirteen" on sale.

Awesome story and cyberpunk style world

Awesome story, characters and cyberpunk style world. Great action scenes as well. Morgan's best to date.

One of Morgan's best

I've now read all 5 of Morgan's novels and this is nearly as good as Altered Carbon, my favorite. Like the others, it's very violent and the hero is basically a sociopathic killer, but you sympathize with him all the same. It's great cyberpunk, this time set in the year 2110 or so.

The British reader does a good job, tho' some of his American accents sound too disdainful for my ear.

Great Listen

I wasn't expecting much from this book since I've never read/listened to a Richard Morgan book. What a pleasant surprise. Whatbi love most is thatbthe world he creates is so very plausible. It doesn'tbtake much of a mental leap to get there from here.

Thre characters are very interesting. The pace of the story may seem to slow at times, but the character development more than makes up for it. Simon Vance does an excellent job.

To give you an idea of how much I liked this book, I didn't stop listenening when I saw that the latest Joe Ledger book was available. That, is high praise.

First Richard Morgan book.

What did you love best about Thirteen?

This was a really good read and a well written anti-hero novel. I kept envisioning a black Jason Statham in Marsalis.

Do You Feel Lucky ... Punk?

Thirteen ... It's hard to know even where to begin here. I sincerely want to recommend this book ... but I will do so with a note of caution. It's not an easy read/listen. It is dense and uneven. It is often preachy to the point of distraction. It is violent and explicit. But it is also quite intriguing. It left me wanting to know a lot more about this world and the future as envisioned by Richard K. Morgan. It also left me feeling pretty exhausted. While there is certainly no lack of creativity here, there is also a lot of information overload that goes with it. I had to push a bit to make it through to the end. I'll likely read more of Morgan ... just maybe not right away. In the end, I'll say this: If your sensitive about religion, sex, and violence, keep your distance. But if you can handle those topics, if you like your sci-fi with plenty of technological pop and political chaos, and if you feel lucky, give Thirteen a shot. You could do worse.

Story drifts a little but still pretty good

The story is a mystery but the clues aren't there for you to solve it so don't try. Morgan tends to drift with seemingly prolonged side stories that sometimes have very little to do with the story. At least though unlike so many other books by Richard K Morgan this one has very few (maybe only 1) near pornographic parts in it. My only real complaint about the overall story is that other than being scary sociopaths, 13s don't appear to be anything that special. There were mentions of a 13s special abilities but they weren't forefront in the main character
I wish they had been more so.

Horrible narration destroys good story

I too went against my better judgement; this is a horrible narration, complete with sound effects which make everything worse. Don’t spend your money or credits on this. Simply read it.