Whether it is a last rock and roll concert on the Eiffel Tower in Eclipse, or the streets of Chiba City in Neuromancer, there was a fierce anarchic joy in those 1980’s cyberpunk classics. In early works of cyberpunk, such as Neuromancer by William Gibson, or John Shirley’s Song Called Youth trilogy, or the work of Rudy Rucker, there is an exuberance and sense of rebellion against injustice and order for the sake of order.

Like Blade Runner, Thirteen is full of philosophical speculation interspersed with spectacular violence. Like Dick’s anti-hero Rick Deckard, Carl Marsalis is a genetically engineered assassin sent to kill others of his kind. Dick’s Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep, better known as the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner. One detects in Thirteen shades of Phillip K. The action of UK cyberpunk writer Richard Morgan’s novel Thirteen jerks back and forth from the Pacific to the high Andes to Turkey and New York. Marsalis is a gun for hire, forcing resettlement on or killing renegade 13’s on Earth. He has been sent to earth from Mars to track a renegade 13 who is loose somewhere on Earth. Richard Morgan’s Thirteen fails to impressĬarl Marsalis is a genetically engineered assassin, variant 13. Now Marsalis is given a choice: use his heightened powers to hunt down the killer, or face a fate worse than death.Bad science makes bad science fiction: Richard Morgan’s Thirteen fails to impress Bad science makes bad science fiction The entire crew has been killed by a stowaway who turns out to be one of these violent superhumans-and maybe something worse. Unfortunately, around the same time a transport from Mars arrives back on earth. 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. But not all of the government subjects have been caught and shipped out to Mars.

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.

A failed government program to produce a more violent, aggressive form of military fighter has resulted in the U.S. Morgan's Thirteen is near-future science fiction, very much in the vein of Bladerunner. When the entire crew of a transport from Mars is killed by a stowaway who turns out to be a violent superhuman from a failed government program, Carl Marsalis is given a choice: use his own heightened powers to hunt down the killer, or face a fate worse than death.

Thirteen novel richard morgan