Thirteen Audiobook By Richard K. Morgan cover art

Thirteen

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime
Try for $0.00
More purchase options

Thirteen

By: Richard K. Morgan
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Try for $0.00

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $29.32

Buy for $29.32

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. Science Fiction Genetic Engineering Military Fiction Adventure
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c

Critic reviews

"Stellar." ( Publishers Weekly)
Complex Characters • Thought-provoking Ideas • Dystopian Worldbuilding • Engaging Plot • Intriguing Premise

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
The science fiction and social manipulation in this book are great. The characters are a bit predictable, the future has nice surprises, and the control of super powerful entities is believable. As an audio book, I really didn't care for the profanity. One can easily gloss over four letter words in text, but when listening to the book they got in the way.

Good SF, dissappointing language

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Intriguing plot, interesting charactization, suspenseful. A lot of fun to "read". Reader is excellent as well.

Riveting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Richard K. Morgan's Thirteen has aged well since its publication a decade ago. Its dystopian elements, the disintegration of the United States in the 21st century, might have seemed a bit harsh, oh, five years ago, but something about post-2016 life makes the depiction of Jesusland a bit on the nose. Maybe too much so.

I came to this after enjoying the Netflix adaptation of Altered Carbon, and it is very much of a piece with that, in its depiction of a world stratified by wealth, in which technology has wrought fundamental changes, while failing to remedy deep-seated problems in the human condition.

I want to particularly laud the performance of Simon Vance. His narration of the book is splendid, both as the omniscient narrator, but especially as the voice of the laconic, world-weary Carl Marsalis. This version of the book has to be a step above the printed text, if only because Marsalis gains a rich voice and a London-area accent.

The murder-mystery setup, present as well in Altered Carbon, serves the plot well. I suppose the payoff was a bit smaller than I'd expected, but this is not a major problem. In the end, there's a lot of rich character work here: particularly with Marsalis and the distinct Sevgi Ertekin.

It is unfortunate to see so many people drawing offense from this fine work of science fiction. Then again, when one reads the following Q&A within a one-star review, it's easy to see the benighted shadow of Jesusland looming over us:

"What could Richard K. Morgan have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
"NOT SLANDERED MOST OF THE CONSUMERS IN THIS COUNTRY FOR LOVING GOD..."

Powerful and Current

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I agree with Rusty. If you like the other books by this author, you will like this one too. His characters are complex mixtures of good and bad.

I agree with Rusty

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was just kind of boring. It dragged on. I really enjoyed Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan, but this is far from his best effort. The narrator does a decent job, but the story barely held my interest.

Pass this one by.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews