Advertising

The Seattle Times Company

NWjobs | NWautos | NWhomes | NWsource | Free Classifieds | seattletimes.com

The Seattle Times

Entertainment


Our network sites seattletimes.com | Advanced

Originally published July 20, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Page modified July 20, 2007 at 2:02 AM

E-mail article     Print view

Book review

Today's ills via sci-fi killing machine in "Thirteen"

Richard K. Morgan's latest novel postulates the creation of genetic supersoldiers 100 years from now, then pans through the resulting global...

Special to The Seattle Times

Author appearance

Richard K. Morgan will read from "Thirteen," 7 p.m. Monday, University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., Seattle; free (206-634-3400 or www.ubookstore.com).

Richard K. Morgan's latest novel postulates the creation of genetic supersoldiers 100 years from now, then pans through the resulting global intricacies with a sure eye for the story at their heart. "Thirteen" (Del Rey, 544 pp., $24.95) is almost unbearably good. The scenes of violence his readers expect from Morgan are as skillfully constructed as ever, and completely necessary, given his material.

Morgan's supersoldiers, known as "thirteens," have been demobilized and exiled to Mars or to tightly guarded reservations here on Earth. Carl Marsalis, licensed to hunt down fellow thirteens who escape, doesn't have the biological capacity to feel remorse for the gory mayhem he causes as he chases and shoots down his prey with virus-laden bullets. But he does have other feelings.

Marsalis connects deeply with Sevgi Ertekin, a woman of Turkish descent living in New York. Ertekin is an ex-cop consulting for COLIN, the nongovernmental agency in charge of colonizing Mars. When a COLIN spaceship crash lands in the Pacific Ocean and a cannibalistic thirteen stowaway survives, then disappears, the two track him via Marsalis' genetically-enhanced intuition.

Ertekin is drawn to Marsalis — to his self-assured stance and his balanced, graceful way of moving through danger. And Marsalis, a loner, nevertheless longs for Ertekin. In a COLIN-owned apartment he surreptitiously watches her sleep, "sprawled on her back with her mouth half open, long-limbed and gloriously inelegant in the faded NYPD T-shirt and tangle of sheets ... " The intensity of Marsalis and Ertekin's ragged-edged, running-on-empty courtship rivals that of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, stars of Dorothy Sayers' classic mysteries.

It's this emotional core that fuels "Thirteen's" powerful effects and makes for some of Morgan's finest writing. But the author gets convincingly inside the heads of his other characters too, from the "Jesusland" refugee who leaves Wyoming for the economically advanced Pacific Rim, to the populist Andean neo-gangster who values ties of blood above corporate riches, to the mixed human/variant woman who knows she'll never be able to tell her partner what she really is.

Morgan also addresses important social issues: hierarchy and dominance, the tendency toward violence in males, the ways in which humans demonize one another.

Marsalis is a thirteen, but the human genetic material his creators used came from blacks. Thus he's doubly stigmatized. Morgan riffs on racial injustice throughout the novel (its UK title was "Black Man"). When British-born Marsalis spends four months incarcerated in a South Florida prison, inmates use a racial slur against him: "The first couple of times it was disconcerting and almost quaint, like having your face slapped with a dueling glove." Eventually it feels like the "verbal spittle" it's meant to be, and Marsalis fights back. And wins. Earlier he sardonically notes a beer ad in which black males are kept well away from light-skinned bathing beauties. But contrary to Hollywood clichés, Marsalis not only "gets the girl," he has sex with more than one woman. He doesn't even die as a result.

Morgan's to be commended on bucking stereotypes, though I personally had difficulty believing in his hero's blackness at times. While Marsalis' lab-experiment upbringing makes the absence of African-diasporic cultural behaviors believable, pertinent physical details were also missing, such as dry or "ashy" skin, and the flat-on-one-side effect slept-on-and-unpicked kinky hair can give.

In the end, though, "Thirteen's" gorgeous strengths more than compensate for these momentary weaknesses. Harrowing truths, gritty romance, complex politics, synapse-swift action, technological advances just vanishing over the event horizon: they're all there. They're all achingly good.

Nisi Shawl reviews science fiction for The Seattle Times. She is co-author of "Writing the Other: A Practical Approach," with Cynthia Ward.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

More Entertainment headlines...

E-mail article Print view      Share:    Digg     Newsvine

advertising

Review: 'Peter Pan' boasts a charming hero, a cool crocodile — and a few missteps

'So You Think You Can Dance' tour visits Everett

Review: 'Miscellanea II' is a mixed bag — far too much of one

Wing Luke Family Day and other weekend community events

End of an era: Oprah ending show after 25 years

Advertising

Video

LA Galaxy's David Beckham
Los Angeles Galaxy's David Beckham talks about the upcoming MLS Cup final during after a team practice.

Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman
MLS trophy arrives in Seattle
Chittenden Locks Inspection
Full interview with New Moon actors
Interview with New Moon actors
Artistic Roller Skating
Girls Soccer: Mercer Island vs. Glacier Peak
Smash Putt! Miniature Golf
Opening day at Crystal Mountain

Marketplace

nwautos

2009's most fuel-efficient sedansnew
Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment

Open Houses

Find this weekend's open house listings.
Or search by location:

 
Most read
Most commented
Most e-mailed
 
 
Advertising