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Market Forces
Market Forces
Market Forces
Audiobook15 hours

Market Forces

Written by Richard K. Morgan

Narrated by Simon Vance

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

A blistering near-future thriller that will propel Richard Morgan onto the bestseller lists - a novel that will be enjoyed by any thriller reader.

What do you buy and sell when the global markets reach saturation point? The markets themselves. Thirty years from now the big players in global capitalism have moved on from commodities. The big money is in conflict investment. The corporations keep a careful watch on the wars of liberation and revolution that burn constantly around the world. They guage who the winners will be and sell them arms, intelligence and power. In return for a slice of the action when the war is won. The reward? A stake in the new nation. It's cynical, brutal and it has nothing to do with democracy and the rule of law. So what else is new? The executives in this lethal game bid for contracts, fight for promotion, secure their lives on the roads. Fighting lethal duels in souped up, heavily armoured cars on the empty motorways of the future. Chris Faulkener has a lethal reputation and a new job at Shorn Associates. Has he got what it takes to make a real killing?
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 15, 2005
ISBN9781400171392
Market Forces

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Reviews for Market Forces

Rating: 3.428245937129841 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

439 ratings20 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm torn between the fact that I like Morgan's writing -- it's slick, tight, packs a punch -- and the fact that his world is just too ridiculously ultra-violent for me, and the characters I like don't come out well. I liked Chris' wife Carla, but of course, she loses her husband in the worst of way: he's not dead, but he's thrown himself into a life she hates, and refused to accept her help in getting him out of it. And he's cheated on her, of course: let's not forget that.I find the world-building interesting, though in this case not entirely convincing (duels in cars? how does that really come about? it doesn't sound like something top executives would realistically end up doing), but of course all of it is a way of examining capitalism and the free market, of making brutally clear the way that competition can ruin lives.If the point then is to take a guy who seems decent at the beginning, like Chris, and watch as that competition warps him, then Morgan does a great job -- but it's hard to enjoy it as a story, particularly given the bodycount. Very much a case of not-really-my-thing, though, and I'm sure that people who're less squicked out by violence will enjoy this a lot more than me, assuming our tastes are otherwise the same.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This isn't normally the kind of book I would read, but I like the author and his descriptive abilities. This book dies not disappoint on that level. My interest grew with each chapter until the final climax and ending. I even spotted some very sneaky shameless plugging for a few of his other titles at one point. Give it a go, Capital Investment is an interesting concept.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was hard to fully buy into the premise of this one. Suffice it to say corporate road warriors is a bit weird to me. The near future commentary undercurrent was interesting. Unfortunately none of the "zone" characters were given much humanity in the telling. The main character was flawed and maddening at times but still relatable. Don't expect a simple Hollywood ending either. Overall it was a mixed bag for me. I don't regret reading it but it was not on the same level as Thirteen.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not a great book. Not even a good book, but it did have me grinning a little at times at the really, really dark humour.
    Not a single redeeming quality in basically any character, even the anti-hero's wife comes off as a two-dimensional set piece.
    Not Morgan's best, but even at its worst, still better than most dystopian pulp out there.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    "You still don't get it, do you, Paco? From where I'm sitting, I can do whatever the **** I want. Men like me, there's nothing you can do to stop us any more. Understand? *There is nothing you can do any more.*"In the near future, Britain's society has been torn apart by a violent and heartless form of über-capitalism. Chris Faulkner is one of the winners who can play the system. As the book opens, he has just joined the most badass of all the firms which make their money by playing off wars and insurgencies around the world. Does he have what it takes to compete at the very top? And, can he live with himself if he does?This is the first of Morgan's books I didn't like. His novels have always been chock-full of violence, but this time it all left a bad taste in my mouth. There are two main strands to the plot. In one, it's all action, as Faulkner fights against his company's enemies, and against somebody (possibly within the company) who wants him to fail. In the other, he and his wife try to work out whether there's any other way to live successfully, instead of being an inhuman bastard. The first strand is fine -- Morgan writes action very well, and the book rockets along with his customary verve. The second doesn't work for me.Faulkner likes to think of himself as morally superior to his colleagues. He tries not to abandon his contacts when changing markets make them vulnerable; he is shown early on allowing a competitor to live when he possibly should have killed her. And yet, his answer to every challenge is to meet it with more and more extreme violence. This discrepancy undermines the internal conflict Morgan is trying to depict. We are asked to get behind Faulkner, to sympathise with him as he faces his demons. But his actions seldom betray any motivation other than self-interest. And, for all his supposed qualms, he commits acts which are at least as reprehensible as those of the characters we are intended to contrast with him.The novel is intentionally bleak, and I have no problem with that. The character of its protagonist is internally inconsistent, however, and this leaves the moral questions of the book fatally compromised. I'll keep reading Morgan, and hope for better next time. But this one, for all its excitement, is badly flawed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I keep thinking this could be a fun satirical movie, in the style of Judge Dredd or Idiocracy
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In a surprisingly plausible near-future Britain corporate finance executives engineer "small wars" for the profit of their investors. The business is fiercely competitive, and often results in automobile race fights to the death.

    Chris Faulkner is a conflicted antihero, uncertain whether he can maintain his life of a corporate warrior. Chris remains a compelling and unpredictable character, even as the reader becomes more intimately familiar with his life. His relationships with his wife, clients, friends, and enemies slowly tear Chris apart and restitch him together as a different man.

    This book consistently describes brutally violence and personal dysfunction in a way that never becomes comfortable or casual to read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Reading this book is like being struck repeatedly over the head with a hammer-- both refreshing and unusual in a genre that tends to lean more on the side of entertainment (not a bad thing, necessarily) than issues.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Market Forces offers a near future ruled de facto by corporations, where international geopolitics are no longer the arena of national governments as a means for dominance in long term, but instead a tool for corporate profits - cold, efficient and brutal battleground for money and nothing else. This has given a rise to a deadly competition between mega-companies, often expressed by permitted firefight/races to beat another to a deal.Interesting ideas, reflecting some of the fears of our times.I did find the world-building, set-up and description a bit lacking, and the action and fights are not on par with other works in the Altered Carbon series.Otherwise a decent book with enough action but most importantly, with key intriguing ideas that do strike some raw nerve, especially for those interested in current worldwide geopolitics and economy. For the latter alone - highly recommend it.P.S. I only gave a relatively low rating due to somewhat awkward execution, since the author did change gears and style from his established skill in high-tech mid-far future action. Would be cool to see him give something like this another go - I would read that.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    like reading brin's "kiln people" only with less connection with reality. despite the fact that the whole premise of the book is untenable, i found myself finishing the book. this is a different morgan, less profane, less angry, ultimately more charming.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Morgan came so close to pulling this off, but fell at the final hurdle.Set in the 2050s this book tells of the rise of globalisation to such an extent that individual companies pout in rival bids to control politically or militarily sensitive areas in the world. The senior executives of these companies gain advancement by duelling with their colleagues, usually through the medium of car-borne dogfights.However, the characterisation was very weak - in fact, there wasn't one character for whom I felt any empathy - and stretched credibility beyond breaking point.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A satirical look at the amoral heart of business. If this book does not make you want to go out and smash capitalism now, then you have not seen through the Mad Max fantasy to the underlying truth of modern commerce.Kudos to Morgan for having his 'hero' drive a Saab, though...
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I could just not get into this book. I had a hard time empathizing with the characters and it was a struggle to find their surroundings believable. I lost interest barely a quarter of the way in and in the end put it down for something different.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The author's points of the devolution of power from governments to corporations has a dreadful outcome for most people and how corporations erode the moral center of the individual are interesting. The concept of Conflict Investing (investors via corporations funding sides in a war for profit rather than for a government's agenda) is intriguing. However, the characters were not as well developed as I would have liked, the ending was a bit dissatisfying, and the concept of job promotion through car combat was ludicrous.If you haven't read any of Richard K. Morgan's books, read Altered Carbon (his first and best book so far). Do not read this one unless you are already a fan.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There is a social commentary underpinning here that detracts from the action; the author seems to have tried to write an action book that had a "moral" - two things that normally don't go very well together. It nearly works although the moralistic part got a bit heavy handed at some points.The sex (while still R rated) is pretty tame compared to the Altered Carbon series (X rated sex). The violence is also very graphic, and sometimes it goes on a little too long so that you get tired of all the dozens of ways they are maiming or killing someone. Overall, it's not as good as Thirteen or Altered Carbon, but it was engaging enough to finish with only minor skimming after the 185th scene of blood n' guts.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Market Forces by Richard Morgan is set in an apocalyptic world, and a far departure from the settings he created and nourished through the Takeshi Kovacs series of novels. Market Forces tells the story of corporate finance executives that take to the street in sanctioned death matches for promotions and competitve trenderings. The winner gets the job, or brings home the big contract for their firm; and the loser, well, is dead.I have mixed feelings about Market Forces. The concept is the most far fetched to date in terms of testing the limits of morality and what people might be made to believe in the wake of a huge financial market crash and depression. I must give Morgan points for his creativity, and the level to which he has developed this new environment. Having said that, I struggled throughout the book to stay with the frame of perception, but it was too absurd to comprehend what could even go wrong in this society to send it so far off even the most battered moral compass. Morgan plays with a similar theme much better in the novel he wrote following this one, Thirteen, where science has reengineered variants of the human species to remove the agrarian, civilized conditioning. This leaves the hunter instinct as most prominent in these genetic modifications and Morgan plays on how society acts to ban their assimilation. While thirteen makes you think deeper about what traits make good social interactions and what we call civilized behavior, market forces often leaves you scratching your head thinking, man what a screwed up world with little hope of improvement this is. It is a struggle to stay in-tune with the main character, Chris Faulkner, a young executive with a prominent kill to his name, when he goes so far off the rails, and learns nothing from his reflection on himself. He pisses away everything he used to love and care about and when you think he might just get back on track with a moment of clarity, it quickly vanishes and he draws himself further and further into the dark recesses of his own hypocracy. There was very little I took from this novel, and was somewhat dissapointed, with Morgan coming off of the great action and stoylines that he created for Taskeshi Kovacs. I must give him all the credit in the world with the creativity for inventing such a far-fetched world, but in the end, I hated almost every character that he introduced. I felt that even the main character was not well developed enough to really have any insight to what is going on with this guy, and was taken aback by the ridiculousness of such a far fetched society, where corporate investment firms foster killing to move up the ladder.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    "You still don't get it, do you, Paco? From where I'm sitting, I can do whatever the **** I want. Men like me, there's nothing you can do to stop us any more. Understand? *There is nothing you can do any more.*"In the near future, Britain's society has been torn apart by a violent and heartless form of über-capitalism. Chris Faulkner is one of the winners who can play the system. As the book opens, he has just joined the most badass of all the firms which make their money by playing off wars and insurgencies around the world. Does he have what it takes to compete at the very top? And, can he live with himself if he does?This is the first of Morgan's books I didn't like. His novels have always been chock-full of violence, but this time it all left a bad taste in my mouth. There are two main strands to the plot. In one, it's all action, as Faulkner fights against his company's enemies, and against somebody (possibly within the company) who wants him to fail. In the other, he and his wife try to work out whether there's any other way to live successfully, instead of being an inhuman bastard. The first strand is fine -- Morgan writes action very well, and the book rockets along with his customary verve. The second doesn't work for me.Faulkner likes to think of himself as morally superior to his colleagues. He tries not to abandon his contacts when changing markets make them vulnerable; he is shown early on allowing a competitor to live when he possibly should have killed her. And yet, his answer to every challenge is to meet it with more and more extreme violence. This discrepancy undermines the internal conflict Morgan is trying to depict. We are asked to get behind Faulkner, to sympathise with him as he faces his demons. But his actions seldom betray any motivation other than self-interest. And, for all his supposed qualms, he commits acts which are at least as reprehensible as those of the characters we are intended to contrast with him.The novel is intentionally bleak, and I have no problem with that. The character of its protagonist is internally inconsistent, however, and this leaves the moral questions of the book fatally compromised. I'll keep reading Morgan, and hope for better next time. But this one, for all its excitement, is badly flawed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This story is "Mad Max" meets "Wall Street," as anti-hero Chris Faulkner works at making his bones at the new firm, where the failures leave boots first. I liked it, but not as much as the Takeshi Kovacs novels; let's just say that it's always hard to read about how a man liquidates everything in his spirit that makes him human, even if he is basically a thug.As satire, call it an effective challenge to the buttoned-down shirt crowd who think that they are oh so tough. This is not to mention that the plot would make a good British gangster movie.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The City of London goes cyberpunk in this follow-up to the very imaginative "Altered Carbon". While some of this may seem like warmed-over Gibson, the road rage alone is worth the read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Market Forces is not, in any way, a Takeshi Kovacs novel. The only science fiction element is that it is set in the indeterminate, but not too far, future. The setting is all on Earth, mostly in and around London, with cars and guns and global politics, economics, and nasty little wars. Where the Kovacs novels are Noir, and Kovacs is sort of a dystopian hero, Market Forces is a brutal satire of the jovial capitalist buddy-movie (anything you've ever seen that featured a good-hearted investment banker) - maybe a dyscapitalist story.The story is set in the world of the executives of a major investment house, specifically that Conflict Investment group, which specializes in funding & profiting from third world brush wars. In this London, only the few can even afford to license or fuel a car, and competition within and among businesses for promotions or contracts or whatever is handled by automotive duels to the death.Morgan's writing is as good as ever. His characters all have lives and stories, hard as they may be to empathize with, and they entirely inhabit the world they are in. But I just couldn't bring my self to *like* any of them. Not one. I hated them all, and the world they live in and what they stood for. If I'd actually met them, I probably would have felt the need to take a shower after.The story flows, and the world entirely makes sense, both on its own merits and as a place you can imagine getting to from here without too much trouble. It will keep you involved, and it will probably make you think, at least a little. But by the end, I would far rather some cataclysmic war leave the whole thing for the apes than see any of the characters succeed, or even just go on. But then maybe that's the point of this sort of cautionary tale.