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The action happens in the nearly derelict arena of our motorway system--an executive playground--since the lower orders can no longer afford petrol. Individual drivers or teams manoeuvre to run the opposition permanently off the road in a Mad Max frenzy, no mercy asked or given. At first, Faulkner has a black mark for taking a defeated opponent to hospital instead of finishing the kill. He won't make that mistake again. After all, the latest management status symbol is the exclusive Nemesis-10 handgun.
International business decisions are tough ("Regime change is our worst-case scenario"), and there's no longer any safe distance between boardroom decisions and blood on the streets. As a big deal with revolutionary South American factions goes badly wrong, both careers and lives are on the line. This deadly game still has some rules of conduct, but getting to the top means pushing the envelope. Faulkner pushes hard enough to make you wince.
With terminal stress on his marriage, his battered conscience, and his few friendships, our man seems doomed to become either a monster or a mutilated corpse. Company backstabbing intensifies; the stakes are higher with each new challenge. One chancy way out of the rat race is offered, but maybe it's possible to get addicted to living on the edge?
An ultra-black, ultra-violent and intensely depressing vision of 2049's amoral Masters of the World. Compulsive reading for the un-squeamish; you can almost hear Michael Moore saying "I told you so". --David Langford -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
Amazon.com
Morgan's conflicted protagonist, Chris Faulkner, is a comer known for one spectacular kill that shot him to the top of mid-range global capital firm. He parlays his reputation and skills as a driver into a job in the emerging field of "Conflict Investment" at the world's hottest and hardest firm. Soon he finds himself running with the big dogs and rises to the top of a brutal realm, but his ascent is quickly threatened by vicious senior partners, gold-digging suitors, fame, fair-weather friends, and his own nagging conscience.
Market Forces is at once an anti-globalization treatise and anime fantasy meets The Road Warrior. Morgan employs the graphic-novel imagery of his two previous novels to create a disturbingly brutal picture of slash-and-burn capitalism run amok. There are times when Faulker's moral quandries seem hollow in the face of his actions but this isn't Crime and Punishment. Enjoy the ride and "come back with blood on your wheels or don't come back at all." --Jeremy Pugh
Amazon.com Exclusive Content
A Winning Translation: An Exclusive Essay by Richard Morgan
His novels may paint a bleak picture of the future, but Richard Morgan has a great attitude toward language, and one word in particular. Read his Amazon.com exclusive essay and find out why he'll never consider himself, or anyone else, anything worse than an occasional non-winner.
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Bei "Market Forces" habe ich zuerst einmal gezögert; zu abgedreht schien mir die Geschichte, einen "Mad-Max" Verschnitt in einem London der Zukunft mit einem Wirtschaftskrimi zu verknüpfe. Auf Amazon-Empfehlung habe ich es dann schliesslich doch bestellt, und wurde nicht enttäuscht. Bei "Market Forces" handelt es sich um einen sehr lesbar geschriebenen Roman, der es durchaus mit der konventionelleren Literatur im Bereich Wirtschaftskrimi aufnehmen kann.
Die Geschichte ist schnell erzählt: Chris Faulkner hat es geschafft; sein Traumjob ist in Reichweite. Er ist beim Marktführer in Conflict Investment, Shears Associates in London gelandet. Conflict Investment ist die härtere und nicht ganz moralische Variante des Investment Bankings: Vermögensbildung durch Investitionen in Krisenherden und Konflikte weltweit. Falkner muss sich nicht nur mit widerspenstigen Diktatoren rumschlagen, auch die Kollegen in den eigenen Reihen machen ihm das Leben schwer. Und jegliche interne Spannungen werden als Duelle auf den fast vollständig leeren Autobahnen des zukünftigen Londons ausgetragen...
Mehr möchte ich eigentlich zur Geschichte nicht verraten. Richard Morgan schreibt diesmal nicht aus der Perspektive des Erzählers, was der Handlung ein fast filmhaftes Flair verleiht (tatsächlich hatte er "Market Forces" als Drehbuch konzipiert). So zeigt er zum Beispiel wichtige Details auch von anderen Blickwinkeln, was insgesamt auch den anderen Charakteren eine willkommene emotionale Tiefe verleiht. So ist auch Chris Falkner nach aussen ein sehr extremer Charakter, der zumindest versucht, sein eigenes Empfinden von Ehre und Moral bis zum Ende durchzuretten.
Auch die Welt ist sehr glaubhaft dargestellt: ein sehr dunkles, endzeitliches London (sozusagen Michael Moores schlimmster Albtraum) steht im starken Kontrast zu einem sozial sehr gerechten Norwegen, das Herkunftsland von Falkners Frau und Schwiegervater. Auch die zynische Einstellung der CI-Spezialisten, die inneren Konflikte im "Büroalltag" und die Exkursionen in das Privatleben der Protagonisten sind excellent portraitiert.
Ich habe das Buch innerhalb kürzester Zeit verschlungen, es befindet sich zusammen mit den anderen Büchern von Richard Morgan sowie der "Song of Ice and Fire" Saga von George R. R. Martin auf der Liste meiner Lieblingsbücher.
Sehr zu empfehlen, nicht nur für SciFi Fans, sondern auch für Liebhaber moderner Wirtschafts- und Anwalts-Thriller.
Chris Faulkner ist einer der Privilegierten, der es nach ganz oben geschafft hat - in den Sperrzonen aufgewachsen, hat er sich bei dem Unternehmen HammetMcColl mit einem spektakulären Duell einen Namen gemacht und ist nun zu einer der Top-Firmen, Shorn Associates, aufgestiegen. Diese betreiben "Conflict Investment", soll heißen, sie finanzieren totalitäre Regime und Guerilla-Bewegungen in Entwicklungsländern. Solange die breite Öffentlichkeit nichts mitbekommt und die eigene Weste sauber bleibt, wird nicht weiter nachgefragt, wenn nur der Profit stimmt. Gleich bei seinem Einstieg wird Chris klargemacht, daß hier Schwäche nicht geduldet wird - wer einen Gegner nicht ausschaltet, gilt als schwach und hat in der Firma keine Überlebenschance. Dies ist wörtlich zu nehmen, denn Konkurrenzkämpfe werden als Rennduelle mit gepanzerten Fahrzeugen auf den fast leeren Stadtautobahnen ausgetragen, und wer ohne Blut auf den Rädern und an den Fäusten in die Firma kommt, braucht sich erst gar nicht blicken zu lassen.
Chris, der bisher vor den allseits verbreiteten Gewalttaten so gut es ging zurückschreckte, wird immer mehr in die mörderischen Gepflogenheiten seiner Kollegen hineingezogen. Um an der Spitze zu bleiben, setzt er sein Leben, seine Ehe und sein Gewissen aufs Spiel. Mit seinem maßgefertigten Saab, den seine Frau Carla, eine Automechanikerin, in Schuß hält, und einer Heckler&Koch Nemesis Ten in der Tasche zieht er in Duelle und merkt nicht, daß man auch als Gewinner verlieren kann...
Mit diesem Wirtschafts-SF-Thriller hat sich Morgan auf wenig beschrittenes Terrain begeben, wobei die dystopische Grundstimmung und die Autorennen sehr an "Mad Max" erinnern. Chris als Charakter ist vielschichtig, nicht immer sympathisch, und auf seinem Weg durch die mörderische Welt des globalisierten Kapitalismus macht er eine spannende und interessante Entwicklung durch, während er gegen seinen inneren moralischen Kompaß ankämpft und sich dagegen anstemmt, nicht von der dunklen Seite der Finanzmacht vollständig verschlungen zu werden.
Der Plot ist - wie immer bei Morgan - hart, dreckig, und gemein, vor Gewalt, Sex, Mord und Verrat wird der Leser nicht verschont. Man merkt der Geschichte deutlich an, daß sie als Drehbuch gedacht war; viele Szenen sind dialogbetont aufgebaut und beschäftigen sich mit Action und Optik der jeweiligen Personen und Szenen. Beim Lesen wirkt dies allerdings manchmal überzeichnet; außer Chris scheinen alle anderen Banker nur aus gewissenlosen Finanzhaien und Halsabschneidern zu bestehen. Zwar zeigt die derzeitige Realität der globalisierten Finanzmärkte die Vision Morgans, der schon 2004 mit dieser Geschichte im Stil Michael Moores die Machenschaften der Finanzwelt anprangerte; was auf der großen Leinwand im Stil von "Wall Street" oder "Transporters" sicher gut zur Geltung kommen dürfte, wirkt auf dem Papier manchmal etwas undifferenziert und einseitig, auch weil es bis auf den Helden nur Bösewichte zu geben scheint. Bei aller angebrachter Kapitalismus- und Globalisierungskritik hätte ein Economy-SF ruhig eine Spur differenzierter ausfallen dürfen, es wäre immer noch genug Spannung und Action übriggeblieben.
The premise is an eye catcher: corporations rule the world, funding, starting and stopping wars based on economic prospects only, and the way you work your way up in the corporation is by performance and road raging. Yup. It's Mad Max meets Wall Street. When I read the back cover, I laughed out loud, and I knew I had to read it.
The book starts out.... feh. It's crude. Too crude, especially in the graphic soft core sex descriptions, foul language and violence. And if you're too offended by the first few pages, it only gets worse. It's simplistic. The characters are typical and predictable, the movement of the book, in spite of the crudeness, is rather dull. The world the book paints is typical of so many bleak future books. Class disparity, no ethics, ultra violent.
But then, much earlier than the Joseph Heller book, something happened.
Morgan has used the first part of the book to build up the characters, (unfortunately through long drawn out dialogue, though one wonders if the effect would have been as strong without it) to make a basis for the development he's about to write. The protagonist, Chris Faulkner, is a gem of character development. Young and up and coming in the beginning. An idealist thrown in among sharks, yet determined to succeed on his own terms. His wife, his new best friend, his father in law....all very real.
The book suddenly becomes very very good. The interpersonal conflicts become idealistic battles and I found myself choosing sides rather quickly as the story moves on. Faulkner goes from sly kid to someone I found myself cheering for rather loudly at 1 AM beside my sleeping wife (sorry, honey ) and then CONTINUES to develop in ways that I will not, for spoilers sake, explain how I responded to them.
Unfortunately, I have to stop there to not ruin the plot. Every relationship in this book is very real, and very gut twisting. As for the plot, there are sure to be initial guffawing, as there was in my case, at the premise. But the corporate manipulation, some say, is already occuring in foreign governments. Anyone with any sort of experience in business knows the cutthroat nature of the "game." Taking that one step further into the corporate ladder, who's to say all pretenses couldn't be set aside and bloodthirsty kills on the road take the place of backstabbing and gladhanding.
The corporate setting and dealings is also very real, until nearing the end of the book, where it becomes almost surreal, but in a very intriguing way.
Bottomline is this book starts out crude and boring. I was very put off by it. However, the character development and the way Morgan wrote the part of Faulkner was utterly brilliant, and I have not encountered a character I have enjoyed reading in quite some time.
This review is painfully inadequate for how large an impact this book had on me. Get it. Read it. It's a solid piece of work.
Despite the ideological chest-thumping, "Market Forces" is not just a wisp of a story wrapped around a shrill anti-capitalist polemic. It's actually a rollicking good read that doesn't get swamped by the author's ideological crusade, except perhaps near the end. But more on that later.
The setting is deliciously twisted. Fifty years from now, the world is run by a handful of financial houses that deal in "conflict investment" -- giving financial assistance to tinpot dictators in exchange for a cut of the country's GDP if they stay in power. Executives vie for promotion or contract tenders by staging highway duels in armored cars. It's a bizzare mixture -- "Liar's Poker" meets "Mad Max" -- but Morgan deftly pulls it off.
Morgan's first novel proved that he is adept at drawing imperfect characters, and here he serves up a whole cast of scummy anti-heros and scummier villians. Chris Faulkner fought his way up from the slums and is a new hotshot executive. His wife, Carla, is a mechanic who keeps his sedan in prime dueling condition. Her father is an idealistic outcast whose socialist views are a constant source of tension in the family. Along the way, Chris falls in with a media vixen, a chummy but brutal partner, and a team of envious colleagues intent on seeing the newcomer go down in flames, quite literally if it should come to that.
The action ticks over nicely as Chris careens between stoking conflicts in Cambodia and Latin America, terrorizing street thugs with Mike, and grinding rival investors into scrap metal under the bumper of his armored Saab. All the while he is trying to rescue his foundering marriage and avoid the plasticene temptations of Liz, a powerful journalist tracking his career.
While Morgan's conclusions on the nature of the modern geo-political/economic system may be black and white, he lays it out for us through shades of gray. The rapacious corporations are clearly the bad guys, but characters like Mike are strangely charismatic, and it's easy to cheer the suits when they wield their power to wipe out white supremacists or permanently cripple an abusive husband for beating his wife. Likewise, those characters with the "right" socialist viewpoints are quick to espouse their ideals but are too weak or scared to act on them.
Morgan's contention that capitalism is inherently brutal and self-destructive only starts to become obvious in the last part of the book as Chris repeatedly snubs chances for redemption and mires himself deeper in the brutal corporate culture he once held at arm's length. But the book works despite this late-game heavy-handedness, and while I might have wished for a cheerier conclusion, I have to give credit to Morgan for pushing things to what he must see as their logical conclusion, insofar as that logic works in the fantasy version of capitalism and globalization he has constructed.
This *is* a sci-fi book, after all.
The backdrop of this comparatively near-future tale owes a lot (as Morgan himself tells us in his Acknowledgements) to _Mad Max_ and _Rollerball_. In fact the tone of the whole thing is rather like a screenplay or a graphic novel (and it's probably not a coincidence that Morgan has also written a series of Black Widow comics for Marvel). But hoo-boy, it's a good 'un.
Yuppie road warrior ('Blaaaaade runner -- coyote's after you . . . ') Chris Faulkner is the hero(?) this time out. He's just recently joined the Conflict Investments division of Shorn Associates, see . . .
But enough. You can read the other reviews and the Amazon summary if you want to know more. Better yet, you can read the book.
Other reviewers are correct: this one may take you a bit longer to get into than Morgan's previous two books. But keep going; it's worth the wait. (Actually I didn't find the first portion hard to get through, but I can understand why some readers might, especially after Morgan's first two constant slam-bang page-turners.) It's got the trademark Morgan oomph, as well as his wicked sense of humor; for example, Morgan's own _Altered Carbon_ makes an uncredited cameo appearance near the end. (And a paradoxical one if this is, as it appears to be, Takeshi Kovacs's own universe. Or isn't Shorn Associates a corporate ancestor of Shorn Biotech? [Later note: Morgan says it's not; he just likes to reuse the name 'Shorn'.])
Although it's fiction, it's got a bit of an agenda: a short bibliography lists works by e.g. Noam Chomsky and John Pilger. If you're not a fan of that crowd, don't let it put you off; Morgan is very good on this subject. (It may help pro-free-market readers to bear in mind that Morgan's target is corporate capitalism and Western-style globalization, not the happy fantasyland of the libertarian ideal. Indeed, Morgan has a keen sense of just exactly why multinational corporations _don't_ want to export the "free market" to the Third World, although he doesn't put it in those terms. It may also help to recall that SF writers of a small-l libertarian bent -- e.g. Heinlein and James P. Hogan -- are every bit as critical of corporations as they are of governments. At any rate, it's not as though Morgan's earlier two novels are notable for their bright and cheery optimism about the future of corporatism.)
It's timely, it's trenchant, it's well-written and well-plotted, it's got a disturbingly plausible vision of the future, and it's got plenty of the harda$$ed brutality we've come to know and love in Morgan's work (and even what I think are a couple of sly, oblique references to Chuck Palahniuk's _Fight Club_). In short, it's got Major Motion Picture written all over it -- which reminds me that Hollywood has optioned _Altered Carbon_, too, so let's wait and see what happens.
In the meantime, we can look forward to _Woken Furies_, the new Takeshi Kovacs novel due out this fall. (It's already available in the U.K. and getting excellent reviews.)
[Update: I see from the author's website that a film deal for _Market Forces_ has already been signed -- and that the book actually began life as a screenplay. I can't post the URL here, but it's exactly the one you'd expect richardkmorgan's website to have.]
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