Market Forces - by Richard Morgan

From the author of the excellent Takeshi Kovacs novel Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, Market Forces is a tale of a future where corporate greed rules...

In a world where business tenders, contracts and promotions are won by battling and killing your competitors either on the road or in the arena, conflict investment is the pinnacle of an executive career. It comes with wealth, power along with a license to drive and to kill.

When Chris Faulkner is offered a job with Shorn Associates, the market leaders in the conflict investment business, he's overjoyed. Shorn expect results and with a high-profile kill to his name already, he has a lot to live up to and there are those that don't think he's up to the job.

Frankly I found this hard to get into. It's well written and the story is kept going at a decent pace but none of the characters are particularly likeable and some are just plain nasty. The "hero" of the piece makes his living on top of the suffering of others and is happy to kill business rivals or even clients if it suits his purposes and when he's offered a way out of this lifestyle even that has to meet his price.

There were several times where I thought about giving up reading this one and, given the usatisfactory ending, I'm sorry I didn't. Hopefully, Morgan will drop this storyline and we'll see no more of Chris Faulkner and we'll get some more Takeshi Kovacs tales.

Genre: Actiom, Drama, Science-Fiction
ISBN: 0-575-07584-8
My Rating: 5/10