Black Man/Thirteen

[Rez]

Has anyone read Black Man/Thirteen by Morgan? I just stumbled on a discussion of the best SF of 2007, and several people mentioned it.

I read Altered Carbon and thought that it was a good book, but I found that it missed some excellent opportunities to deal with some very interesting philosophic ideas (the concept of sleeving and individual identity comes to mind). I left with the impression that Morgan could write well, but that the Kovacs books were more action and plot centered than philosophically thought provoking.

It seems that Black Man/Thirteen may be something a bit different, though, from what I read in the author's blurb:

An accidentally lengthy meditation on elements of the human condition that the Kovacs books always had the capacity to sidestep – namely, the prison of our own flesh, and the inevitable doom of our own mortality.

Any thoughts from those who have read it?

 

[Connavar]

I havent read Black Man yet only waiting to get and read the third TK book before i read his new ones.


I thought Altered Carbon was almost perfect for what it was. It was thought provoking in some ways to me. The idea of sleeving and individual identity and the view on death was very interesting to me.

It was SF/Noir with some action so it wasnt trying to be anything else.

You want philosophical you go read PKD kind of author IMO. Morgan's TK series was about a PI character and his violent and crazy world.

 

[Hypnos164]

I've read it, and listened to the Tantor unabridged audio book

It has structural and action elements similar to the Kovacs novels, as indicated it takes a deeper look as some of the questions raised by its setting - primarily (imo):

- The place for masculinity in an increasingly femanised social world
- The willingness of humans to submit to "authority"
- The extent to which "we" can escape our genetic/evolutionary imperitives
- Some issues of mortality (perhaps)

Its certainly more thoughtful than Kovacs is - but its also an action/detective tale. IMO it manages to pull of both at once, but not at quite the break-neck pace of his other stuff

(In summary: I liked it*)

*Aside - a couple of friends and I were discussing the writing of reviews/criticsm and came to the conclusion that there is a whole skill set involved that we lack as all our attempts pretty much come down to "i liked it" / "i didn't like it"...

 

[Talyn]

Blackman's definitely worth a read, though i did find it a harder read that the Kovac books, possibly because it does go a bit deeper, though it did seem like Morgan kept reiterating it's main themes over and over again sometimes.

I'd give it a 7 out of 10.

 

[Rez]

I thought Altered Carbon was almost perfect for what it was. It was thought provoking in some ways to me. The idea of sleeving and individual identity and the view on death was very interesting to me.

It was SF/Noir with some action so it wasnt trying to be anything else.

I agree completely.

That is kind of why I put the others Kovacs books on my "to read" list, but haven't gotten back to them. Not that it was bad or that it was trying to be more than what you note, it's just that Black Man seemed like it was trying to add the philosophic dimension that the others didn't really have.

I can remember thinking at the time I read Altered Carbon that it could add that dimension without losing much and I would be dying to read what came next.

It has structural and action elements similar to the Kovacs novels, as indicated it takes a deeper look as some of the questions raised by its setting - primarily (imo):

- The place for masculinity in an increasingly femanised social world
- The willingness of humans to submit to "authority"
- The extent to which "we" can escape our genetic/evolutionary imperitives
- Some issues of mortality (perhaps)

Its certainly more thoughtful than Kovacs is - but its also an action/detective tale. IMO it manages to pull of both at once, but not at quite the break-neck pace of his other stuff

Excellent. Thanks so much for the short review. It sounds intriguing. I will have to order it and have a look.