Marsalis is one of a new breed. Literally. Genetically engineered by the U.S. government to embody the naked aggression and primal survival skills that centuries of civilization have erased from humankind, Thirteens were intended to be the ultimate military fighting force. The project was scuttled, however, when a fearful public branded the supersoldiers dangerous mutants, dooming the Thirteens to forced exile on Earth’s distant, desolate Mars colony. But Marsalis found a way to slip back–and into a lucrative living as a bounty hunter and hit man before a police sting landed him in prison–a fate worse than Mars, and much more dangerous.
Luckily, his “enhanced” life also seems to be a charmed one. A new chance at freedom beckons, courtesy of the government. All Marsalis has to do is use his superior skills to bring in another fugitive. But this one is no common criminal. He’s another Thirteen–one who’s already shanghaied a space shuttle, butchered its crew, and left a trail of bodies in his wake on a bloody cross-country spree. And like his pursuer, he was bred to fight to the death. Still, there’s no question Marsalis will take the job. Though it will draw him deep into violence, treachery, corruption, and painful confrontation with himself, anything is better than remaining a prisoner. The real question is: can he remain sane–and alive–long enough to succeed?
Author
Richard K. Morgan
Richard K. Morgan is the acclaimed author of ten novels—No Man’s Land, Thin Air, The Dark Defiles, The Cold Commands, The Steel Remains, Thirteen, Woken Furies, Market Forces, Broken Angels, and Altered Carbon, a New York Times Notable Book that won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2003. The movie rights to Altered Carbon were optioned by Joel Silver and Warner Bros on publication, and the book remained in feature film development until 2015. It is now an eighteen episode Netflix series produced by Skydance Media and Laeta Kalogridis. Market Forces was also optioned to Warner Bros, before it was even published, was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award in 2005 and won the John W. Campbell Award the same year. Thirteen won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2008. The Steel Remains won the Gaylactic Spectrum award in 2010, and its sequel, The Cold Commands, was listed in both Kirkus Reviews and NPR’s best Science Fiction/Fantasy books of the Year. In addition to his novels, Richard is the author of two Black Widow graphic novels for Marvel—Homecoming and The Things They Say About Her—and was the lead writer for two First Person Shooter video games, Crysis 2 and the 2012 reboot of the nineties classic Syndicate. He has served as a consultant in the video games industry since 2008, and is currently a Development Director at Gunzilla Games. Richard is a fluent Spanish speaker and has lived and worked in Madrid, Istanbul, Ankara, London, and Glasgow, as well as travelling extensively in the Americas, Africa, and Australia. He now lives back in Norfolk in the UK with his Spanish wife Virginia and son Daniel, about five miles away from where he grew up. A bit odd, that, but he’s dealing with it.
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