MARKET FORCES Review

I just finished Richard K. Morgan's novel MARKET FORCES. It is a cautionary tale of what the world may come to if we continue on the present path of ever increasing corporate influence. Since corporations are motivated only by the bottom line, they are driven to increase their profits, and in turn drive their employees to bend the rules to deliver those profits. In this tale Chris Faulkner is a driver-class Conflict Investment professional: meaning he engages in public road-rage duels to the death to settle corporate disputes over the rights to back combatants in foreign wars. The winners of the duels become high placed executives, and the winners of the wars become dictators beholden to investors who financed their coups. Faulkner's life has been on a downward spiral ever since his career was sent upward when he joined Shorn Conflict Investment. The situation is only aggravated when he is repeatedly rewarded for breaking the rules in ways that deliver profits and influence for Shorn. His loose cannon instincts are fueled by this corporate greed and destroy his marriage and his very soul. This book is not for the squeamish, and will leave you a little tainted if you identify with the protagonist at all. And Morgan makes sure there are some attractive qualities about Faulkner to involve the reader on an emotional level. If ALTERED CARBON hit a nerve this may be of interest to you, but that nerve will be raw by the time you are done.

DDE