re:mote voices

Title: Market Forces
Author: Richard Morgan
Publisher:Gollancz

Market Forces is the third novel, in what seems as many years, by Richard Morgan, an English writer who is currently living in Glasgow – having been a lecturer at Strathclyde University, presumably until he got a load of money from the film rights to Altered Carbon, his first novel. While his first two novels, Altered Carbon and Broken Angel, were linked in that they featured the same lead character and were set in the far future, Market Forces introduces a new lead, and brings us closer to home. But even with that, Morgan manages to include a couple of references to his other work – the idea that Mars is so boring it has become a popular quote from a TV show, and at one point when the lead is detained and is handed a book to read, which is clearly Altered Carbon. Thematically Market Forces is consistent with the previous two novels, as the sheer level of violence he employs in his writing.

Market Forces is set in London, 30 years from now, where competition has increased to a whole new level. The result was varied – on the one hand the Domino Recession created new levels of poverty, which resulted in the cordoned zones, new age ghettoes, where the poor are detained in steadily decaying housing estates – on the other hand, executives continue to become rich, but to maintain their position they have to fight, road rage leading to duels that are now the only way to attain promotion, or to secure a tender. Against this we have Chris Faulkner, a man who is fought tooth and nail, escaped the Zones to reach corporate heights. Market Forces starts with him on the first day of a new job with the notorious Shorn Associates, a new job in the field of Conflict Investment. Where corporations monitor small wars, revolutions and the like, and invest, providing weapons, tech and data in return for a cut of the profits – pretty much giving them the power over emerging governments and dictatorships, so that they can maximise profits on industry in those countries.

As the story unfolds we get a feel for Faulkner and how he finds himself in an increasingly violent environment. Executives from Shorn are expected to carry hand guns, and are expected to use them. From the start it is clear that certain partners in the firm don’t like Faulkner, and there is a conspiracy against him. This keeps him on his toes, makes his friends think he is paranoid, and increasingly prone to lashing out. Along the way the relationship with his wife is deteriorating, and it looks like Faulkner might really want to find a way out of his situation, preferably without finding his way back to the zones in the process.

The themes of wealth and the corporate hunger for that, and how that is starting to gather an increasing power that at times seems to bypass governments are ones that are present to some degree in all Morgan’s books. There is a certain amount of reference to the UN and its struggle against this kind of trend which was really introduced with Broken Angel, where the lead character found himself in the role of Peace Keeper. In Market Forces the UN and its agents are mocked as ineffective, though there is the idea that Faulkner might find that the UN could offer him an out from the corporate structure.

While the violence in his first two novels at times comes across as excessive there is a certain distance attained, the technology which is central to the name Altered Carbon, being one which kind of bypasses death and makes the violence almost acceptable. However Market Forces is closer to home, closer to now, which gives things a different feeling. Personally I have a curious relationship with violence and its depiction in media, one where I find that it doesn’t always sit comfortably, despite the fact that I am often harder to shock than most people. With Market Forces I am left with even more mixed feelings on the violence than I was in his previous books.

Coupled with the change of pace Morgan has presented with Market Forces having established one vision with his previous two novels, makes this, at least initially, a little harder to get into. In the end though Market Forces is readable and continues to have relevant ideas at the core – especially when one pays attention to employment and housing trends within the UK, and the growth of corporate greed around the world, all things which are central to the ideas of Market Forces.