Narrated by Todd McLaren
Audio Length: 23 hours and 19 minutes
The Kollin brothers have created a futuristic society that is a CEO’s wet-dream. Basically, corporations are good and government is bad. Politically, this topic is a hot potato and I going to stay away from it as best as I can. Based on your political beliefs you will either cheering for the main character, Justin Cord, or relishing his downfall. My advice is not to get to wrapped up in the various arguments, for or against corporations, and just go with story.
Summary
The premise behind The Unincorporated Man is that world economy suffered a grand collapse several hundred years prior to start of the novel. The solution was to incorporate every person on the face of the Earth. When a person is born they have so many shares that are allotted to them and these shares are traded publicly. Corporations and other people are free to buy shares of anyone. Basically, the more successful or popular a person is, this will increase the cost of their individual shares. If a Corporation owns a majority of stock in you then they own you and can dictate the direction of your life. In essence, a person’s goal in life is to make enough money in order to buy back a controlling interest in themselves. In addition, allotments of shares are automatically given to the parents and the government. In theory, your parents will then have an investment in their children and will do what they can to help them become successful.
Review
This is the world that Justin Cord comes crashing into. Justin is a billionaire from 21st Century but he was suffering from a non-curable disease and decides to build a hibernation chamber. When Justin is recovered in the far future, he is cured of his disease and begins a cat and mouse game with the government and the corporations. The problem with Justin is that he was born prior incorporation and the law is unclear on how to handle this unusual scenario.
The rest of story involves Justin fighting off several court challenges regarding his status as the only unincorporated man. Justin firmly believes that incorporation is akin to corporate slavery. There are decent arguments among the other characters that the people of the 21st Century also suffered under a form of economic slavery and their system is much more fair. These discussions were fascinating but only went up to certain point then the authors would back off. In my opinion, if this novel was to be a commentary on economics then they should have gone all out on the good and bad behind the ideals of incorporation. Whether the reader agrees with their principle or not, it would be a truly fascinating topic to have a bull session over.
The one story line that just did not ring true was the reason behind the grand collapse. The authors blame it on Virtual Reality. Nothing more, just Virtual Reality. People became so addicted to their virtual lives that they neglected their real ones and wasted away. In my opinion, the authors just did not fully develop this idea to make it more of a believable scenario.
The majority of complaints that I have read in other reviews have to with one dimension characters. While I have to agree that the characters are basically caricatures this is not all detrimental to the story itself. Most Sci-fi novels are not really character type novels; they are more about the future society and the plot. As with The Unincorporated Man, it is more about ideas of what constitutes a free person and the effects upon civilization. I can live with weak characterization as long the plot is solid, which for the most part The Unincorporated Man is.
There is also side plot that really comes out of the blue. It involves AI and is very fascinating how the authors handle this aspect. I don’t want to go into too much detail for spoiler reasons, but I actually really enjoyed this story line and wish there was more of it in the novel.
Final Word
The Unincorporated Man is an incredibly interesting novel of a very type different of future that is truly unique. Economics is rarely explored subject in Sci-fi which is strange as it is so fundamental to every day life. While the novel did not hit every note for me, it hit enough that I truly enjoyed this story and will be picking up the next one in the series, The Unincorporated War.
My Rating
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