The Unincorporated Man
Review
The Unincorporated Man
Imagine this: Asia is obliterated. Space travel is possible.
Cars fly (finally!). There is no war. There is no unemployment. And
while you are imagining all of this, add in the fact that you are
incorporated at birth, and that in order to get a job or an
education, you must trade stock of yourself. Imagine also that you
likely do not own the majority of your own stock, thus your
investors decide where you can work and even where you can
live.
Is this slavery? Or does it encourage a person to invest in
others as a way of improving the whole? That is the question raised
in THE UNINCORPORATED MAN.
Justin Cord is a brilliant businessman in the early 21st
century, and his success is only matched by his sorrow to hear that
he has cancer. Using his vast wealth, Justin constructs a cryogenic
tomb and freezes himself.
When he awakens, slowly coming to realize that the cryogenic act
was a success, Justin finds himself 300 years into the future.
Although there are cosmetic and some technological changes as one
would expect, he is more concerned by the future incorporation of
mankind. After being bullied (but refusing) to sign an
incorporation agreement, thereby no longer owning himself, Justin
becomes a central figure in a sinister and complex political
machine in the new incorporated world.
THE UNINCORPORATED MAN is a stunning debut. Truly. Forget the
genre clichés of laser guns, spaceships, and journeys through
black holes and the like. This book is part Heinlein, part
Bradbury, and part Asimov. This is no space adventure but a
socio-economic envisioning of the future. As such, it would easily
fit alongside, say, 1984 or BRAVE NEW WORLD as a chilling and
thought-provoking treatise on possible futures.
Brothers Dani and Eytan Kollin have crafted a world here that is
at times technologically stunning and exciting and sometimes
frightening. Throughout the pages of this novel, you will encounter
well-detailed environs peopled with wholly lifelike people --- some
are wonderful, others are downright villainous. They have deftly
designed a book that will have you questioning the economic
principles and the very nature of personal freedom and
individuality.
Even if you are not a fan of science fiction per se, THE
UNINCORPORATED MAN stretches beyond that genre and brings a
hauntingly possible future to life.
Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard on January 24, 2011
The Unincorporated Man
- Publication Date: March 31, 2009
- Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction
- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books
- ISBN-10: 0765318997
- ISBN-13: 9780765318992