John Topley's Weblog

Market Forces by Richard Morgan

Saturday, 07 August 2004

With Market Forces Richard Morgan takes a break from the far-future of previous novels Altered Carbon and Broken Angels. Instead the novel is set a mere thirty years from now, in a world where the rich/poor divide has grown even greater and where the forces of capitalism and globalisation have been taken to extremes.

Anti-hero Chris Faulkner inhabits a London where the motorways are empty apart from rich executives duelling to the death under the watchful eye of the all-seeing Driver Control. This is road rage evolved and used as a means of doing business; the driver who makes it into the office alive wins. Morgan freely acknowledges a Mad Max influence on this aspect of the story.

Faulkner works in Conflict Investment at the powerful Shorn Associates, his job being to manipulate conflicts on the other side of the world so that they return a dividend for Shorn's shareholders. Faulkner is part of the rich elite, although he sometimes leaves the safety of his part of town to go play in the “zones”, where he grew up.

The journey sees Faulkner battling with his conscience, his wife and ultimately anyone else who gets in his way. In common with Morgan's previous novels, he's a damaged leading character who is hard to warm to, although you grow to understand why he's the way he is and perhaps feel a certain sympathy. Morgan's trademark ultra-violence resurfaces too, although it is integral to the tale.

Market Forces gives a clear indication of Morgan's thoughts on the way the world is run, by extrapolating aspects of modern life to extremes. Some parts of this nightmarish future world seem unlikely, until you reflect back on the some of the ways in which today's world is different from that of your own childhood. I found this a fast-paced and sometimes thought-provoking read.

I have to mention this—something very weird happened whilst I was reading Market Forces. On page 311 the two main characters go to a fairly obscure pub in London, that I myself had been in only the week before I read about it in the book. Spooky! 4/5.

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