This is the third in Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series, and my favorite so far. I don't want to give too much away, but suffice it to say that we learn a lot more about Quellism and Quellcrist Falconer herself, which I thought was great, because this has been one of the most fascinating aspects of the series. We also learn more about the Martians, though it's still mostly just hints at something big, hopefully to more fully explicated in future novels.

This is only available as an import but I picked up a copy at Uncle Hugo's for a reasonable price ($27 for a hard cover).

It's been a period of bloody fiction for me recently, what with just having seen Sin City, and now this novel. I remember being in my favorite local SF book store after Richard Morgan's first novel, Altered Carbon, came out. It was on their recommended shelves with a hand-written note saying something to the effect of "good, but very violent". I actually avoided it for a while, thinking it might be a real stomach churner. When I actually read it I was relieved that it wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined.

Market Forces is a heck of a lot closer to what I imagined Altered Carbon. It's pretty much an extended satire/rant about neo-conservativism. I've complained in past entries about Kage Baker's mixing her politics with fiction, but I didn't mind in this novel. It probably doesn't hurt that I agree with Morgan. I think it also helps that this is the point of the novel, take it or leave it, as opposed to being slipped in at odd times.

I liked it quite a bit, though not quite as much as his last two Takeshi Kovacs novels, mainly because this one is in a much more familiar setting. Perhaps the strongest element of the novel is that the protaganist is one of the "bad guys", and Morgan doesn't pull any punches in regards to his brutality. This makes the novel's world feel more realistic, and is a nice change from the standard "hero versus the evil world order" type of plot.

I also liked the ending quite a bit, but I shall so no more. I'd recommend this to anyone with a reasonably strong stomach for various types of violence. It's not nonstop bloodshed, but there are a couple parts that really are brutal.