The Unincorporated Man is a provocative social/political/economic novel that takes place in the future, after civilization has fallen into complete economic collapse. This reborn civilization is one in which every individual is incorporated at birth, and spends many years trying to attain control over his or her own life by getting a majority of his or her own shares. Life extension has made life very long indeed.
Now the incredible has happened: a billionaire businessman from our time, frozen in secret in the early twenty-first century, is discovered and resurrected, given health and a vigorous younger body. Justin Cord is the only unincorporated man in the world, a true stranger in this strange land. Justin survived because he is tough and smart. He cannot accept only part ownership of himself, even if that places him in conflict with a civilization that extends outside the solar system to the Oort Cloud. People will be arguing about this novel and this world for decades.
The Unincorporated Man
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Fans of SF as a vehicle for ideas will devour this intriguing debut. Brilliant 21st-century tycoon Justin Cord is brought from cryogenic storage into a 24th-century society where people own stock in one another, safeguarding each other's welfare only out of economic self-interest. This is anathema to the defiantly individualistic Cord, who soon becomes a danger to the corporations that control the world and a symbol of freedom to the downtrodden penny-stock people. Cord's conversations with friends and enemies fill most of the book, alongside lectures on the mechanisms of the incorporated culture. The Kollin brothers keep the plot moving briskly despite the high proportion of talk to action. Their cerebral style will especially appeal to readers nostalgic for science fiction's early years. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Story lines involving a contemporary protagonist’s displacement to a distant future via time machines or suspended animation have been a genre staple since H. G. Wells. In this striking variation from first-time novelists Dani and Eytan Kollin, the clash between today’s cultural values and those of a vividly imagined future has never been more compelling. Justin Cord is a twenty-first-century multibillionaire who uses his fortune to cheat death by building his own suspension unit. Three centuries later, after reanimation technicians discover the unit and restore his body to pristine health, Cord awakens to a world transformed in ways he could never have imagined. As the only surviving member of civilization before the Grand Collapse, not only is he an instant celebrity, but he quickly learns that everyone is a minicorporation unto themselves. Unfortunately, there are also forces at work that will stop at nothing to make sure Cord incorporates or dies yet again—this time, permanently. The Kollin brothers’ debut captivates with unforgettable characters and an ingenious vision of the economic future. --Carl Hays
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The reviews are obviously polarized for this book, so I'll do what I can to give a bit of guidance from my perspective. The book features a single idea, developed superficially yet at great length. The story props up the idea but is predictable and uninteresting, featuring data dumps and flat characters. The science is mostly missing, and silly when it appears (avatars! elevator tubes! phone implants!)
If you like idea stories and are not particularly interested in plots, characters, or writing style, then it might work for you. For instance, if you like Jack McDevitt, late-series Asimov (e.g., Prelude to Foundation), or Geoffrey Landis then you might tolerate it. To be sure, they are all much better writers, but are not masters of character or style. (I suppose that's why the authors here are compared to Heinlein, but I expect Heinlein would have a short story of this one.)
However, if you want a compelling *story* or stylistic writing, I expect you will hate it. China Mieville comes to mind as someone at the polar end of the writing spectrum: chock full of ideas, sometimes maddening, but a beautiful stylist and never plodding.
Here's a simple excerpt (from p. 60) that pretty much shows every problem in a single paragraph: "Justin, the odds of the 'crash' event as you describe it are 349,120,004 to one. You have a better chance of winning the lottery ... three times in a row."
Points: (1) this comes from an exchange that does nothing to advance either the plot or the characters. (2) how can a device (who is the speaker here) communicate quotation marks ("'crash'") and why is that even necessary? (read Strunk and White) (3) why does the lottery still exist in this future? or does it? why does it matter? (4) most seriously: the cube root of the number here is approximately 704, meaning that the odds against winning the lottery *once* would be 704:1. What kind of lottery is that? If the authors make such a silly error in probability, and then put the words in the mouth of a computer, why should they be trusted to say anything interesting about science? Or about finance and the stock market?
After 73 pages (only *two* long and slow chapters!), I abandoned it as a waste of my time and will donate it to a community rummage sale. As others have said, the plot line and its resolution seem extremely predictable. Even if a surprise were in store, which I doubt, I don't care enough about either the idea or the characters to wade through the remaining 400 pages.
In short, if you like SF with hard science, plot action, or stylistic writing, skip it. OTOH, if you like yarns that expound an interesting idea at length, it might work for you.
Finally, a recommendation: if you'd like to read a series featuring economic plots and better science at a similar future time horizon, try David Louis Edelman's Jump 225 trilogy Infoquake (Jump 225 Trilogy). Edelman packs in many more ideas that develop in more interesting ways, and a good plot line.
If you like idea stories and are not particularly interested in plots, characters, or writing style, then it might work for you. For instance, if you like Jack McDevitt, late-series Asimov (e.g., Prelude to Foundation), or Geoffrey Landis then you might tolerate it. To be sure, they are all much better writers, but are not masters of character or style. (I suppose that's why the authors here are compared to Heinlein, but I expect Heinlein would have a short story of this one.)
However, if you want a compelling *story* or stylistic writing, I expect you will hate it. China Mieville comes to mind as someone at the polar end of the writing spectrum: chock full of ideas, sometimes maddening, but a beautiful stylist and never plodding.
Here's a simple excerpt (from p. 60) that pretty much shows every problem in a single paragraph: "Justin, the odds of the 'crash' event as you describe it are 349,120,004 to one. You have a better chance of winning the lottery ... three times in a row."
Points: (1) this comes from an exchange that does nothing to advance either the plot or the characters. (2) how can a device (who is the speaker here) communicate quotation marks ("'crash'") and why is that even necessary? (read Strunk and White) (3) why does the lottery still exist in this future? or does it? why does it matter? (4) most seriously: the cube root of the number here is approximately 704, meaning that the odds against winning the lottery *once* would be 704:1. What kind of lottery is that? If the authors make such a silly error in probability, and then put the words in the mouth of a computer, why should they be trusted to say anything interesting about science? Or about finance and the stock market?
After 73 pages (only *two* long and slow chapters!), I abandoned it as a waste of my time and will donate it to a community rummage sale. As others have said, the plot line and its resolution seem extremely predictable. Even if a surprise were in store, which I doubt, I don't care enough about either the idea or the characters to wade through the remaining 400 pages.
In short, if you like SF with hard science, plot action, or stylistic writing, skip it. OTOH, if you like yarns that expound an interesting idea at length, it might work for you.
Finally, a recommendation: if you'd like to read a series featuring economic plots and better science at a similar future time horizon, try David Louis Edelman's Jump 225 trilogy Infoquake (Jump 225 Trilogy). Edelman packs in many more ideas that develop in more interesting ways, and a good plot line.
25 of 34 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE UNINCORPORATED MAN Stretches Beyond the Sci-Fi Genre and Brings a Hauntingly Possible Future to Life.
June 2, 2009
By Bookreporter
Format:Hardcover
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
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
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By D. Sims
Format:Hardcover
Damsah's balls, this was the most overrated book I've read in some time!
Many of the POSITIVE reviews will point out that the characters are static, the writing clumsy, the point of view confused, and the pacing erratic. The book reads like an early draft. I agree with all of that.
I'll add that it's disappointing to see the sophomoric humor ladled out in this book referred to as "clever." And the main character, Justin Cord, is a Mary Sue of the type I typically associate with fanfic. I wonder which one of the Kollin brothers gets to dress up as Cord at Halloween?
Some of the negative reviews point out that the book's cardboard characters spend a lot of their time demolishing straw men in the form of superficial objections to the future utopia based on the perfection of the free-market and the wisdom of handing everything over to corporations. Let me put it this way; I found some of L. Neil Smith's libertarian screeds more convincing (and entertaining). One reviewer said that it "occasionally" comes across like a Glen Beck rant, while another mentioned shades of Ayn Rand. Glen Beck I buy; I think the philosophy that Rand bludgeoned readers with probably had more depth to it.
The basic concept is interesting, but you can get a better understanding of the ramifications of personal incorporation by simply reading the blurb on the dust jacket and having a conversation with some intelligent friends than you will from reading this novel. Even with ham-handed expository scenes galore, the authors manage to skip over inconsistencies in their setting and its premise. Corporate greed contributes to the Great Collapse via VR, so of course the answer is to give more power to the corporations. I don't know about you, but the thought of having public stock in myself at the mercy of automated stock-trading software programs and the whims of day-traders does not suggest a stable financial foundation for the future. Your personal worth would fluctuate wildly over the course of a single day. And that's the future you would have; nobody can check or regulate this practice now--in a future where corporations are seen as benevolent, demi-god entities, regulation will be a four-letter word.
If you were foolish enough to sell off a majority in yourself, good luck being able to afford to buy back your own shares if you became successful. The more successful you become, the higher your stock would be valued, making it more costly to buy. The only way to get around that would be to conceal your real worth long enough to buy your shares. With so much incentive to lie up (as a company) and down (as an individual) about your real value, stock trading becomes just as much of a game of moving shares with little relation to actual worth as it is today. You can say that the market would punish corporations that conceal the truth. In addition to suggesting that many companies in today's Fortune 500 are hardly paragons of virtue, I'd add that it would be pretty simple for a future corporation to buy up a majority stake in any potential whistle-blower and ship them off to Mercury or the Oort Cloud.
Toned down from the extremes presented here, some of these ideas might have potential. Selling private shares in yourself below a certain minority limit might have some traction. It would be somewhat similar to finding a patron or establishing a small base of supporters to whom you would be beholden. Selling a majority stake of yourself on a public market? I sure as stock wouldn't try it.
I found the book entertaining at times, often on the unintentional comedy scale in terms of some of the phrasing and the "gee-whiz" factor attached to tech that's been speculated about more convincingly elsewhere for years, but it fails as both a thought-provoking novel of ideas AND as a story with engaging characters. I gave it a two because it's a first novel and everybody has to start somewhere.
Many of the POSITIVE reviews will point out that the characters are static, the writing clumsy, the point of view confused, and the pacing erratic. The book reads like an early draft. I agree with all of that.
I'll add that it's disappointing to see the sophomoric humor ladled out in this book referred to as "clever." And the main character, Justin Cord, is a Mary Sue of the type I typically associate with fanfic. I wonder which one of the Kollin brothers gets to dress up as Cord at Halloween?
Some of the negative reviews point out that the book's cardboard characters spend a lot of their time demolishing straw men in the form of superficial objections to the future utopia based on the perfection of the free-market and the wisdom of handing everything over to corporations. Let me put it this way; I found some of L. Neil Smith's libertarian screeds more convincing (and entertaining). One reviewer said that it "occasionally" comes across like a Glen Beck rant, while another mentioned shades of Ayn Rand. Glen Beck I buy; I think the philosophy that Rand bludgeoned readers with probably had more depth to it.
The basic concept is interesting, but you can get a better understanding of the ramifications of personal incorporation by simply reading the blurb on the dust jacket and having a conversation with some intelligent friends than you will from reading this novel. Even with ham-handed expository scenes galore, the authors manage to skip over inconsistencies in their setting and its premise. Corporate greed contributes to the Great Collapse via VR, so of course the answer is to give more power to the corporations. I don't know about you, but the thought of having public stock in myself at the mercy of automated stock-trading software programs and the whims of day-traders does not suggest a stable financial foundation for the future. Your personal worth would fluctuate wildly over the course of a single day. And that's the future you would have; nobody can check or regulate this practice now--in a future where corporations are seen as benevolent, demi-god entities, regulation will be a four-letter word.
If you were foolish enough to sell off a majority in yourself, good luck being able to afford to buy back your own shares if you became successful. The more successful you become, the higher your stock would be valued, making it more costly to buy. The only way to get around that would be to conceal your real worth long enough to buy your shares. With so much incentive to lie up (as a company) and down (as an individual) about your real value, stock trading becomes just as much of a game of moving shares with little relation to actual worth as it is today. You can say that the market would punish corporations that conceal the truth. In addition to suggesting that many companies in today's Fortune 500 are hardly paragons of virtue, I'd add that it would be pretty simple for a future corporation to buy up a majority stake in any potential whistle-blower and ship them off to Mercury or the Oort Cloud.
Toned down from the extremes presented here, some of these ideas might have potential. Selling private shares in yourself below a certain minority limit might have some traction. It would be somewhat similar to finding a patron or establishing a small base of supporters to whom you would be beholden. Selling a majority stake of yourself on a public market? I sure as stock wouldn't try it.
I found the book entertaining at times, often on the unintentional comedy scale in terms of some of the phrasing and the "gee-whiz" factor attached to tech that's been speculated about more convincingly elsewhere for years, but it fails as both a thought-provoking novel of ideas AND as a story with engaging characters. I gave it a two because it's a first novel and everybody has to start somewhere.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
If the world really ran like a business ...
The cover jacket blurbs mention Robert Heinlein twice - which usually is code for "old-fashioned" and/or "predictable", but "The Unincorporated Man" (Tor, $25. Read more
Published 9 days ago by Clay Kallam
3.0 out of 5 stars
somewhat entertaining
I forgot and there were too many instances of important things popping up out of nowhere, as well as a "game changing" idea gets to introduced but not followed up upon. Read more
Published 29 days ago by A. Kostur
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good but not great; the three follow-ups are better
I'd give this 3.5 stars if I were allowed to. I don't mind giving it 4 stars because I tend to add a star or a half star for genre fiction (i.e. Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. Calton
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read
I really enjoyed this book. The setting and nature of the future described in the novel were the best parts of the story for me. Read more
Published 1 month ago by David C
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engrossing read
Well paced, interesting premise that hits close to home and an interesting look at a very plausible future. Thoroughly enjoyable, and highly recommended.
Published 2 months ago by Nancy Hough
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic!
Thought provoking and logical extrapolation of present day economics and technology development with characters I really got into. Highly recommended read... Read more
Published 3 months ago by .
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Unincorporate Man as Objective as I can
The book is awesome but...
It certainly depends on a lot of things to be this awesome, to the point of going nowhere. Read more
It certainly depends on a lot of things to be this awesome, to the point of going nowhere. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Claudio Rodriguez Rdgz
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Even Start
I must admit this, and other books in the series, have some mitigating factors - a couple of interesting ideas, and a few decent action scenes. Read more
Published 5 months ago by L. Tarantino
1.0 out of 5 stars
Terrible
I couldn't agree more with customers that gave this book one star. I find it disturbing that anyone would compare this book with Heinlein, and I can't believe that Robert J. Read more
Published 5 months ago by JH
1.0 out of 5 stars
Tedious and asinine
I should have read the review of this book before I impulsively pick it up. I am not one to write many reviews, but sometimes you are compelled to do so when something is so bad. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Laljit
