The Baby Merchant (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: baby merchant, The Baby Merchant, Kit Reed, Tom Starbird (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in an all-too-plausible future world with a falling birth rate, closed borders and lengthy adoption waiting lists, Reed's provocative SF novel explores the lengths desperate people will go to become parents. Jake Zorn and Maury Bayless, a childless couple in their 40s, approach Tom Starbird, a go-to man for high-end illicit "adoptions," but Jake, a newsman, isn't satisfied to just do business. If Starbird doesn't get them a baby, Jake threatens to not only ruin Starbird but also broadcast a shattering exposé about Starbird's mother, an unstable poet. Starbird, forced to agree, marks the baby of a pregnant artist, Sasha Egan, who lives in a home for unwed mothers. But Sasha flees the home and lays low, forcing Starbird to revise his plans. The inevitable clash among Sasha, Starbird and Jake forces each to rethink his or her motives. Reed (Thinner Than Thou) succeeds in making her nastier characters appear more misguided than evil, but the long sections from the protagonists' different points-of-view, all written in the same style, tend to blur together. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Kit Reed, author of Thinner Than Thou and other novels, has written an SF satire and psychological thriller that provokes larger questions about money, status, happiness, parenting, and even technology (newborns receive microchips in their heads). Instead of idealizing the parent-child relationship, Reed shows a refreshing array of emotions that asks what it really means to raise and care for another human being. The Robin Hood-esque character of Tom Starbird captivated all critics; when he disappears from the narrative, the story slows a bit. Overall, however, Baby Merchant is fast-paced thriller filled with interesting characterizations and situations that hit close to home. Just ignore the spoiler on the book flap.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765315572
• ISBN-13: 978-0765315571
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,353,690 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars astounding, September 26, 2006

By	Anthrophile (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Baby Merchant (Hardcover)

This woman never fails to amaze me. She is able to do speculative fiction with so much immediacy -- and hence, more suspence and menace -- creating worlds that contain classic science-fiction-y elements, and yet are so recognizably our own, for tales that are a veritable punch to the gut.

This book reminds me of all that was excellent about "The Children of Men" by P.D. James. In short: in a period in our not so distant future when a shortage of babies and a preponderance of fertility issues make children a rare commodity, Tom Starbird is the Baby Merchant, an indivudual who's taken it upon himself to remove infants from what he deems unsuitable environments with unfit mothers, and to place them, for a hefty fee, in loving homes where they'll be "wanted" -- according to his own judgment, at least. He's good at what he does -- the best -- but with his moral compass wavering and on the verge of quitting for good, he finds himself blackmailed into one last job, which turns out very -- catastrophically -- differently from what he expects.

The characters are vividly drawn and for the most part sympathetic, if imperfect, and the pacing is so rapid you can hardly put the thing down. I neglected work! Reed is skilled at capturing the inner life of both her protagonists and antagonists, through monologue and stream of consciousness (although her main villain remains a little flat) without ever being boring (a neat trick with stream of consciousness and not easy to do). I think this book has a somewhat stronger ending than the also excellent "Thinner Than Thou," mainly because the story itself is smaller -- about just a few people rather than an entire religious movement. It's more covincing, makes more sense, and provides more closure.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars REED PUTS THE REAL IN SURREAL, June 24, 2006

By	Orph - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Baby Merchant (Hardcover)

Putting down a book by Kit Reed is a hard thing to do. Not just because it's good, which it is, but because it's like trying to put your conscience on mute before it's done asking you what on earth you think you're doing, and just who, exactly, do you think you are. That's just what Reed does here in The Baby Merchant. Some writers speak to their readers, asking provocative questions through symbolism and innuendo. Kit Reed reaches out from the page and pokes you. It's alarming, sometimes disquieting, but never inappropriate. And, of course, it doesn't hurt that the characters in The Baby Merchant, no matter how strange or unlikable or pathetic or morally-questionable, are always engaging, and sometimes a little too believable to be comfortable. Particularly the shockingly enigmatic merchant himself, Tom Starbird. Which is exactly what we need. We need a little discomfort. Asking hard questions isn't supposed to be comfortable. It's supposed to be necessary. All that being said however, the book is a blast. If you read Reed just for the fun of it, The Baby Merchant will not disappoint. It works on a strickly entertaining level, if that's all you're looking for. But like many of Reed's works, especially her latest few, you can admire what you see in the looking glass, or you can go through it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A guy I never thought I'd like, June 24, 2006

By	Invisible Library - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Baby Merchant (Hardcover)

It's weird rooting for a guy you ought to hate because of what he does, but that's what I ended up doing with this book about a future so near that some of it is already happening. People I know are having a hard time having children and adoptions are getting harder and harder, they way they are in this book. The government is already clamping down on a lot of things and if we can microchip pets to keep them from being stolen, why not kids? Reed's sort-of hero Tom Starbird steals babies for sale to rich clients, but he has reasons. Then he steals a baby from the wrong girl and the real trouble starts. This starts a cat-and-mouse game that makes this novel a fast, really scary read.