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Overview
The incredible has happened. A billionaire businessman from our time, frozen in secret in the early 21st century, is discovered in the far future and resurrected, given health and a vigorous younger body. He awakens into a civilization in which every individual is formed into a legal corporation at birth, and spends many years trying to attain control over their own life by getting a majority of his or her own shares. Life extension has made life very long indeed.
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.
The Unincorporated Man is a provocative social/political/economic novel that people will be arguing about for decades.
Synopsis
A novel of social transformation in the tradition of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land
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.Editorials
From the Publisher
Praise for The Unincorporated Man:
"Will appeal to Heinlein's legions of fans with its themes of personal liberty and one man's political struggle with the State. . . . The Unincorporated Man will tantalize you in with its intriguing premise.”
--i09
"Reminiscent of Heinlein--a good, old-fashioned, enormously appealing SF yarn. Bravo!"
--Robert J. Sawyer, Nebula Award-winning author of Rollback
“The Kollin brothers' first novel . . . recalls the emphasis on freedom of the early works of Heinlein and the cutting-edge social commentary of William Gibson and Fritz Lieber.”
--Library Journal
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.Library Journal
After the world's economic collapse, civilization requires the incorporation of every individual at birth. Most people spend most of their lives gaining control of the majority of their own shares. The arrival of a cryogenically preserved man from the 21st century-who's obviously unincorporated-creates a social anomaly. The Kollin brothers' first novel, chosen as a Sci Fi Essential Book, recalls the emphasis on freedom of the early works of Heinlein and the cutting-edge social commentary of William Gibson and Fritz Lieber. A good choice for most libraries.
—Jackie Cassada