Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin, The Unincorporated Man

The Unincorporated Man

Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin

Tor, Mar 19 2009, $25.95

ISBN: 0765318997

In the early twenty-first century, multi-billionaire Justin Cord learns he suffers from an untreatable cancer; he will die soon. A battler all his life, Justin battles for his life; betting on the future. He has a cryogenic burial home built and has himself put on ice inside it.

A few centuries into the future, Justin's frozen home is discovered. He is thawed out and his body healed. However, Justin learns that he is THE UNINCORPORATED MAN in a radically differing economic system than the one he made his fortune in. That collapsed in spite of humanity reaching as far away as the Oort Cloud, the outer rim of the sun's gravitational pull. At birth, a person is incorporated; they spend years trying to buy controlling interest in his or her self. For Justin this means he is owned by a corporation and starting very late to buy himself. As he did with death he rejects the concept of he owning a limited share of himself while others own the majority share.

This is an intriguing science fiction thriller that extrapolates the current economic trends of free market and total privatization (Bush legacy meltdowns) into a future in which a person is owned like an indentured servant only by corporate shareholders. Thus the Kollin brothers shine a deep spotlight on a DNA like matrix interweaving acceptable societal norm with the economy. The story line is thought provoking on several fronts starting with the economy, the government and the technology that has taken mankind across the solar system. Justin is a throwback to an earlier age before the corporations bought power as he believes strongly in freedom, which he feels the shareholders thwart. Fans who enjoy an exciting twenty-forth century thriller with roots in today's global economy will appreciate this deep tale.

Harriet Klausner