Thirteen is the American title of this Richard Morgan novel. In England it was released as, "Black Man". I just added this to my "to-read" list after hearing an interview with the author. He calls the genre speculative fiction. This novel is set in the future and explores what the world might be like after one hundred years of genetic manipulation.

It piqued my interest because of a couple of interesting points he made.

First is the act of looking backwards in time and realizing how difficult it is to fix large scale social mistakes. The example he presented was looking back at colonialism and recognizing it as the root cause of many unsolvable global and political problems. His novel takes a similar vantage point and attempts to look back (from the future setting) to examine unsolvable problems caused by unrestrained biotechnology.

The second illuminating point he made was about the impetus for genetic modification. Plastic surgery, breast augmentation, and liposuction are examples he gives of elective surgical procedures in great demand today that achieve body shapes that don't naturally occur in nature, but rather in the societal mind (he says pornography). Morgan supposes that genetic alternatives to surgical techniques would find similar acceptance.

From there he makes the logical conclusion that genetic enhancements would be influenced by society and those in control of the society and novel explores those results.

Sounds like a very interesting read of an author that is new to me.

Yeah! That does sound interesting!

I'll add it to my 'to read' list too