though, see below.ġ.) Getting clubbed over the the head with repeated, repeated, repeated socio-political-economic talk it's not as bad as e.g. New voices are good.Ģ.) There is a good story here. I give it three stars instead of two because it is a debut, and first books are (almost) always a bit rough.ġ.) I like new authors. Overall, good, and the end seems to come faster than the 479 pages would suggest.Not that there's anything wrong with that.) (Update: It turns out that there are three sequels. And the ending is blatantly unresolved, plainly to set up a sequel, because we don't find out what happens to the villain.Also, the divagation on virtual reality seemed like a setup for something that would reappear later in a big way, but it never did.It would have been 4 stars, but for some didacticism, some incompletely-thought-out economics and politics, and a love angle that I somehow just didn't find interesting.There is a very good surprise near the end.The main villain is one of the better-drawn ones I've seen in a long time.I don't want to give any more specifics, to avoid spoilers. They fear the masses will be inspired by the example of this "Unincorporated Man" and will press to end stock ownership of individuals. Some people really don't like this example of person who has the right to do whatever he wants, without being ensnared in the constraining legal and financial web of stock ownership. Our hero, having been born centuries before this became prevalent, is one of very few people who has no stockholders who own a stake in him.
For example, in this fictional universe, if you want to be a musician, but your stockholders think it's in their best interest for you to become an actuary, they can vote to force you to be an actuary! Horrible! Now imagine that other people had the right to make these decisions for you. If you own 1% of the stock, you control 1% of the votes.
Also - and much more importantly - a corporation's stockholders have the right to vote on certain decisions the corporation makes.
Someone who owns 1% of the stock of a corporation is entitled to receive 1% of the corporation's profits. Stock is like debt, except that instead of having to pay your creditors back a fixed amount, you have to pay them a certain fraction of your income. There is a very interesting premise: A man from roughly our time goes into suspended animation and is re-animated several hundred years in the future, where veritably every person has sold stock in himself/herself.
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