| The Unincorporated Man | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Dani Kollin & Eytan Kollin |
| Cover artist | Chad Baker/Photodisk/Getty Images |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel political fiction novel |
| Publisher | Tom Doherty Associates |
| Publication date | 2009 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Kindle Edition & Audible.com Audio Download & Audio CD & Pre-Loaded Digital Audio Player) |
| Pages | 480 pp |
The Unincorporated Man is a science fiction novel by Dani Kollin & Eytan Kollin, published in 2009. This work is their first novel of three written by the Kollin brothers and purchased by Tor. See Also The Unincorporated War.
Contents |
The Unincorporated Man is a social/political/economic novel that takes place in the utopian/dystopian future, after civilization has fallen into complete economic collapse and been revived. This reborn civilization is one in which every individual is incorporated at birth, and spends many years trying to attain control over his or her own life by getting a majority of his or her own shares—a task made all the more difficult given that modern medicine has created extraordinarily long life spans.
A successful industrialist named Justin Cord, frozen in secret in the early twenty-first century, is discovered and resurrected in the 24th century. He is given health and a vigorous younger body, as well as the promise of wealth and fame. There's only one problem: He remains the only unincorporated man in the world. Justin 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 and beyond.
While starvation and extreme poverty have been eliminated, so have the rights of people to make their own major life decisions. Considered by the authors to be a novel of social transformation in the tradition of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. Social justice, freedom and individuality are explored.
Some reviewers[1] argue that the book spends too much time extolling the idea of personal incorporation and not enough time criticising it. The book is also criticised for a lack of depth, with the plot and characters' motivations all put in service of explaining the book's primary concept instead of developing in any natural fashion.
Won the 2010 Prometheus Award from the Libertarian Futurist Society. Listed as a SciFi Essential book by Tor and SyFy.