Every once in awhile you stumble across a random book that you really enjoy. The Unincorporated Man is just such a book. I was actually at the store to pick up a paperback... and happened to walk by the new releases in Sci-fi hardcover... and this one just jumped out at me... I read the inside flap... the first few pages... and I was hooked.
The unique spin on this book is that it takes place in the future... where everyone is incorporated. When you are born, you are given 100,000 shares... these are spread around between yourself, your parents, the government, and anyone that wants to invest in your future. You don't own a majority of yourself when you are born... and most everyone's lives is spent trying to buy enough shares of themselves to have "majority" so they can do what they want to do and aren't told by their shareholders what jobs to take... how to live... etc.
This book is really deep and fascinating. It comes up with a completely creative economic system, and spends the entire book debating if that system is good or not in the face of the Grand Collapse which was a social and economic meltdown of unimaginable proportions that is played out in very visceral detail for the reader to experience.
This book is pretty much an instant classic for me. I recommend it highly to anyone. By the end there was such a push and pull between the moral centers of the characters that I really didn't know who I was pulling for.
I will be following the Kollin brothers (authors) closely.
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