Market Forces

Market Forces is a science fiction thriller novel by Richard Morgan. Set in 2049, the story follows Chris Faulkner as he starts his new job as a junior executive at Shorn Associates, working in their Conflict Investment division where the company supports foreign governments in exchange for a percentage of the country's gross domestic product. Contracts are awarded, and promotions are given to employees, through driving duels in which combatants race vehicles on empty roads and often kill their opponents. With the Shorn-supported Colombian dictator Echevarria expected to transfer power to his son, who is supported by a competing firm, Chris allies Shorn with a rebel group to overthrow the government, though other executives attempt to sabotage his plans.

First published in 2004 by Victor Gollancz Ltd, the book is Morgan's third novel, the first two being part of the Takeshi Kovacs series. Market Forces satirizes corporate practices and globalization and carries the theme of competition throughout the story. Violence is used as a metaphor for the mechanisms underlying capitalism and assumptions about haves and have-nots are challenged. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2005 and was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Though book reviewers gave it a mixed reception, Morgan's descriptive writing and action sequences received praise.