Let’s start this review with a basic rule for authors who are writing courtroom scenes. Trials don’t work like they are shown on Perry Mason. If you want to introduce evidence into trial, you have to share it with the other side and, if requested, the judge can rule whether or not it is pertinent to the case. The brothers Dani and Etyan Kollin broke this rule in their book The Unincorporated Man. The Kollins have created a wonderful world with an interesting twist, but they blow it in the execution. So, let’s see what’s up with the man who is not incorporated.

Neela is an reanimationist 300 years in the future. Her job is to help people who have been frozen and reanimated get readjusted to society. Usually the people have only been out of society for a few weeks to months, but there is the occasional person who has been out of society for years. But when Neela gets called out to an old abandoned cave, she’s in for a shock. Workers have found a person who has been frozen for 300 years and Neela’s life will never be the same. It turns out that the person being reanimated used to be a self-made billionaire from back before the Grand Collapse named Justin Cord and it will take all of Neela’s skills to get him used to the new society…or so she thinks.

In the new society, everyone is incorporated at birth. The government gets 5%, the parents get 20%. The child then sells off shares in themselves to pay for needs (car, schooling, etc.) and then upon entering the workforce, uses their pay to distribute dividends to their stockholders. Rarely people can save enough money to buy back a majority share in themselves. The main plot of the book revolves around Justin fighting to not be incorporated. The company that owns the mine he was found in wants to incorporate him and get a percentage of his stock since they believe he will be a very popular (and therefore good investment) person. There are lawsuits, fights and a lot of political and economic talk.

Overall the book has a great premise and a wonderful beginning. But then the book slows down to a boring mess that is overly complex and often doesn’t make sense. It seems more like a economic model of a political society written as a novel than an actual novel. The characters are flat, there are silly arguments and the plot is overly complex due to needing to get out all the political and economics arguments in the story. After the trial, I lost interest since the writers seemed to be using the characters as sock puppets to tell the philosophical argument rather than a story. I could argue my issues with the economic and political underpinnings of the book as well, but that would probably be more boring than the book itself. Just avoid and don’t even look at the sequel.