History Literature / BlackMan

** The factory ship Marsalis and Rovayo visit is called ''[[TheMasterAndMargarita Bulgakov's Cat]]''.

** The nature of the Haag Gun, which even leads Marsalis to MercyKill people he doesn't kill in one shot. [[spoiler: it's basically an AIDS gun.]] The sheer nastiness is justified, since it's used to [[spoiler: guarantee the death of any renegade thirteen if they escape thirteen-hunters like Marsalis.]]

** The nature of the Haag Gun, which even leads Marsalis to {{mercy kill MercyKill}} people he doesn't kill in one shot. [[spoiler: it's basically an AIDS gun.]] The sheer nastiness is justified, since it's used to [[spoiler: guarantee the death of any renegade thirteen if they escape thirteen-hunters like Marsalis.]]

** The nature of the Haag Gun, which even leads Marsalis to [[mercy kill MercyKill]] people. [[spoiler: it's basically an AIDS gun.]]

** The main UN colony on Mars is called [[RayBradbury Bradbury]].

* EvilBrit: Marsalis, arguably. His exact accent isn't mentioned.

* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The Varian Thirteens were created as super soldiers. [[GoneHorriblyRight What they got]] were a bunch of highly trained, [[Determinator utterly driven]] killing machines who fall a long way outside [[TheUnfettered normal moral and social contraints]] a human mind has. They made exceptionally capable insurgents, counter insurgents, commandoes and terrorists and caused substantial amounts of destruction and political destabilisation across the whole world before the [[SuperRegistrationAct Jacobsen Accords]] were signed and the world's governments had them all rounded up and imprisoned or sent to Mars.

* [[spoiler: DecoyAntagonist]]: Merrin.

* XanatosGambit: The entire reason for Merrin's arrival on Earth [[spoiler: as it was but a step in a larger plan]].

* XMeetsY: It's ''Film/BladeRunner'' in the world of the ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' series, just substitute "Replicant" with "Genetically Modified Human" and "far reaches of space" with "Mars".

* NWordPrivileges: Marsalis gets a little irritated by the Guatemalan who uses it an awful lot. The Guatemalan mocks him, suggesting that he's the only man [[spoiler: in the prison]] who doesn't seem to have noticed what colour his skin is.

* HumanSubspecies: Type 1, genetically modified. There's a lot of them, but most often mentioned are thirteens (hypermasculine males, created to be shock troops in times of war, but also make good criminals, physical laborers and serial killers) and bonobos (hyperfeminine females, created to be midwives, surrogate mothers, nurses, but often used as prostitutes instead). There are others, like hybernoids (can be either gender, they sleep through winter, but are hyperactive the rest of the year, requiring next to no sleep or rest), and China constantly keeps creating new types through experimentation (like [[spoiler:female thirteens]], for example).

* LotteryOfDoom: Inverted. You can go to Mars whenever you want to, provided you're cleared for space travel on health reasons. Thirteens are happily shipped off to Mars if they don't want to be interned in a camp somewhere. But to get back from Mars? That's where the lottery comes in if you're not a contracted worker (they're shipped back once their contract expires and they opt not to renew it). [[spoiler: Marsalis]] got off Mars by winning the lottery.

''Black Man'' (U.S. title ''Thirteen'') is a sci-fi mystery novel from Creator/RichardKMorgan that feels like a StealthPrequel to ''TheTakeshiKovacsSeries''.

Aside from minor dating inconsistencies, the book feels very much like the Takeshi Kovacs/Altered Carbon setting before the discovery of Martians (or, if you will, as an alternate universe where they just weren't there to be found) and so has crude prototypes or precursors of much the same technologies - experia, virtual realities, rampant nanotech use, designer-virus-loaded bullets, etc, etc.

* StealthPrequel: For TheTakeshiKovacsSeries, even though WordOfGod explicitly says it was not intended as one. Still, much of the backstory fits (right down to the chronology and details of the colonization of Mars, as well as numerous tech-related {{CallForward}}s), although it can be considered an AlternateUniverse, the divergent point being the discovery of Martians - Broken Angels explicitly lists the date, and it has already passed in this book's timeline.

* XMeetsY: It's BladeRunner in the world of TheTakeshiKovacsSeries, just substitute "Replicant" with "Genetically Modified Human" and "far reaches of space" with "Mars".

* ConversationalTroping: As is usual for RichardMorgan, half the time tropes aren't invoked or played straight at all, but are discussed by the characters nonetheless.

''Black Man'' (U.S. title ''Thirteen'') is a sci-fi mystery novel from RichardKMorgan that feels like a StealthPrequel to ''TheTakeshiKovacsSeries''.

* MercyKill: Marsalis gives these to people wounded by the Haag guns if he can. It takes a while for the other characters to wrap their heads around the reason.

* NotSoDifferent: Merrin and Marsalis get compared a lot by other characters, and not just because they're thirteens that both [[spoiler: suffered CryonicsFailure on their trip from Mars]].

* HalfHumanHybrid: Nothing prevents human variants from breeding with baseline humans. Glossed over until the each of the WhamLines happen. It's [[DiscussedTrope pointed out]] that nobody really knows what, if any, modified traits the offspring will inherit since most human variants have only been created in the last few decades.

* AsYouKnow: Used quite a few times to paint the backstory of the world, usually well-justified by using people from non-overlapping social strata to do it (such as Marsalis explaining Mars to Ertekin or Rovayo).

* HalfHumanHybrid: Nothing prevents human variants from breeding with baseline humans. Glossed over until the WhamLine happens.
* HumanAliens: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] when several characters flat-out mention the closest one can get to meeting an alien is a thirteen.
* HumanSubspecies: Type 1, genetically modified. There's a lot of them, but most often mentioned are thirteens (hypermasculine males, created to be shock troops in times of war, but also make good criminals, physical laborers and serial killers) and bonobos (hyperfeminine females, created to be midwives, surrogate mothers, nurses, but often used as prostitutes instead). There are others, like hybernoids (can be either gender, they sleep through winter, but are hyperactive the rest of the year, requiring next to no sleep or rest), and China constantly keeps creating new types through experimentation.

Also known as "'''''Thirteen'''''", a sci-fi mystery novel from RichardKMorgan that feels like a StealthPrequel to TheTakeshiKovacsSeries.