Great concept based on Mars colonization so I was thrilled to try . . . but I was so bogged down in all the techno detail. Couldn't get enthusiastic enough to wait for action to pick up and keep me going. Gave up about 20% of the way through.

Thanks to NetGalley for a chance to try the book!

Reading Thin Air by Richard Morgan was a different experience for me. I love traditional science fiction stories, but this one was anything but “traditional.” The protagonist, Hakan Veil, is a different kind of character. He possesses a different skill set due to work in the Earth service and knows how to use his genetically enhanced body to full effect. His relocation to Mars has, of necessity. turned him into a mercenary with lots of desirable skills – all for sale at a price. He gets pulled into a series of adventures in a place where the traditional mores seem not to exist – even in the police. Corruption seems to abound everywhere and he has some trouble figuring out who the “friendlies” are although he is not above using his erstwhile enemies to accomplish his goals.

He was give a charge to protect one of the Earth overseers sent to monitor Mars activities named Madison Madekwe, and she disappears. Looking for her leads to a set of adventures revolving around a lottery program for return trips to Earth, criminal conspiracies, enemies becoming allies and vice versa. Veil does it because he has a code that if you take a job, in this case to protect Madison, then you do it. The overall impact of the book, is not my personal choice of an enjoyable read, although I can see how some readers would like it. It is too convoluted and too much effort is needed to follow the storyline that seems all over the place…Veil is in prison then not in prison; in good standing and then not. Just too much “drama” for me as a reader.

I've long been a fan of Richard K. Morgan's style of science fiction writing and his return to the field after a decade-long absence is certainly welcome, with Thin Air doing much to remind me why I fell in love with this author's work to begin with.

Morgan writes sci-fi that is heavily, heavily influenced by hard-boiled mysteries. Beneath all the whiz-bang high-tech wrappings of interstellar colonization, cybernetic augments, and next-gen weaponry, there's a grizzled take on the classic PI - down on his luck, hard drinking, smartly armed, and chasing dames - and a planet-sized dose of noir. Thin Air is gritty, like a mouthful of coffee grounds and gravel, and just as grim and bloody as you could imagine.

On Mars, one lucky lottery winner has won his ticket back to Earth. Only problem is, he's dead, a complication that has triggered a planet-wide audit by the colony's Earth overseers. Hakan Veil is a former overrider - a genetically augmented warrior who has had his license to kill revoked and has been exiled to Mars. He's just murdered a local gangster, which has put him in police custody. He can make the charges disappear if he can protect the auditor, Madison Madekwe, and keep her safe from whoever's murdered the lottery winner. Veil makes the deal and finds himself up to his neck in organized crime, terrorist factions, killers, and political intrigue...and then things go even further south from there.

Thin Air is a densely packed narrative, and Morgan has done an excellent job building up the world of Mars and delivering a cast of deeply complicated characters. Loyalties are ever-shifting, and there's almost as many motives to the madness Veil finds himself lost in as there are Martians. The plot spins wildly upon each new revelation, and the scope of this particular story grows broader and broader. I have to applaud Morgan for being able to keep all the twists, turns, and back-stabbings straight, because there are a lot of moving pieces and characters to keep track of here. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing the notes and outlines he must have created to keep this story flowing as impressively as it does. Thin Air is a perfect example of how characters serve the plot, and the reasons behind their motivations are just as labyrinthine as the story Morgan is telling.

And, of course, there is plenty of sex and violence to move that story forward - it wouldn't really be a Richard K. Morgan book without those elements appearing rather frequently in grisly, graphic abundance. Veil is a lab-engineering killing machine; murder is literally built into his DNA, so expect a no-holds barred approach to the action sequences here. Ditto the book's sex scenes. Veil may have been coerced into playing the role of a private dick, but of this latter, well, it ain't all that private and Veil isn't the kind of guy who lets nearly being murdered with a military-grade rocket prevent him from shacking up with the stripper next door.

After spending the better part of a decade crafting a trilogy of fantasy novels, it's pretty damn thrilling to have Morgan back in the game of telling ultra-gritty, hard-boiled futuristic noir. I've missed his contributions to science fiction, and Thin Air didn't disappoint in the least. This sucker is chock full of crime, conspiracy, action, and subterfuge, and Morgan is a goddamned master, at the top of his game right here. I just hope I don't have to wait another decade for his next work of dark sci-fi, but if it's as good as Thin Air, I certainly won't complain.

[Note: I received an advance reading copy of Thin Air from the publisher, Del Rey Books, via NetGalley.]

Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book to read via Netgalley in exchange for a review. I never let that aspect affect my honesty...

… as you’ll see here. I’ve given every one of the 5 books I’ve read by Richard Morgan 5 stars. They’ve been full of interesting ideas, and were well written page-turners. Sadly, this one wasn’t that for me.

The book follows Hakan Veil, a former professional security enforcer, Earth-born, bio-tech enhanced in his youth, raised for the purpose of being an extreme enforcer, who has been stuck on Mars for years after being given the boot by his employers, working from contract to contract. Well-colonized Mars is developed in myriad ways to cope with little-to-no air on the natural surface, with a population living under domes, sealed buildings, tunnels, and more.

The story grows interplanetary, with tensions between Earth & Mars seeming to arise from Mars’ frontier-style approach to being above-reproach (as in, "not”). The story itself is well-enough done, with plot development taking new twists every couple of chapters.

But, this book falls down for me in two ways.

First, be forewarned that a small portion of the book is pure porn. Morgan has never worried about prudish people; Altered Carbon is testament to that. But here, at the point where two of the main characters get busy with each other, Morgan lets his "adult entertainment” muscles flex. And, personally, I was offended at the reveling he took in turning on this juice. Later, the main character revisits those moments fondly, and those remembrances can be slightly uncomfortable, too.

Because of the degree he turns this on, there’s a vast number of people to whom I will not recommend this book due to this content. I feel he could have accomplished the same goal of showing the sexual linkage between the characters involved without taking such language liberty, and make the book more broadly readable. But like I said - he is unlikely to be worried about this.

Second, I struggled with readability. The difficulty begins immediately; Morgan uses the technique of dropping the reader fully into a stream of slang, terms, entity names, etc., the meaning of which must become known only by accumulating context as you continue to read. This can work super-well when done well; here, though, I struggled for a long, long time to finally get comfortable with what he was talking about. Until then, it was like reading a book from a domain about which you know nothing, and you’re quite in the dark.

Even as the book went on, the writing continued to be a struggle for me; it was a little too beat-generation, and got in the way of me enjoying the story.

I wish I could be excited about this book. I like Morgan’s other books. This one, sadly, not so much.

Thin Air by Richard K. Morgan is an amazing science fiction story with a great plot and incredibly compelling characters.

Morgan returns to the science fiction genre after a long hiatus. Very well done noir style plot set on a corrupt, deteriorating Mars. Interesting human, cyborg and AI characters!

Award winning author Richard K. Morgan comes up with another compelling read. The Mars based overrider, genetically bred and augmented from infancy for fighting and saving ships, gets involved in complex plot for Earth to retake control of Mars. But there are so many subplots and twists, that keeping track takes a while. It is a page turner, and the fight and sex scenes are as well written as the final plot twists. This is a good read, and will make a great movie someday.

A very solid book. Morgan is great with his characters. I'm always interested to see what they are going to do next. They are never predictable, yet the books aren't noticeable written o confuse the reader. This book continues that.

I really liked how Mars was the setting, but not the topic. Too many books that have Mars being settled focus on Mars as if the planet were a main character; here, a very interesting Mars is present, but it never feels gimmicky. It's a background that - perhaps as it should - provides the backdrop for the story, with community / Nationalism as a factor for some of the characters. It feels natural that way.

Really good read. I can't wait for more in this setting. I'd love to see what happens over time both with these characters, and on Mars and the rest of the expanding Human presence as alluded to in this novel.

Soooo worth the wait!

Richard K Morgan's newest cyberpunk noir mystery is easily the best scifi I've read in years. Readers of Black Man (13 in US) will recognize the hero as one of the augmented "hibs", or hibernating humans from that excellent novel as well as the same colonized Martian setting. For the unitiated, don't worry, there's no need to have read any of this authors books before.

This story is trademark Morgan: A sexy and action-packed hardboiled political thriller full of colorful characters, snappy dialog, plot twists and reversals, and very cool tech. But there's nothing stale here. This is a fresh new character and he is the baddest one yet. The (fourth) world is descibed with rich detail that never tends towards infodumps. I often skip sex scenes, but these here are critical to the story and quite arousing.

And, of course the action scenes . . . so awesome! Visceral and, I don't know . . . really neat.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in thuglit, mysteries, science fiction, or just plain masterful writing.

The tech is hot, the corruption is rampant, and the grit doesn't wash off easy. Richard K. Morgan's Thin Air is a fast-paced scifi thriller set on the 4th planet from the sun. Hakan Veil has an issue with his physiology: his mech-infused body needs to sleep four out of twelve months of the year, and the wake-ups are rough. Twitchy, grumpy, and filled with angst-ridden rage, Veil takes a job to off a local thug kingpin. The first domino is knocked over... and what will come is a clash of corporate greed, law enforcement double-dealing, an Mars independence movement, and one local freelancer, Veil. Armed with his biting sarcasm, a mind for negotiation, and a couple big guns, he will try to protect his charges, track down a lottery "winner," and do his best to come out unscathed in the end. Hmmm, I'm thinking that will be quite a gamble!

Veil's character is awesome; he's a man of many past alliances who is built on desperation and now obsolete tech. But his instincts are intact and his reputation lends itself to hard bargains. Told in 1st person POV, Morgan's writing thrives in the desriptions of Veil's interaction with his witty interactive headgear used for detecting threats, among other important uses.  Overall, a very memorable PI/ hired gun. 

Morgan's writing opens with a shotgun blast of Mars-speak. The slang, the technology, the background of the politics of the Red Planet... it can be dense and overwhelming, but I say stick with it. The most important info will come back around. I do have to say that there may have been one too many side missions in this one, a puzzle wrapped in a... but the ending is one of the best I've read in awhile. Complex and rewarding... it's the big finale at the end of the fireworks show.

Thin Air is a vastly rewarding read. Not easy to work out, but satisfying and fun. A sparky array  of gangs and bureaucrats... all the nefarious peoples of the galaxy.

I was given this book free by NetGalley for an honest review.

Full disclosure, I've loved Richard Morgan's books from when I read the first Takeshi novel many years ago. However this one.......is no different, I loved it.

Starting the story, it was a little overwhelming at first, so if you life books that gradually introduce you to the world with lots of explanations, this is probably not for you. It's immersive and you either sink or swim. It's an adult novel in every sense, purposeful, direct, violent, with a smattering of graphic sex. I guess you could call it a cyberpunk novel, but you'd probably be doing it a disservice. It's equal parts detective story, revenge and many other categories all rolled into one novel.

Don't look necessarily for a long story ark, although there's a theme running through it to provide direction. There's just so much happening. I liked the characters that were introduced in different settings. Hopefully this is a set of characters and world that will live on in more stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for a digital galley of this novel.

If you check out the Amazon.com information for this book it shows 544 pages, the Goodreads info shows 400. I can tell you it definitely feels more like the 544. And it started off so well with Richard K Morgan getting the noir element just perfectly blended with the science fiction. I was fully on board with Haken Veil and his backstory of the four months of the year cryo sleep, coming out of the coma on "hot" ready to shred and destroy pretty much anything that got in his way. This seemed like it was going to be my kind of dark hero with the Mars background and culture just adding to the good stuff. Then I began to notice my reading was slowing down and slowing down and then just not getting anywhere at all. Okay, I persevered and read about almost every kind of political and criminal backstabbing plot you could think of. I grew weary! I got bored! I wanted so much to like this a whole lot, but just couldn't make it happen.

I think if about half of this book's plot had been saved for another book it would have been fine. As it was, there was just too much and too many. There is profanity coming from every character but I can understand the need for that - all of these characters were dark, dirty, or damaged. However, what I hadn't bargained for were the explicit sex scenes. Yikes, that's not what I want to read in my science fiction novels. I've got an imagination, otherwise I wouldn't be reading science fiction; I can imagine those scenes for myself. And don't think it was there to emphasize the relationship between the two characters, that had been done very well before the sex scenes. All in all, I wanted to like the book much more than I did.

Richard K. Morgan is one of my favorite authors and I am glad that he has returned to science fiction. That being said, Mr. Morgan is more convinced than I am that large politics forces are good narrative drivers. The Quellist theme in the Altered Carbon series made me yawn and the political gyrations in "Thin Air" are no more convincing. The activities of the many factions and their attendant thugs make this a very crowded story, albeit with of good, convincing violence of the type that Mr. Morgan writes so well.

There is a fair amount of explicit sex in this book. As much as I like sex, I wondered why it needed to be so explicit for this readership, preferring as I do, to allow more to the imagination.

I like the Mars setting but this is a bit too seedy for me. I know that was the intent but for me it seemed gratuitous. Take away Mars and this could've been set in any unsavory locale. If that's bwhat you're after, here you go. Otherwise give it a pass.

My review has been posted to my blog & Goodreads.

Review has also been tweeted as usual.

Thank you! :c)

A while back my fiancée and I tried watching Altered Carbon on Netflix. We made it through one episode with no interest to continue. That should have been a good indication that Morgan’s stories may not be for me, but then again Netflix has long traded quality for quantity and Morgan’s new book showed up on Netgalley and it’s been a while since I read some scifi and it was set on Mars, so I took a chance. A decision I’ve come to regret over and over during the countless, ok, not really, it was technically one morning and one day, but still entirely too long of a time it took to get through. And here’s the thing…it may not be Morgan at all, he seems to be wildly acclaimed award winning author, it might have just been the non existent author/reader chemistry, but boy, did I loathe this book. Kinda knew I wasn’t gonna like it from the first pages, but no, my OCD drives me to finish every book I start and since it’s such an odd uncharacteristic display of drive for an otherwise drivefree person, it gets tolerated. So I waded through this entire book, 400 pages that definitely seemed longer and the denseness of the text not only prohibited speedreading/skimming, but did indeed justify using wading as an adequate descriptor. The thing is when you stuck reading a short book you don’t care for it creates a dislike at most, when the book is this long…it’s hate. Like a tedious family function, it just seemingly wouldn’t end. Slowly, sluggishly, the plot convoluted around some tiresome Martian politics, while Veil (the macho protagonist that reminded me of the main guy on Altered Carbon, is that all Morgan writes?) glowered, plowed, fought, killed and screwed his way through his impromptu investigation. At no juncture did I care about the protagonist, the plot or any of the characters, which is pretty depressing of a status for such a long book with so many players. Just wanted it to be over. Morgan seems to write using pure testosterone for ink, it’s all clipped, tough machismo with some occasional very graphic sex scenes. It’s also very heavy on tech and light on world building, the exact opposite of how I like my science fiction. It’s like all the wrong aspects are detailed and all the fascinating things are skipped over. And then there was a shoot’em up finale and it was finally over. Whew. If it seems like I just gave up on the book early on and then merely went through motions, it isn’t so, I really did try to get into it, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Even Mars wasn’t enough. Turned out to a tragically tedious trip to such a spectacular literary destination. What a waste of time, though. Not fun, not even entertaining, learned nothing, gained nothing but yet another reminder to be more selective, at least before committing to large books. I bet there are readers out there who’ll love this, but for me, Morgan, either cinematically or literary, is a no no. Thanks Netgalley.