Thin Air

This book is about as far from that in my previous post as is possible. This hard-core, gritty, cyber-punk science fiction tome from Richard K. Morgan --apparently best known for his award winning book, Altered Carbon, which has been made into a Netflix series)--had me going from the very beginning. I was so engrossed that I got into one of my obsessive reading moods and finished all 528 pages in two days. The plot is complicated so I won't try to sum it up (see the lengthier reviews linked at the end of my post). The setting is a future Mars settlement --a large urban sprawl, now almost two centuries old, called Bradbury and some distant, more frontier-like towns, especially Cradle City. The setting is as compelling a character as any of the people and is exquisitely rendered so you feel you are there. Even after all the human modifications, the air is still arid and cold, the blowing dust is relentless, and the sky beyond the lamina is an ever-changing array of un-sky-like colors. The sun is just a toy replica of what we see from Earth, and Earth itself is just a distant dot in the overhead. Many humans have become stranded on Mars, longing to return to Earth, after having sought their fortune through indentured labor contracts and then not had the money to pay the return fare. Other generations have been born on Mars. Their physiology has evolved and their body structure is less bulky due to the decreased gravity of Mars. Society on earth has changed of course and now single mothers who can't afford to care for their kids can option them out to become bio-tech hybrids who serve the large corporations doing interplanetary business. Such a one is our protagonist, Hakan Veil, who served as a trouble shooter on interplanetary flights for years until he was decommissioned and essentially black listed. So he gets part-time work as an enforcer and body guard for 8 months of the year (Earth years) and then goes into hibernation for 4 months. It makes for a precarious lifestyle. The Guardian describes Hakan as "essentially a robotically enhanced Jack Reacher: wisecracking, irresistible to women, nearly invincible in a fight." When he does a contract kill for a corporation trying to take over business in Bradbury, he gets arrested and then suddenly released with a request from the the Bradbury PD to bodyguard a member of an audit team that has come from Earth. It seems like a pretty low-risk assignment, but nothing is as it seems nor is anybody who they seem. Not only are corporations and crooks fighting for the power and money on Mars, but others think they have the right to call the shots, as well, and Hakan and everyone who knows him get thoroughly tangled up in the mess. This is such a well done job of world-building that the book would be worth reading for that alone. But at least some of the characters are also complexly robust and the plot is so twisty that you won't know until the end who is going to come out on top. There is a fair amount of grisly violence and explicit sex, but it does not dominate the storyline. If you are a fan of sci-fi, put this on your list. In tone and mood, it reminds me of  Blade Runner or Leviathan Wakes. Publishers Weekly did not have as glowing a review as did The Guardian or the LATimes.