Richard Morgan Thin Air

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN Hakan Veil is an ex-corporate enforcer equipped with military-grade body tech that's made him a human killing machine. His former employers have abandoned him on a turbulent Mars where Earth-based overlords battle for profits and power amid a homegrown independence movement. But he's had enough of the red planet, and all he wants is a ticket back home - which is just what he's offered by the Earth Oversight organization, in exchange for being the bodyguard for an EO investigator. It's a beyond-easy gig for a heavy hitter like Veil . . . until it isn't. When Veil's charge starts looking into the mysterious disappearance of a lottery winner, it stirs up a hornet's nest of intrigue and murder. And the deeper Veil is drawn into the game, the more long-buried secrets claw their way to the Martian surface. Now it's the expert assassin poised against powerful enemies hellbent on taking him down - by any means necessary. Praise for Thin Air 'Kick-ass . . . Mixed in with the thriller-esque action and cyberpunk backdrop is a hard-boiled noir story complete with a twisting and turning plot that keeps readers on their toes' Los Angeles Times 'Richard Morgan wants to destroy your Mars fantasies . . . It's a grim vision, but one that Morgan finds far more plausible than the cheerful visions of plucky Mars colonists common in sci-fi' Wired 'A robotically enhanced Jack Reacher [in a] dazzlingly intricate game of political double- and triple-cross, spiced with tastily kinetic battle sequences' The Guardian 'If you ever imagined that the core esthetics and themes of cyberpunk-lowlifes and high tech; corporate dominance; future noir; post-human evolution and cyborg adaptations; hardscrabble urban environments-were played out, Thin Air will set you straight, and kick your butt in the process. . . . Both kinematic and cinematic, [Thin Air is] limned by Morgan with balletic precision and smashmouth grace' Paul Di Filippo, Locus