An ex-corporate enforcer, Hakan Veil, is forced to bodyguard Madison Madekwe, part of a colonial audit team investigating a disappeared lottery winner on Mars. But when Madekwe is abducted, and Hakan nearly killed, the investigation takes him farther and deeper than he had ever expected. And soon Hakan discovers the heavy price he may have to pay to learn the truth.
Time for some gritty science fiction from the brain of Richard Morgan, he of Altered Carbon fame.
Down on your luck and given a choice between jail time or a body guarding gig, what are you going to do? Hakan Veil, Hak to his few friends, Veil to everyone else, opts for the latter. The only problem is that within a matter of days, and an epic error of judgement on his part, his charge has been kidnapped. Veil could just walk away but he is far too stubborn for that. No one is going to stop him from doing his job. There is a blissful lack of complication when it comes to Veil’s methods of retrieving auditor Madison Madekwe; direct doesn’t even begin to cover it. His game plan, at first glance, appears to be shoot anything that moves and if it survives question it. Of course, as his investigation continues it becomes more and more obvious that there is actually some depth to our protagonist. Yes, he might shoot from the hip, but his gung-ho attitude belies a razor sharp brain and keen observational skills. Though he is an entirely self-absorbed pessimist, most of the time Veil is extremely good at what he does. He knows people, knows what drives them and knows what buttons to press to get the results he wants. He is the perennial tough guy, the almost but not quite, world-weary gumshoe. I’ve been thinking a lot about what other fictional characters I could best compare him to. I may have imagined it, but I think there might be a very subtle nod to the classic 70s crime flick, Get Carter in Thin Air, and that struck a chord with me. It feels like the perfect comparison, a quintessential anti-hero driven by a questionable moral compass, yeah that works. Hakan Veil is Jack Carter in space, perhaps with a bit of Blade Runner’s Rick Deckard thrown in for good measure.
One of the most intriguing facets of this character is the constraint he is forced to live by. Military conditioning and biological tampering means Veil has to spend four months out of every twelve in hibernation. When he initially awakes he ‘runs hot’. Essentially meaning there is an additional urgency to everything he does. His internal dialogue and reactions to certain situations read like they have been turned up to eleven. Veil is a flawed super soldier and there you can sense the bitterness that surrounds his character. In all honesty, I’m not sure that I even liked him. He is gruff, snarky and more than a little surly, but he is genuinely fascinating character to watch. Veil stomps around Mars dishing out his own brand of revenge, violence and twisted justice.
The other characters are a uniformly sleazy bunch, Morgan’s vision of Mars is no utopia. Our “hero’ spends a lot of his time rubbing shoulders with gangsters, hackers, prostitutes, thugs and political zealots. The authorities aren’t much better. Local law enforcement are crooked, people from Earth view Martians as second class citizens, and the military are keen just to control everyone with a brutal efficiency.
There are also elements of the plot that made me think of old westerns. Though the planet has been settled for some time, Mars is still viewed by many as a frontier world. The further away you get from the big cities, the more lawless the world becomes. In many of the more remote locations it’s the criminals who run the show.
This amalgam of different genres, wrapped up in a shiny science fiction package, really works well. A lead character who bleeds gunslinger attitude finds himself in a mystery/detective noir that features mob war action, political land grabs and high-tech weaponry. Works for me.
The world building in Thin Air is pretty impressive. Unlike some other science fiction novels I’ve read, it doesn’t feel signposted or in your face. There aren’t reams and reams of explanation. The world-building is just there in the background, fleshing out the locations and inhabitants of the red planet. The author deftly scatters the narrative with little moments that help the reader to better understand Mars and the people that live there. Economics and politics play key components in this plot and the logistics of this are dealt with admirably.
Anyone who has read Richard Morgan’s work before will not be massively surprised when I tell you that Thin Air is decidedly adult in nature. For the uninitiated however, a word of warning. The violence is extreme, body parts have a habit of not remaining where they are supposed to when powerful handguns are involved. Things do get deliciously bloody. There are also a couple of sex scenes that leave very little to the imagination. My advice, if you are easily offended or delicate of nature, this is not the novel for you. I had no such qualms. This is down and dirty sci-fi and I loved it.
Thin Air is exactly what I have come to expect from this author, an unashamedly adult science fiction thriller. I can only hope there are further novels planned featuring some of the characters we meet here. Hakan Veil lives a unique existence and it feels like there are more stories involving him that are still left to tell.
I thoroughly enjoyed “getting my ass to Mars” so it seemed appropriate that my soundtrack recommendation to accompany Thin Air is the classic* Total Recall by Jerry Goldsmith. I have to admit I was visualising Morgan’s Mars to have that same grimy, slightly run down look it has in the Paul Verhoven’s movie so the music seems like a good fit.
Thin Air is published by Gollancz and is available now.
*Classic? Wow, that makes we feel super old. I wonder if I’m considered a classic now?… hmm, probably not.
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