Thin Air Audiobook By Richard K. Morgan cover art

Thin Air

A Novel

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Thin Air

By: Richard K. Morgan
Narrated by: Colin Mace
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About this listen

An atmospheric tale of corruption and abduction set on Mars, from the author of the award-winning science fiction novel Altered Carbon, now an exciting new series from Netflix.

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 turbulent 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 hell-bent 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 K. 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)

©2018 Richard K. Morgan (P)2018 Random House Audio
Adventure Fantasy Fiction Hard Science Fiction Hard-Boiled Noir Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller Solar System Mars Mystery Exciting
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Critic reviews

“Morgan really makes this version of Mars come to life.... As realistic and vibrant as anything I’ve read in the genre.” (Tor.com)

“Scintillating, imaginative.... This is science-fiction as neo-noir thriller, with gunfights, multiple shadowy agendas, and blood on the floor.” (Sci-fi and Fantasy Reviews)

What listeners say about Thin Air

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gritty Mars noir sci-fi - Worth the read

Great book, featuring a noir-ish detective story. I'm a fan of this author and this book doesn't disappoint. The MC is an ex-"over-rider", a "hard man" tasked with riding along on space journeys in cold storage and only woken up if something goes wrong. When they wake up, their mission is to "save the ship" and they do with brutal efficiency and little regard for the safety of themselves of others.

In a lot of ways, Vail (the MC) has been in cold storage on Mars for the past 5 or so years when he's tasked with helping an Earth diplomat figure out the disappearance of a local who'd won a trip back to earth and then disappeared before he could take the trip. The results are explosive...

The action is tight, the noir tropes are on point and the story zips along at a great pace. Morgan's vision of Mars is super interesting and the details he highlights are sleek and edged in chrome. Everything we've come to expect from this master of the genre.

There was perhaps too much sex for me, but I still really enjoyed the novel. I never really enjoy explicit sex in audio books. I don't mind it, if the rest of the book is good, and the rest of this book is great. The sex isn't bad either, just not for me.

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

great performance

extremely well performed. lots of enjoyable subtlety in the narration that beautifully compliments the well crafted writing. a winding character driven story richly developed. loved it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Sex, Guns, Betrayal and Reverse Trap cards all day

Simply put this is one of the best audio books i have ever heard. Entertainment through out the whole story.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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New Characters, New Background, Same Great Sci-fi

I love the altered carbon series - and the tv shows too. Morgan pulls his future forward, creating a new future set on Mars and a new hero, the Outrider, with a similar skill set and approach as Takeshi Kovacs.

There’s just enough new and different to keep things going. Great narrator - definitely written for an adult audience.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

An updated Blade Runner world

It is always great to read realistic hard SF showing a gritty tough world. This is definitely it and I enjoyed burying myself in it. This is not the polished clean Star Trek universe. Gritty futuristic realism gives the story a sophisticated feel and you like and relate to the characters even more.

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Great read

I loved everything about this book, great story and a fun read. Beware the Overrider

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

solid, enjoyable cyberpunk noir

good voice work, fun story, very much in line with his other work. I got a little confused sometimes but the story was put together well enough that it came back together. Gets a little romance novel level softcore a few times but not so much that it deserves a star off. well worth a credit.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Morgan and Mace give some of their best work

We can only hope to see more of the adventures of Haken Vail and company soon.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Brain Spinach Saves the Day!

The tendency to judge a book against its author's prior work is tempting. In this case, it's better just to forget Takeshi Kovacs and go with the flow. Thin Air is an enjoyable fast paced SF thriller. The characters are interesting enough to keep you going and the plot sort of makes sense.
In the contemporary Sci Fi world that will have to do. While Altered Carbon was a whole new direction, this book seems like paint by numbers in a lot of places. Superhuman fighter always kills everyone in the room, with a little help from spinach- wait, no, that was Popeye. Veil uses built in systems that seem prepared for any eventuality. Convenient, to say the least.
Thrown in here and there are gratuitous sex interludes that will thrill the 14 year old male reader, I guess, but seem to have no other reason to intrude. Things just sort of happen, and miraculous escapes just sort of show up on schedule.
Anyway, I still enjoyed it. There is an originality to the book that is way ahead of the stamp it out by formula writers that dominate Sci Fi- I'm looking at you, B.V. Larson. I'm not sure if Morgan will ever be as good as he was with Altered Carbon, but that is a high bar, and this book makes a valiant effort at it.
It's possible that every writer has a few good books in them, and the other ones are the price you pay to get to those books. I'm happy to do that, with the hope that Morgan is just getting a started.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Fun cyberpunk story with a very good performance!

So, do you like cyberpunk stories? Well then you will enjoy this story from the modern-day cyberpunk master Richard K. Morgan.

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1 person found this helpful