Hakan Veil is back, and he's pissed off.

He's an Overrider by trade - gene-tweaked to cryo-sleep shipboard across interplanetary space, but wake up running hot and save the day if ever things go wrong: take out the pirate assault team before they can board, put down the mutiny before it can take hold, save the ship from whatever ails it - meteor strike, hull breach, crew crisis, reactor failure, fuel or atmosphere leak - and bring the cargo safely home. Fast-thinking, no need for sleep, running on stored energy that lets him work hard and fast until the situation is resolved, he's the ultimate First Responder, hardwired to fix the problem, whatever and wherever it is.

At the other end of the cycle - getting ready to hibernate for a solid few months - it's a different story. Slower, eating more, not quite so crisp. Because by then the emergency is supposed to be over.

Exiled by his employers to Mars for failing to execute a captive, Veil found himself thrust into the violent chaos arising from the Earth Oversight audit. He took out the powerful and corrupt with extreme prejudice, uncovered a major political conspiracy, defeated a cell of hardened undercover spec ops provocateurs. In the end, he brought a rough and ready kind of stability to the faction-riven Red Planet.
You could say he's owed some much needed downtime.

Only now there's a new f*cking emergency. And it's only just getting up to speed. The son of a Martian corporate aristo has gone missing under mysterious circumstances; a charismatic tech-messiah believed long dead appears to be back in business at the head of his cult; and high above the Martian surface, military grade orbital platforms are falling out of the sky like storm-struck birds. Once again, Hakan Veil finds himself in the midst of rising chaos, and once again it looks like he's the only one equipped to deal with the crisis.

And he's in no mood for any of it.

About the Author
Richard Morgan was, until his writing career took off, a tutor at Strathclyde University in the English Language Teaching division. He has travelled widely and lived in Spain and Istanbul. He is a fluent Spanish speaker. Winner of the Athur C. Clarke, John W. Campbell and Philip K. Dick Awards his books are published around the world. He lives in Norwich with his family.

Reviews
The Dark Defiles is best of the series. Morgan built a fascinating world, dirt and all, and populated it will heroes that were also real people. Morgan dissects the idea of hero and looks at it from every angle. Our three protagonists aren't anti-heroes they are just flawed. While they deal with their flaws they realize that in the end heroes don't get to live happily ever after. * Buzzy Mag *
Super fluid action thriller... amped-up Chandler in space. * GUARDIAN *
A hugely entertaining and smartly written book. * SFX MAGAZINE *
A sheer pyrotechnic triumph: wonderfully imaginative, written in overdrive, mercilessly violent... A twisted conundrum and a hell of a ride! * CRIME TIME *



Book Information
ISBN 9780575130180
Author Richard Morgan
Format Paperback
Page Count 448
Imprint Gollancz
Publisher Orion Publishing Co