This book was a pleasant surprise. I discovered it while browsing the Amazon digital bookstore on my Fire. I was looking for a sci-fi book less about galactic politics and more about the small fish who have to live in such an expansive future. Unfortunately, I have found such low-level, character-driven sci-fi novels to be as rare in literature as they are on television or in the movies. Maybe that is why TV series like Firefly and Cowboy Bebop are so beloved?
Speaking of Firefly, this is a book that will please anyone enamored with that show. As with Firefly, "Dark Run" is about a ship, Keiko, that is crewed by a motley mix of shady characters, in this case two bottom-feeding smugglers/bounty hunters, a mercenary, a teen hacker, a bad tempered brother and sister duo who serve as engineer and pilot respectively, and a Maori brawler. This team earns a living doing jobs no one else wants to do, especially smuggling runs (aka, "dark runs"). As you might expect, when you work in the shadows, it is only a matter of time until you get offered that job you can't refuse....or else. That is what happens here when the captain of this motley crew, Ichabod Drift, a desperado-like character right out of a Western, is blackmailed into taking a job from a former employer or face having his past as a notorious pirate be exposed.
From the opening pages, "Dark Run" is a brisk read filled with fun action sequences and a few twists that keep the book a real page-turner. Author Mike Brooks setting is also an interesting one. I like "working man" futuristic visions - i.e., less about chrome-covered futures and more about dark and dirty dystopian settings - and while "Dark Run" isn't quite as shadowy as I would have liked, Brooks paints a believable future that runs the gamut from the comfortable wealthy to the working-class dingy. If I have one complaint about "Dark Run," it is that I wish he spent more time developing this interesting setting. It is a shame that we only get the briefest summations of the galactic colonial powers and their politics, as well the the growing transhuman cult that sees people replacing entire body parts with cyberware for fun, work, and religious belief.
Overall, "Dark Run" was a fun read. I am happy to see that two more books are planned (of course - a trilogy is demanded from every publisher these days just because) because Brooks laid a good if a bit too thin foundation with this one. Hopefully, subsequent books will fill in those few gaps in the narrative. If you like shows like Firefly, Cowboy Bebop or books like The Expanse, "Dark Run" should prove an entertaining experience for you. Recommended. My precise score is 3.5.
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It has potential
This book had a very slow start. We are introduced to the characters but really had a hard time knowing/caring about them. Even when the book picked up you still did not care just found them a bit more interesting. This does not mean that nothing happened. There were a lot of action scenes from the get go, it is just I like my stories more character driven. I do like the diversity of characters . Everyone has a past. We are told some of it and it does keep you intrigued As mentioned in other reviews, motley crew with a colorful captain ( Jack Sparrow want to be) have to do a dark run to the home system (Earth). Once they get there it gets interesting ( it takes about 150 pages to get there). The book has wonderful possibilities. That is what kept me reading and I am looking forward to the second book hoping there is more balance between the action scenes and the character development.
Top reviews from other countries
jennifer
Action-packed plot, and a likeable diverse cast of characters
Reviewed in Canada on July 31, 2016Anne Buehrle
fun and absorbing story about a motley crew of space ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2015