Of all the ways I could choose to die, being blown into hard vacuum by an explosive device was a long way from the top of the list.Mike Brooks' debut novel, Dark Run, is an unabashedly fun space-Western!This book moves fast! It is a quick page-turner about a lovable crew of misfits aboard a spaceship. Their relationships; their pasts; their misadventures. Most of the crew is looking for a second chance. They are inherently good people that have gotten into bad situations previously. Working on t...

"Buckle up, everyone. Jia’s taking us down ahead of schedule, and incidentally has lost her fucking mind.""I heard that.""You were meant to." Dark Run reads somewhere between Firefly and The Expanse with greater diversity and light sexy time. The episodic writing is geared a little too much for televisation, catchy chapter headings and all. The writing, and story, could have flowed better.There’s enough here for optimism about the series. It’s a high three stars for me and I’ll be reading book...

It's fairly rare when I bother to do written reviews of books. I like them or don't like them to varying degrees and don't feel like it's important to tell people why I like them. That and I don't much like having to analyze a book I read for enjoyment because it wrecks it for me sometimes. This book, I wanted to do at least a little something for. I don't think it's had enough praise personally.There are a lot of people that compare this to Firefly*. It does have some of the things I valued mos...

3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2016/06/16/...Dark Run by Mike Brooks is a sci-fi adventure novel that first made its debut in the UK in the summer of 2015 to some pretty good reviews, and I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that the book and its sequel Dark Sky were both made available in the US in audio format last month. I ended up deciding to give it a shot because a) I’ve never met a swashbuckling space romp audiobook I didn’t like, and b) the book stole

Dark Run is a fun, very Firefly-ish sort of story — in that, I mean both the setting (the world situation, the character lineup, the tone) and the actual storyline are quite like Firefly. There are a couple of lines which seem like homages, like the pilot saying “I am a leaf on the wind”… but since that doesn’t lead to disaster in quite the same way as it does in Serenity, it kind of ruins the moment? Like, I read the line and braced myself, and then it was just… a throwaway comment? Hm. It’s th...

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]This was a nicely-paced and fun read, in the vein of space cowboys/pirates/smugglers branch of sci-fi. More plot- and ambiance- than character-driven, but what I wanted to read when I requested this book was a romp in space with action, blazing guns, spaceships, fishy cargoes, crazy pilots and mercenaries... and this is exactly what I got.The crew members of the Keiko find themselves embroiled into a mission for someone they...

16/9 - I just can't get this review started. I've had a number of pages marked for discussion for days now, but every time I find the time to get started writing I suddenly decide I need to do something else (on or off the internet) and I never end up getting to the review. I figured I'd give writing by hand in my journal a go and just put pen to paper and see where I end up. So far I've got: a lot more mistakes (no delete button) and my hand writing is barely legible (even to me), but that's no...

Read on the WondrousBooks blog. My issue with this book: there was nothing there. Not a thing. I have read quite a few books in my life and this one qualifies in top 10 books that couldn't grab my attention in ANY way. Usually if I don't like a book, at least I can pinpoint what I didn't like about it. The same can't be said about Dark Run. In a couple of months I'm probably going to forget this book exists. I know it's a harsh thing to say, but I really don't see why this book was written.I

*Copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review*Dark Run is a feisty space opera, with a layer of grit overlaying a much larger sense of charm. It’s set in what feels like a not-intolerably distant future, after the discovery of faster-than-light drive has sent humankind on a diaspora to the stars. As a result, we’re shown a rather large variety of different locations in the universe. There’s half-terraformed worlds, where air is rationed, and everyone lives under a dome, or under several thick fe...

I got Dark Run at a book sale at the bookstore where I work. The (german) cover looked cool, and I was in the mood for some good old sci-fi/space adventure. And that's exactly what I got. Dark Run sure isn't the most original novel out there, but it's fun.There was world building, there were a bunch of mismatched characters who go on a mission together, there are conspiracies, lies and a lot of action. There were one or two scenes in particular I wouldn't have needed, I guess it showed that the

This is another book that will get comparisons to Firefly, two of the quotes on the back of the book even mention it. But unlike The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (LWSAP), a book that gets the Firefly comparison itself, Dark Run succeeds in its plot & excitement but lacks depth anywhere else.In LWSAP, the ship's crewmembers are genuinely likable, unique and are given meaningful character development. The characters in Dark Run can rarely be described that way. There's the rogue captain, the

Yep, all those Firefly comparisons being drawn are well deserved. Also, some Cowboy Bebop and a smattering of The Expanse.Looking for a story about a motley crew of misfits and outlaw-types getting up to mischief? This may be your fix. Do you enjoy stories featuring?(a) Bounty hunters(b) Gunslingers(c) Pirates(d) Smugglers(e) Hackers(f) Mercenaries(g) Spies(h) All of the above(i) All of the above, but in SPACE.If you have selected (i) above, as I have (ho ho) you should consider checking out Dar...

Dark Run is a predictable, low-engagement outer space western. There is a discernible difference between being derivative and being completely allergic to originality, and this book is a sterling example of the latter.The story moves along at a brisk enough pace, and Brooks is a proficient and capable writer. All things considered, Dark Run is not terrible. But the fundamental problem, one that kept my ability to enjoy it in check, is the novel's protagonist. Ichabod Drift is meant to be a "like...

(Audiobook) I am not going to rate this book as I only listened to 90 minutes of it. I do have some thoughts though...No one has recommended this book to me. If you rate any well reviewed Science Fiction book of 2016, chances are Goodreads will recommend "Dark Run". I knew nothing about it except that it keeps turning up on this site as something published this year I should read.The writing was just OK. I kind of shook my head at the line that someone was wobbling like a shivering epileptic. Th...

very satisfying space opera. Fast moving and clearly written. There was no guessing what was going on. No aliens here just humans who have expanded into space. Written in third person from 3 or so different members of the crew of the Keiko a merchant ship which operates a bit on the shady side. The crew is made of diverse people each with a different skill set and no questions asked. Super fun and looks like the first of a series.

See Sarah's review. This is just a generic space pirates story. Meh. Characters that might have been drawn from a game deck. Generic superbad manipulator/Bond villain, with the obligatory super-killer on staff. Writing maybe slightly below average compared to what I have been reading, although I have seen quite a few VERY good writers lately. Weak metaphors, adequate humour. Action scenes competent, explanations adequate, if a tad long sometimes.And hey, you can't have a character hiding and thi...

This was a fun read. A lot like the TV show Firefly.

3 stars, but a GOOD 3 stars. Lots of books have been compared to Firefly but this is the Firefliest.

Brooks gives us a polished, dying to be made into a movie/tv show space opera here obviously influenced by Firefly and The Expanse . In fact, if you enjoyed either of those series, you will most likely really enjoy this as well. Again, similar to Firefly, the main characters are the crew and captain of a space freighter that make money how they can, when they can. The captain, Ichabod Drift, is an ex-pirate/privateer who used his ill gotten gains to buy the ship a decade or so ago. For muscle,

Dark Run is a meaty space opera, charmingly gritty, soaked in a utopian/dystopian diaspora of mankind testing the limits of interstellar travel. There are advanced colonies on distant planets, dingy spaceports and layer-upon-layer of human, grim settlements on terraformed moons, or beneath sprawling cities that sit on the foundations of ones that exist today, like New York and Prague. There’s also a sense of friction between political facets that are vying, it seems, for galactic real estate, wh...