Dark Run by Mike Brooks (Keiko #1)

Dark Run by Mike Brooks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jacket Blurb: The Keiko is a ship of smugglers, soldiers of fortune and adventurers, travelling Earth’s colony planets searching for the next job. And nobody talks about their past.

But when a face from Captain Ichabod Drift’s former life send them on a run to Old Earth, all the rules change.

Trust will be broken, and blood will be spilled.

Read for July book group.

A fun, fast paced read that reminded me a lot of Firefly but without the Reavers. A loose premise of the book is Ichabod Drift and his crew shuttle cargo around the galaxy. Each crew member come with a past, the unspoken rule is you never ask what that past is. Until Drift is forced to tell his story to suddenly mutinous crew, to explain why they are taking unknown cargo to Earth on a specfic day by a specific time. When the delivery goes sideways, the crew has to make the choice to follow Drift and maybe have a chance at living, or forever hide.

Did I mention I thought this was fun? This was fun. A total kick back and zone out book. This moves along at a perfect pace, not getting bogged down in science or back story. You are told what you need to know at the moment it's relevant.

Interesting aspects to this first installment: we have a ethnically diverse crew comprised of a Latino (Drift), a Maori, two Chinese siblings, a Dutchman, and two women who I never really did figure out what their ethnic back grounds were. I assumed one was Caucasian.

We find out a few backgrounds, but not everyone's, which leaves a little mystery for later books. Mostly we find out Drift's, Tamara Rourke's and the Maori's. Everyone has their specialty and their skills are used to the groups advantage.

One small point of contention I had was the in the chapters themselves. There were these little jumps in time that were not as smooth as they could have been. I didn't mind the plot moving forward significantly (as I noted, the story really doesn't become bogged down anywhere), but some cues would have been appreciated.

I know there were a couple other small niggly points, but since I can't remember them at all, they must have been really insignificant.

This is a brain candy space pirate book. Sit back and enjoy the ride. I did.

Recommended.



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