Dark Sky by Mike Brooks (Keiko #2)

Dark Sky by Mike Brooks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Jacket Blurb:  For the crew of the Keiko, their stay at the Grand House casino on New Samara was supposed to be a well-deserved rest.

It didn’t last.

Captain Ichabod Drift promised that the side-trip to the mining planet Uragan would be a quick in and out – a data retrieval job then back to the tables.

He was wrong.

When the revolution comes, all you can do is choose a side and hope to get out alive.

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Read for October's book group.

The Captain and crew of the Keiko have mostly landed on their feet after the nearly disastrous previous job and are taking a little R&R on the planet New Samara where the local crime lord/gangster/ethically questionable CEO offers Drift an "easy" in/out job. Get into Uragan, get the the information, get out before plants storms shuts down all air traffic for three days, deliver information.

Ahh...if it were only that easy, we wouldn't have a story.

Once on the planet, the crew find themselves facing A Major Nemesis, miss their flight window, get caught in a local revolution, are split up, and have to overcome tremendous odds to get back to their ship. In a nutshell.

This is, ultimately, a brain-candy sci-fi romp. Perfect for commuting, sitting in an airport, or just checking out for a while. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. There's not a lot of substance, the characters are a bit two dimensional, there is nothing new about the plot...but it was fun. And sometime's ya just need fun.

I have a couple of tiny grievances I do need to air: Dear Authors, can we do something other than the overly predictable and tired bar fight trope? Can our adversaries sit down and have a drink instead of fisticuffs? Go for a stroll around the promenade? A little creativity here would be appreciated.

I am starting to find Jenna as a character...annoying. A rich girl who's trying to hide secrets but pretty much failing. Of all the crew, she's the one I'm liking the least - she's become the token white chick in our diverse, mutli-lingual, multi talented crew.

And a few highlights of things I did enjoy: I enjoyed having the crew divided, finding themselves on opposite sides of the revolution, and having to figure out how to get back to the ship. It was (for me) an interesting way to show both sides of the conflict and include some character development.

The additional antagonists (whose name I'm not even going to try and spell, but we'll call Ric), was an enjoyable - and needed - touch. He also found his crew split, caught unexpectedly in the revolution, and everyone had to work together. I think without this added element, this would have been rather ho-hum.

Ultimately, classic space pirates/smugglers trying to stay on the good side of the law while harboring shady pasts and, well, getting into all sorts of unexpected trouble. Plot is light, fun, humorous, and moves smartly along. Recommended if you like that sort of scifi.



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