Dark Run
Mike Brooks
Saga Press
Paperback $16.99
Ebook $7.99

This is space opera adventure the way it’s supposed to be done.

What’s that? Oh, you want details.

Okay.  Here’s the skinny.  Ichabod Drift is the captain of a tramp freighter, the Keiko, which does occasional side jobs, such as helping capture certain lawbreakers.  For a fee, of course.  When he and his crew aren’t breaking the law themselves, of course.  Or even when they are.

After a successful bounty hunting job (detailed in the opening chapter), Drift runs into an old friend.  And by runs into an old friend, I mean that some henchpersons grab him and take him to see a former employer,  chap named Kelsier.  Kelsier used to be a high ranking government official in one of the three remaining political entities on Earth.

These political entities each have their own systems and colonies they control.  Drift, under a different name, used to work for Kelsier, usually doing his dirty work.  A job went south, the former identity supposedly died, and Ichabod Drift was born fully formed.

Now Kelsierr has fallen from grace.  He wants drift to transport a set of containers to Earth and deliver them to a scientific conference on a certain day and time.  He’s willing to pay an obscene amount of money for this and consider all debts paid.

Or else he’ll tell Drift’s crew who he really is.

Drift doesn’t have much of a choice.  If the galaxy discovered he was still alive, it would be a toss up who would kill him first.  But it’s just a simple delivery, after all.  What could possibly go wrong?

Pretty much everything, it turns out.  Fortunately, Drift isn’t the only member of the Keiko who is hiding a secret.

Brooks tells a fast paced tale, where nearly every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger.  This is a good thing.  The pace rarely flags.  Which is not to say the characters are from Central Casting.  The Keiko‘s crew are a diverse and somewhat eccentric bunch.  In other words, they’re interesting, fun, and you quickly grow to care about them.

This is the way space opera should be done.  There are two additional books in this series.  I’ve already bought them, and I will be reading them.

Dark Run is highly recommended.