Dark Run is a book that waves its space-Western credentials proudly from the first page. It’s a fast-moving tale of a maverick captain and his assorted crew across space. With characters named Ichabod Drift, Gideon Xanth, Annie Eclectic and Nana Bastard, you pretty much know from the outset what this plot is going to be like.
To be fair, it doesn’t disappoint. With its fast moving action, wise-cracking dialogue and wry humour, this maverick bunch of characters are as much fun as the ones I read in Chris Wooding’s Retribution Falls.
The plot here involves Ichabod taking his spaceship, the Keiko, on a job to a place most unexpected – Old Earth. When Nicolas Kelsier, a name from Drift’s past, blackmails him to take a job on, he can’t really refuse. And so we find the rag-tag group travelling to Amsterdam, Old Earth, in order to deliver four standard small shipping containers without going through customs or any of the usual channels.
In return, ‘thief-cum-smuggler-cum-merchant-cum-bounty-hunter-cum-goodness-knows-what-else’ Drift is paid one hundred thousand USNA (United States of North America) dollars, with the promise of another one hundred thousand on delivery, and an agreement that Drift’s gang of mavericks are not told about his nefarious past, which may or may not have led to the death of his previous crew.
The Keiko is a ship filled with smugglers, mercenaries and explorer-adventurers, so the travels are never dull. Drift’s crew are, as we should expect, a combination of experience and enthusiasm, with quite different backgrounds. Tamara Rourke is a highly skilled and deadly serious sniper who has worked with Drift for over eight years and comes across as Ichabod’s most-able deputy. By contrast, Jenna McIlroy is a recent addition to the crew, a young teenager from an unknown background and recently adopted by the crew for her computer hacking and lock-picking skills (skills generally regarded as that of a ‘slicer’.) Twins Jia and Kuai Chang (pilot and engineer respectively) were sprung from prison by Drift when they were younger and are now working for Ichabod trying to earn enough money to save their parents from the Red Star Confederate on Old Earth. Dutchman Micah van Schaken is a fussy former-soldier/mercenary, who may or may not have deserted the Frontier Defence Unit to kill for money. Apirana Wahawaha (also known as ‘Big A’) is a large Maori, an ex-con and former gang member who was found on the verge of going straight and whose loyalty now usually aligns itself with Drift.
With such a broad skills-set, Captain Drift’s crew take on the Justices, customs, and mechanically enhanced ‘circuitheads’ on a journey to the most heavily-regulated planet in the galaxy. It’s not going to be easy…
There’s a plot that we race through rapidly and things do pick up most speedily after about 150 pages, when – surprise, surprise! – things do not work out the way Drift hoped for. Drift and his crew are set up and become fugitives, determined to gain revenge for their ill-fated job, which takes up most of the second half of the book.
There’s a lot to like about this book. The characters are easily identifiable and generally engaging. Throughout the present dilemma we are dripped backstory details of each of the crew, even though Drift’s unwritten rule is not to ask questions about each other’s past, unless they offer to tell you first. There’s a lot of humour in their banter-ish dialogue and throughout a camaraderie that, although rather fragile at times, ultimately makes you rather wonder what Drift had to worry about in the first place. There’s a few little genre references too – a quote from the film Blade Runner, a line from Monty Python, a scene that reminded me of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome…
The places Drift and his crew inhabit are also a lot of fun. Old Earth is just what we might expect in the future, but with added spaceships – I did like the fact that the Keiko needs to stop for refuelling his spaceship at Birmingham, England, at one point – but there are also places that are rather more exotic. Strange interstellar markets off the usual trade routes, underground caverns, dark bars of ill repute – Mike has spent time thinking through the various worlds of Drift’s universe and it all works together rather well, in my opinion.
On the slightly negative side, but perhaps to be expected, with such a rapidly paced plot, there’s a few improbabilities glossed over – some of the characterisation is a little too convenient, some elements happen a little too easily, although generally there’s enough ‘win’ to forgive these minor issues. I did have a slight issue with the people of the Europan Commonwealth being referred to as ‘Europans’, because that kept me thinking of one of Jupiter’s moons instead. (Thanks, Sir Arthur!)
In summary, if you’re looking for a Firefly-like tale, filled with characters like Damian Frey and the crew of the Ketty Jay, you won’t be disappointed with this one. A quick read, but an immensely entertaining one.
Dark Run is a promising debut, and a novel I’d like to read more of.
Dark Run by Mike Brooks
Published by Del Rey, June 2015
ISBN: 978 0 091956 64 6
426 pages
Review by Mark Yon, May 2015
Is this going to be available in the US? Amazon only sells it through third party and there is no kindle version.
Hi Chad. Sorry, no news as far as we know for a US release (at the moment.) We’ll let you know if we hear anything, though!