Humans: On the whole we’re pretty awful. That should be a bumper sticker. 

 

The lunar colony of New Destiny, essentially the homebase of the human race, has a lot of the same issues they had when they still lived on Earth. It seems humans never quite learned from their ancestors when they destroyed their home planet. They’ve just achieved a huge milestone, though: The first-ever mission outside their solar system with a fully-manned crew on a massive ship (the Mosaic) is on the way to a planet with hope of a habitable atmosphere. 

 

Former top spy Corin Timony has issues with the pilot of the Mosaic: Namely that he was her childhood best friend who seems to coast on by on his last name and that included getting off with a slap on the wrist when he was caught dealing drugs while she got demoted from top spy to a mere administrator. The other thing? Her former lover was supposed to be piloting the mission before he suddenly died. But it’s her friend she’s thinking about when she gets a sudden distress call from the Mosaic in the middle of the night while monitoring comms, all for the distress call to be canceled only moments later. 

 

A spy’s gotta spy. 

 

Jose Carriles didn’t expect to be tagged in to pilot the Mosaic. He’s not exactly a go-to pilot for the Interstellar Union, being a former drug dealer and all. He’s terrific at his job, but he knows his late friend was tapped first and would’ve been better. All the same, he gives the job his all, even when the whole mission seems like it’s going to fail one night and he has to pull a hail mary maneuver out of his ass to save everyone. Nothing about that night made any sense to Jose, and he can’t just let this niggling feeling go. 

 

Dark Space toggles between two third-person POVs: that of Jose, who is in space on the Mosaic; and of Corin Timony, who is in the New Destiny lunar colony. The timelines for each POV run congruent. This story is this wonderful mix of conspiracy, spy, and sci-fi/space thriller that manages to feel like Cold War spy novel meets Star Trek and makes fraternal twins. The plot is full of twists and turns, like some of the best spy novels, but it’s never convoluted, which is the trap some spy thrillers can fall into. The more sci-fi/space aspects are handled with a little less skill, sometimes feeling a little heavy-handed but nothing so precious it’s insulting. The action scenes are very well-written, as well is the dialogue (especially Jose’s, which I loved). 

 

Dark Space was a very satisfying read. I love Rob Hart’s other works and was excited to pick this up because of the co-write with Alex Segura. I highly recommend it. 

 

I was provided a copy of this title by the publisher and authors via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. 

 

File Under: Conspiracy Thriller/Espionage Thriller/Sci Fi