A review by transparent_tea
Dark Space by Rob Hart, Alex Segura

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"' 'Heavy is the head that wears the crown.'... It's something I always took to heart. Leadership is hard. Whatever you think about this, you're the leader of this. And the time is going to come when you must make hard decisions. I just hope you have the guts for it.'" - Captain Demlar quoting Henry IV to Jose, about the current situation, and thinking Jose isn't cultured enough to know famous works 

"' Life isn't just about what we want to do, mijo. We have responsibilities. And one of the biggest responsibilities in the world is simple: showing up. Being present for the people who need you. It's the difference between the successful man with no friends and the good man who is never lonely.. Doing the right thing isn't complicated. Don't overthink it." - Jose's mother telling Jose this while he was younger, and he's recalling this memory at a dire time that's between life and death

I found this book in the new book section at my local library. Without knowing much about the book and the authors, the synopsis was enticing enough for me to pick it up and give it a go.

Pilot Jose Carriles and "paper pusher" Corin Timony were good friends until something rocked their friendship. We start with Jose piloting the Mosaic to a planet that he and the crew hope to learn more about, given that the current state of New Destiny is in shambles. From what I gather, New Destiny is another "planet", either Earth's moon or one of Mars' moons, because humans screwed up Earth 1.

As we adjust to the plot of Dark Space, we learn that some system issues with Mosaic put the crew into a series of life-or-death situations. Per the book, "they risked careening off the safety of the track - leaving them stranded in an area between lanes referred to as "dark space". For a fourth of the story,  the reader sees the crew in this dark space/limbo area until the ship reaches its final destination.

While back on New Destiny, we understand Corin Timony's story and become aware that the friendship between Jose and Corin deteriorated, in addition to Corin's background before she was demoted to admin work. However, her instincts are telling her that something's going on with her surroundings and somehow it's related to the Mosaic mission.

Without spoiling the story and ending, I went into reading Dark Space with no expectations and liked the story. The book is pitched as a sci-fi spy thriller, which is something I wouldn't gravitate towards if I had other options available, but knowing that there was an espionage element to the plot and that I always had an interest in reading more space-related books, I gave it a go and did enjoy it. Goodreads categorizes this book as a new subgenre that I haven't heard of until now, "space opera", which seems pretty fitting for the book.

The writing style(s) made the story feel like it was another fictional book, meaning that sci-fi lovers and readers who want to dive into sci-fi won't feel overbearing not knowing a lot about scientific terms (at least that's how I usually associate sci-fi to be), and having the chapters interchange perspectives between Jose and Corin made it easy to understand what was going on, without feeling lost. Even though both did not know they were working towards a "common goal", both were part of the solution to this problem.