DARK SKY

Former pirate and current smuggler Capt. Ichabod Drift is hired, along with the multiracial crew of the starship Keiko, to deliver a gift and retrieve sensitive information on the grim mining planet Uragan.

What at first appears an easy job swiftly turns into a trap that splinters the crew and drags them into a morass of government corruption and civilian rebellion that tests their loyalties and threatens their lives. This sequel to Brooks’ debut novel, Dark Run (2015), is another unabashedly imitative, high-stakes gambit for Capt. Drift, his African-American ex-spy business partner, Tamara Rourke, and the rest of the crew: Apirana Wahawaha, Jia and Kuai Chang, and Jenna McIlroy. This time, fast-talking Drift and his testy Hawaii 5-0–like comrades find themselves unexpectedly squaring off against a Brazilian smuggling rival, the shuttle Little Alligator, captained by the “bottom-feeding scum” Ricardo Moutinho. Soon both ships and crews are caught up in the middle of a convoluted Uraganian revolution; entrapped “neck-deep in shit,” the Keiko must forge fragile alliances with both Moutinho and former Uragan City Security Chief Alim Muradov in order to escape certain catastrophic destruction.

Brooks once again delivers an undemanding, up-tempo space adventure peopled with dashing, flamboyant, entertaining, and irreverent characters in a humorous but exceedingly violent romp that is both touching and laced with profanity.