Dark Run

Dark Run belongs to that specific subgenre of sci-fi that – for lack of a better name – I’ve been calling “Firefly fiction.” The formula goes like this: take a seemingly unexceptional workhorse of a starship, add a small, rag-tag crew running from their past, have them bond & squabble a bit while taking odd jobs to make ends meet (mercenary work, cargo runs, courier deliveries – that kind of thing), and then shake everything up with a crisis that balloons into a galaxy-spanning adventure. It sure worked for Joss Whedon, and plenty of ships have followed in Serenity’s wake since then.

The Keiko is another proud example in that tradition: a jack-of-all-trades interstellar freighter, not very pretty but hiding a couple of tricks up her sleeve. She’s captained by one Ichabod Drift, and we meet him down on the hardscrabble mining planet Carmella II where he’s chasing a hefty bounty on a local gang boss. The whole crew is along for the ride of course: there’s Jia, a hotshot daredevil pilot with a big chip on her shoulder; her twin brother, Kuai, the engineer; Micah, an ex-military hired gun; Tamara, the poker-faced first mate; Apirana, an enormous Maori bruiser with a kind heart but a really short temper; and Jenna, a young hacker who seems way too talented to be just another rich girl acting out. 

It doesn’t take long for one thing to lead to another, and Drift is half-bribed, half-blackmailed into doing “one last, big score” for a powerful frenemy from his unsavory past. Unsurprisingly, things do not go entirely as planned. (Because where would be the fun in that, right!?) I won’t dive too much into plot specifics, both to avoid spoilers and because for the most part everything is fine on that front. There are a few places where things don’t quite add up, but they’re not so egregious that they pull the whole story down with them – just areas that could have been tightened up, reworked, or even cut altogether in the name of a stronger through-line. Instead, let’s talk about the prose itself.  

Dark Run is for the most part a fast-paced, action-driven story, but ironically the writing tends to slow things down. It waxes a bit prolix even in the heat of a firefight, and sprinkles a handful of distracting, “speed bump” sentences throughout every chapter. Whenever I hit one of these odd figures of speech or awkward and convoluted phrases, it brings me up short for a second. For example, on introducing a new contact who might be persuaded to help the crew: 

“Her voice was strong, almost fruity, and dripped with an Old New York accent so strong you could use it to flavor coffee.”

The repetition of “strong” comes through loud and clear, but how does “fruity” fit in? And the idea of “flavoring coffee” isn’t helping me understand… cream and sugar, sure, but those sweeten coffee; they don’t make the flavor stronger. I guess the accent is more like the actual coffee grounds? That must be it… okay, now where were we?

Or, as the crew make their way into the literal criminal underground:

“The newer tunnels, plazas, and living spaces under the sprawling metropolis were known as the Warrens, and demonstrated the usual disparity of good supply networks and plentiful transport links in the Uppers to the isolation and deprivation of the Lowers.”

That’s just a tough one to scan. It’s not impenetrable, but it’s not standard grammar for American or British English either. Sure, I get the gist, but it’s a rough ride. Each one of these “speed bumps” takes me out of the story just a bit, and they feel like unforced errors. I can’t help wondering if a couple of months of work with a good editor could push Dark Run over the line from three to four stars (at least, according to me!)  

If you sailed through both of those examples and didn’t miss a beat, well, maybe I’m the problem! Either my SNOOT card is showing, or my brain needs a vacation from words for a while. Absolutely go pick up Dark Run – you’ll enjoy it even more than I did. 

And for the record, I did enjoy it – just not as much as I’d hoped. Mike Brooks clearly knows the assignment, and Dark Run hits all the right marks, more or less; it’s a solid read. The writing glitches kept me from 100% enjoying the heck out of it, but I still think it’s a good pull for fans of the genre. (For what it’s worth, the reigning champs for me in this little corner of the ‘verse are still L.M. Sagas’ Ambit’s Run books. There’s only the two so far, though, so if you’ve got other recommendations please drop ‘em in the comments!)