The main characters are the stars of this fast-moving and fun story of political intrigue set in space. The two are separated by a vast distance, but also by anger and self-loathing, and are instrumental in stopping a plot that could have terrible consequences for humanity.

The US, China and Russia banded together to create the Interstellar Union and established the colony New Destiny further out in the solar system. But thanks to the same behaviour that has damaged Earth, New Destiny is slowly collapsing, though this isn't made common knowledge.

Jose Carriles is the son of a senator, and able to easily pick up skills. He is a gifted pilot, and was selected for the Mosaic, a huge ship taking the Interstellar Union's first mission out of the solar system.

He and Corin Timony had become best friends as children, and Adan joined the circle later, in school, with Adan, and Corin getting engaged to be married. Their friendship fell apart when both Jose and Corin got into trouble, with Adan distancing himself from the other two, and Jose unwilling to support Timony. Corin spiraled downwards, getting regularly drunk and messing up her career.

Timony had been an agent with the Bazaar, which was an espionage organization created and staffed by the US, China and Russia. While an agent, Corin learned many, useful, deadly skills, and mentored other agents.

At the novel's open, far from Earth, the Mosaic suffers multiple failures, and it's only Jose's very quick thinking and a daring plan that saves the ship, and they manage to get to their destination, an Earth-like planet.

Prior to implementing his plan, Jose had sent an urgent message back home through the wire, a highly advanced piece of tech using quantum computing, alerting officials of multiple system failures on the Mosaic. Just as Timony deciphers this message, she's strongly urged to ignore it, twice. Being contrary, and alert to the strangeness of the situation, Timony begins digging into things, just as Jose is noticing a number of alarming things going on where he is, from behaviours of some on board, to the planet they're interested in settling.

Pretty soon, everything Jose and Timony believe is upended, and things begin happening very quickly, and violently. The two authors, Rob Hart and Alex Segura, keep the tension and action amped up, jumping back and forth between Jose's and Timony's perspectives, as each learns of the precarious situation on New Destiny and the new colonization effort, and what is at stake with the mission. Both leads are targeted, and have to get past their guilt and anger, and the politically-motivated obstructionist actions of others to find ways to deal with the messes occurring around them.

I totally enjoyed this story, from its sympathetic leads, to its political intrigue and to its action. The story literally begins with the bang, and just keeps going, delivering necessary information and backstory as needed and keeping the energy high and exciting.

The ending left me satisfied, but also eager for more stories in the compelling world the two authors have created.

I switched back and forth between the text and the audiobook, which is capably narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon & Nicol Zanzarella. Each wonderfully captures the emotions of the two leads, and also distinguishing these well from other characters' voices. I was captured by the narrative by the two voice actors, who made me care a lot about Jose and Timony.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Blackstone Publishing and Blackstone Publishing-Audiobooks for the ARCs in exchange for my review.

🌌 ARC REVIEW🌌

Dark Space by Rob Hart and Alex Segura
3.5/5 ⭐
Pub date: Already out!

This was such a fun book. I don't think it's going to be winning any literary awards anytime soon, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The book follows two characters, a disgraced spy and a pilot, as they navigate espionage and government secrets to secure humanity's future.

Please read if you like the following:
🚀 Fast-paced spy novels
🚀Galactic world building
🚀Uncovering government secrets
🚀Nior bar scenes

Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC!

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Dark Space takes place on a mission ship, the Mosaic, and back at the lunar colony of New Destiny. Jose Carriles is a last-minute substitute pilot. When multiple alarms go off, Carriles comes up with a daring cowboy maneuver that saves the ship and everyone on it. Back on the colony, Corin Timony sees the alarm info from the Mosaic appear… then immediately disappear. Neither of these events should have happened due to fail-safes etc. These two former friends try independently to work out what happened and why. But they don’t quite know who to trust.
Some of the “why” of the story is a little unclear, but it’s an entertaining audiobook and I found myself rooting for the main characters.
My thanks to the author, publisher, producer, and #NetGalley for access to the audiobook for review purposes. The book is currently available.