Dark Space

Segura (Secret Identity) and Hart (The Paradox Hotel) interweave their styles seamlessly in this stellar blend of space opera and spy thriller, set after Earth has become almost uninhabitable. With humanity concentrated on the lunar colony of New Destiny, hopes for a sustainable future rest with the spacecraft Mosaic, which has traveled over four light-years from Earth to ascertain whether the planet Esparar can serve as a new home. Mosaic’s pilot, Jose Carriles, must scramble to avert disaster when, without the vessel’s alarms going off, its engines begin powering down, threatening the failure of essential protective shields. Meanwhile, disgraced spy Corin Timony is at her headquarters when an alert comes in from Mosaic, followed a moment later by a message calling it a false alarm. The authors alternate between Carriles’s attempts to keep the crew alive and the mission on track, and Timony’s search for answers about why the alert, which readers know was legit, was canceled. The universe feels remarkably well-developed and the tension is palpable. James S.A. Corey fans will want to check this out. (Oct.)