Bestselling authors Rob Hart and Alex Segura collaborated on the comic book series Blood Oath. Now, they are combining forces on their first full-length novel, DARK SPACE, which is a fine mix of science fiction and spy thriller.

The story at times feels like an episode of “Star Trek” that has been mashed up with a spy novel in the style of John le Carré. The result is a fast-moving book with plenty of tense moments. The action jumps between the adventures of the massive starship Mosaic, which finds itself on a mission threatening to take those on board into dark space, and a narrative set on the lunar colony of New Destiny and the exploits of an expert spy working at its international intelligence arm, the Bazaar.

"DARK SPACE succeeds on all levels... There is something here for everyone to enjoy, and that is due to the universal talents of Rob Hart and Alex Segura."

Things literally begin with a bang as Lieutenant Commander Jose Carriles is piloting the Mosaic and is faced with a deadly situation. Their outer shields are failing for some unknown reason, and alarms did not go off to alert anyone. With each object that strikes them, it lowers their ability to steer the ship safely away and keep from spinning unstoppably into dark space to their doom. Captain Wythe Delmar is full of himself and in charge of this combined space mission between the US and China. He is clueless as to what is happening and blindly shouts out commands to his crew to do something to save them.

Back on New Destiny, a young spy agent named Corin Timony is still dealing with the loss of her lover, Adan, who had been selected for the mission on the Mosaic before he mysteriously died. Carriles takes his place, making for some serious hard feelings for the former friends. When one of her colleagues turns up dead, she begins to think that she could be the next target for elimination but does not know why. Timony raises suspicion over Adan’s death with the senator, but it doesn’t go anywhere. She realizes that in order to get to the bottom of this mystery, as well as the regular spy details she is assigned, she will have to tread carefully.

Meanwhile, the Mosaic makes it through their ordeal safely and is now planning to head down in two cruiser ships to the planet they call Esparar. Humans have been denied entry into the galaxy-wide group known as the Mutual because they have been proven to be untrustworthy and violent, and they already have destroyed their own planet. Initially, the mission to Esparar is to plead with this union for another chance to prove themselves. But Carriles and a few others will soon discover that Delmar and his closest cronies have an ulterior motive for visiting this distant planet.

On New Destiny, Timony is searching for a woman named Oneida, who is no mere Russian citizen and is a person of interest with the Mutual. When Oneida goes radio silent and misses transmissions from the Mutual, they take it as a direct threat and are now focused on wiping out the colony on New Destiny and eliminating the human race.

It will take the separate and heroic efforts of Carriles facing off with leaders from the Mutual and Timony locating and safely bringing Oneida back online to have any chance of survival. The tension becomes almost unbearable as both storylines converge to a mutual purpose.

DARK SPACE succeeds on all levels, and I loved when Timony scans a cover of le Carré’s THE CONSTANT GARDENER in a library. There is something here for everyone to enjoy, and that is due to the universal talents of Rob Hart and Alex Segura.