Review: The Dark Side by Anthony O’Neill

The Dark Side by Anthony O’Neill 4/5

In this dark and gripping sci-fi noir, an exiled police detective arrives at a lunar penal colony just as a psychotic android begins a murderous odyssey across the far side of the moon.

Purgatory is the lawless moon colony of eccentric billionaire, Fletcher Brass: a mecca for war criminals, murderers, sex fiends, and adventurous tourists. You can’t find better drugs, cheaper plastic surgery, or a more ominous travel advisory anywhere in the universe. But trouble is brewing in Brass’s black-market heaven. When an exiled cop arrives in this wild new frontier, he immediately finds himself investigating a string of ruthless assassinations in which Brass himself—and his equally ambitious daughter—are the chief suspects.

Meanwhile, two-thousand kilometers away, an amnesiac android, Leonardo Black, rampages across the lunar surface. Programmed with only the notorious “Brass Code”—a compendium of corporate laws that would make Ayn Rand blush—Black has only one goal in mind: to find Purgatory and conquer it.

Thanks go to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Dark Side is due for release on June 28th 2016.

Review:

The moon has been colonised by humans, but not any ol’ humans- the worst of the worst get exiled to the moon. Fletcher Brass is ‘Lord’ of Purgatory, a lunar colony on The Dark Side with a domed capital city known only as Sin. Think Gotham City meets Las Vegas. When he embarks on a self-funded expedition to Mars, Brass shall allow his daughter QT ‘Cutie’ Brass to run the colonies… or will he? Are the assassinations linked to Brass in a sinister plot to discredit his daughter? Enter Damien Justus, an earth cop on his first case on the moon. Justus has the arduous tasks of finding the truth despite corrupt colleagues that are content to turn the other cheek. Can he do his job and not be used as a pawn in a father vs daughter battle of power?

But… that’s not the worst of the problems. A rogue, killer android is on a murderous rampage, and is heading straight for Purgatory. Calling himself ‘The Wizard’, the brutal android has delusions of granduer and power.

O’Neill uses science and imagination to create a moon-world of the future. The Dark Side is totally believable as a concept, and written in such a convincing way. There is a huge cast of people with different back stories, some we only meet briefly before untimely ends, but it all adds to the world building.

If you want a sci-fi book with a touch of noir, a high death count, and a side helping of humour, then, The Dark Side is the book for you. I would definitely recommend this well thought out, believable, dystopian novel.

I shall leave you with this nugget of brilliance:

“And as for you, I will drag your tongue through your asshole and make you lick the back of your balls. But that is all up to you, sir, for you still have the option of proving yourself a productive commodity.”

---

 

The opinions expressed here are those of K.J.Chapman and no other parties.

All books reviewed on this blog have been read by K.J.Chapman

K.J.Chapman has not been paid for this review.