Star Cops: Blood Moon: A Cage of Sky

Star Cops #4.4

by James Swallow

Devis makes a dubious deal with a notorious hacker, which leads him on to dangerous ground…

Meanwhile, Nathan and his team uncover troubling goings-on at a remote lunar prison facility, where inmates are dying under mysterious circumstances.

Audiobook

Published April 1, 2024

About the author

James Swallow is a New York Times, Sunday Times and Amazon #1 bestselling author and scriptwriter, a BAFTA nominee, a former journalist and the award-winning writer of over sixty-five books, along with scripts for video games, comics, radio and television.

DARK HORIZON, his latest stand-alone thriller, is out now from Mountain Leopard Press, and OUTLAW, the 6th action-packed Marc Dane novel, is published by Bonnier.

Along with the Marc Dane thrillers, his writing includes, the Sundowners steampunk Westerns and fiction from the worlds of Star Trek, Tom Clancy, 24, Warhammer 40000, Doctor Who, Deus Ex, Stargate, 2000AD and many more.

For information on new releases & more, sign up to the Readers’ Club here: www.bit.ly/JamesSwallow

Visit James's website at http://www.jswallow.com/ for more, including ROUGH AIR, a free eBook novella in the Marc Dane series.

You can also follow James on Bluesky at @jmswallow.bsky.social, Twitter at @jmswallow, Mastodon at @jmswallow@mstdn.social and jmswallow.tumblr.com at Tumblr.

Reviews

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This time, the ISPF are investigating a spike in deaths at a penal colony in a remote part of the Moon. As in the previous episode, Alice is largely left out, but Paul has a more significant part to play; it seems they have difficulty giving both characters significant roles in the same story. In the sort of coincidence that you probably aren't meant to look at too closely, Nathan and Devis end up at the colony at the same time by entirely separate routes, forming the sort of united narrative that might have seemed unlikely from the ending of the previous episode.

At any rate, there's a nicely smarmy villain as well as the usual themes of corporate greed that tend to occupy this audio series (and may put off some listeners... although they've probably long gone by the time we reach this episode). Nathan gets to engage in a noble fight for justice, while Devis gets out of his depth and continues on the character arc laid out for him earlier in the season. (Kenzie, meanwhile, seems a little redundant). Unlike the previous episode, this is set almost entirely on the Moon, and that fact makes a real difference to the story, with the harsh environment used to good effect in the climactic scenes.

[Seagullslost · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prison where one or two deaths seem worthy to invistigate is where the ISPF are in this adventure. Devis, who left the force in the last episode, is now looking for his daughter, and finds himsef back on the moon only on the other side of the law.

Its an enjoyable story, but is nothing that new. The deaths take Nathn and Kenzy to the prison, where they are not wanted and the man in charge resents their interference. The real interest is whats happening with Devis, though it seem obvious that sooner or later he'll be back in the force.

The use of americanisms, saying they don't want to be stiffed, and autopsy in place of post mortem seem unnecessary, and I find it distracting. Again some of the dialogue not flowing as well as it could. There are some nice references to the past which I liked.

Though there were some dramatic moments, I didn't find it that statisfying. The plot is there just to move things along with Devis rather than a good story on its own merit, so more a stepping stone for the series arc.