Dark Star by Oliver Langmead

Format: eBook (Kindle)
Publisher: Unsung Stories
Published: 11th March 2015
Pages: 224 Pages

The Blurb
The city of Vox survives in darkness, under a sun that burns without light. In Vox’s permanent night, light bulbs are precious, the rich live in radiance and three Hearts beat light into the city. Aquila. Corvus. Cancer.

Hearts that bring power to the light-deprived citizens of the city of Vox whilst ghosts haunt the streets, clawing at headlights. Prometheus, liquid light, is the drug of choice. The body of young Vivian North, her blood shining brightly with unnatural light, has no place on the streets.

When Cancer is stolen, the weaponisation of its raw power threatens to throw Vox into chaos. Vox needs a hero, and it falls to cop Virgil Yorke to investigate.

But Virgil has had a long cycle and he doesn’t feel like a hero. With the ghosts of his last case still haunting his thoughts, he craves justice for the young woman found dead with veins full of glowing. Aided by his partner Dante, Virgil begins to shed light on the dark city’s even darker secrets.

Haunted by the ghosts of his past and chased by his addictions, which will crack first, Virgil or the case?

Rating: 4/5

The Review
Thank you to Unsung Stories for sending me a copy to read and review.

Dark Star is written as a long poem, something I’ve never read before or even thought was possible. I’ll be the first to admit that I was expecting to give Dark Star a low rating because I thought the novel was going to be something I couldn’t get my head around. However, once you get past the structure you soon realise that it’s going to be something you’ll enjoy!

It’s beautiful written and I imagine a great task for the author, Oliver, to write – it would require a long time to construct and of course, think about. The poem itself flowed naturally and you found yourself immersed into the City of Vox. Although, when dialogue appeared it didn’t seem to fit into the poem format.

In Vox, light is hard to come by and in this world it’s like a product sold on the Black Market – you simply cannot have it. Imagine a world where light doesn’t exist and when it does you’re all fighting for it? It’s quite scary to even think about. If we couldn’t use electricity or have the sun, I think we’d all die – how morbid! Anyway, the lack of light adds a high level of urgency to the novel and it’s housed with a host of bleak and harrowing situations.

If you’re after a story that provides excitement and urgency with added bleak then Dark Star is for you. I’d also recommend you reading to see how books can be written in a different way – you’ll be oddly surprised.