Astral Prime Complete Collection: Missions 1-12

De: J.S. Morin, M.A. Larkin

Narrado por: Mikael Naramore

A station at the edge of the galaxy is about to become the center of the universe.

Cedric The Brown is a wizard with a dark past. In an effort to make amends, he hides in plain sight among the residents of a space station he once nearly destroyed. Cut adrift by a bankrupt megacorp, the mobile mining station sets off to uncharted space in a desperate attempt to scrape by.

What the stumbled onto would change the course of the galaxy.

A planet.

A lost alien race.

A secret that will lead to all-out war.

How will a station filled with scoundrels and crewed by former miners handle being the fulcrum of history?

Astral Prime is a collection of all 12 Black Ocean: Astral Prime missions chronicling the adventures of a mining station on the edge of known space, along with five short stories. This series follows in the traditions of Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5 with high-stakes space station intrigue and epic discoveries.

©2018 J.S. Morin (P)2024 J.S. Morin

Another great

The black ocean is expansive and js Morin just keeps expanding the contents within it!!!

Definitely not mort

The narration for Michael was amazing as always the story took a few turns that I just didn’t care for but in the end, it all works out to be a decent ending. still worth the listen hands down will probably listen to it again.

Timeline seems massively out of order

SPOILERS BELOW

Most of the characters behave like idiots and miss the absolute most basic questions to get to the bottom of their problems, even when presented with a seemingly all-knowing computer.

Esper shows up once at the very start and once in the final few missions both for a couple minutes of a 60 hour series. The "Half Devils" are slaughtered or converted to a cult seemingly at random to give the new threats a sense of gravity before we come up with a new species that's magically able to just thrash them with ease. I love the attempt to flesh out the characters but this was a slog to listen to (the narrator was great, the writing just felt deranged at times.)

I wish they spent a bit of time to get the relationships better because those felt half baked before being cast off. The Ruckers get only passing mentions and none of it involves Don's death? This was an enormous issue and it's never even mentioned as far as I recall.

The flow is great.

I liked the way that events and timelines transpired. It made for a good book.

Just a damn rollercoaster of a story.

So to put it simpley most of the main characters that you see have certain "quirks" that make each one unique to themselves and as the story goes on those "quirks" begin to expand. For some of the characters it's a good thing but for most not so much at least in my opinion. Wizards become more arrogant, certain figureheads are naively self-assured, workers become extra eedy, certains aliens become annoyingly aggressive and so on and so forth. The story overall is good... it's just that most of the characters actions and reasons are just really stupid sometimes. I don't know how that galaxy sustains itself. It seems most people there are stupid, arrogant or lucky. I think I only really liked the engineer and the techie and that's it everyone else was just getting on my nerves. Oh and word of warning Esper appears only twice in the story. Once to be a self righteous nuisance, and two to be a useless self righteous nuisance.

Not the same vibe, but still enjoyable!

I have read The other 3 series and loved them all. This has the same quality writing, but feels uniquely it's own.
If you are looking to ride the coat tails of the other 3 black ocean series you may be disappointed.
This series focuses on very specific topics and helps flesh out a lot more of the lore and scope of this world.
It does not however flit around the galaxy as much with a small group of people. Instead it is a more static backdrop than the others. which is fine. Just don't go into it this thinking it's going to be the same. it's not.
I still really enjoyed this book, probably my least favorite of the 4 but it has it's merits and isn't bad, just different. it also answers some questions I didn't know I needed answered. lol
Give it a go if you like Black Ocean, just keep an open mind and enjoy the ride.

Amazing and thought-provoking characters

I'm continually amazed by the characters that inhabit the Black Ocean. The author's works always leave me hungering for more!

The inhabitants of a mining station abandoned through a corporate bankruptcy discover an unexpected place that holds the potential to up-end all understanding of the known universe. The impact on the galaxy goes far beyond anything they could imagine, and all may not be as it seems.

irritating female characters, ok story

The author has a true knack for creating the most insufferable female characters in his books with immediate skills that eclipse all characters. Esper drags this story down immediately and Hiroko is absolutely annoying to an extreme. Overall ok story, narration is as usual fantastic.

Worst of the Black Ocean Books

I have listened to Galaxy Outlaws and Mercy for hire. Both were excellent. Astral prime is no where near the quality of those stories. It’s just not written as well- the character development isn’t there, half of what they do and say isn’t remotely compatible with their character, and the story isn’t as compelling. I don’t know if M.A. Larkin assisted with this book or wrote it entirely, but this isn’t the writing of J.S. Morin. What really bothers me, however, is when the established characters- even Cedric- appear and behave nothing like how they would in the other series. I’ve only gotten to when Esper and Kubu show up and I had to stop just to write the review. Did Larkin even read the other books? Since when does Kubu ask to lick people when he meets them? And how is he speaking so well, (which means it’s further into the Mercy for Hire timeline) but he doesn’t know he’s from Poltid? I’m going to finish listening because I used a credit to buy it, but be warned that this is definitely more fanfic than it is a JS Morin book.

Really Struggled to Finish

This story was a massive letdown from Galactic Outlaws. Characters for the most part were forgettable or insufferable. Story dragged on and was uninspired. Cedric the Brown is no Mort and Kendra was annoying to no end. The only slightly interesting character was Roland Kane. performance was very good at least.