Black Ocean: Astral Prime Collection

Missions 1-12

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

Narrated by: Mikael Naramore

Length: 61 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 they 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 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, 2019 J.S. Morin (P)2019 J.S. Morin

Builds the Black Ocean by leaps and bounds

If you've enjoyed the Black Ocean so far, and want more lore and expansion, this is for you. Some familiar characters but not the old crew, and Astral Prime does more to build the Universe. Don't waste your time pining for the old stories. Just enjoy the new characters and the occasional nod to your old friends. This is an epic tale that gets bigger and bigger as you continue.

These books hover around the former mining station--I mean it's named after Astral Prime so duh--but also stretch out across the Black Ocean. This is a way more in-depth jump into all of the different species and alliances. Ever wonder about the different cultures in the Black Ocean?

Once again, if you want the old stories just listen to those again. This is something new that brings more to the Universe.

bleh

The authors did a decent job of creating the conflict and background, but the protagonists and supporting characters just aren't likable. Self centered, functional morons. I found myself wanting them to be red shirted so other characters could take their places. There's a premise that one key character is there based on guilt, but this background was not explained 13 hours into the series (a little more than 1 book) and I just couldn't listen anymore. It's possible I missed it as I often found my mind wandering. But that tells you something in itself. I wanted to like it, I really did. But as when I started listening to Twilight and Bella started droning on about teenage angst, I stopped and found better stories. Naramore has a solid reading voice but the style/tone was like a "Star Ship Troopers" propaganda video. While it worked in the SST movie, it just didn't fit here.

Manufactured drama through stupidity

This book is entertaining but falls short on character and plot driven events. The suspense or drama created for each scene is preceded with stupid actions that is contrary to the character's normal intelligence and understanding breaking the immersion and enjoyment of the plot. It is just one stupid action to the next driving the plot forward making it jarring and shallow.

Not as Fun as the Other Black Ocean Books

I really enjoyed the Galaxy Outlaws Black Ocean collection as well as the other JS Morin books I've listened to on Audible. They have just the right mix of silliness and seriousness for an enjoyable listen when you're in the mood for something fun. So I must say I found Astral Prime to be a bit of a disappointment.

At first I thought this would be an enjoyable episodic romp as a new base is established orbiting a strange world, with people coming and going and different adventures transpiring.

Instead things take a dark turn very early and never turn back. The entire universe is imperiled and that peril does not go away till the very end. The characters are just not that much fun and neither is the story. If you liked Galaxy Outlaws you probably won't like this one.

the other collection is MUCH better

this story never gets interesting, the annoying parts just get more intense until eventually I just wanted the galaxy to be eaten by tentacle beasts. this collection is in no way comparable to the other, amazing, stories based in the same universe.

What happened?

loved the Black Mobius, absolutely loved the characters, the settings, the intrigue all of it. was hyped about this story line and, I'm going to be honest, struggled every minute to finish this book. I struggled to care about any of the introduced characters. seemed to me that the story was dragged out longer then what was necessary.

I couldn't stick with it

I've enjoyed the other books in this series but I couldn't stick with this one. The plot and characters were just not interesting enough to maintain 25+hour story.

Anti- kitten farts & dandelion fluff

If you haven’t been initiated into the Black Ocean universe, you should start with the 85hr Galaxy Outlaw collection. It has the best assortment of pirate rouges and the best balance of space camp, action, and “wild, wizardly magic vs. science” adventure. Then, I recommend the 90+ hr Mercy for Hire collection, which spins off Esper (aka Wizard Barbie) and megaladog Kubu and leans into the whacky world of wizards while maintaining a format of mostly standalone capers with a new colorful cast of misfits.

This collection is a spin-off within the Black Ocean universe, but has less camp and virtually no characters from the other collections besides MC Kelvin Black, aka Cedric the Brown, the wizardly prodigal son of Mordecai the Brown. It started off fun, with the outpost-at-the-edge-of-the-galaxy feel of Deep Space Nine (as the summary suggested). I loved the first few missions. But, for every hour of story, there’s another hour of philosophical ruminations on the meaning of life or metaphysical mumbo jumbo delving into the Black Ocean’s magic vs science dynamic. Instead of standalone missions, each mission (or “book”) builds on the one before, as the cast keeps paving the road to Armageddon with not so good intentions. There are no good people or aliens, just stupid, selfish, arrogant beings who bring on exponential redshirt death of beings and worlds in a Cthulhu-like catastrophe that goes on and on.
And on. The second half dragged. I was desensitized, speeding up the listening to get to an ending that I suppose was meant to be deep, but I just didn’t have the energy to understand.

For a collection that contains banana aliens and crusty space wizards grouching about kitten farts and dandelion fluff, this wasn’t remotely the fun space opera it should have been.
Still a good sale purchase, if only for the first 20 of 60 hrs.

Disappointed

I loved the original black ocean series and that started off slow, but the world building and characters were top notch and I couldn't put the book down. This series however was a disappointment even to the end although I kept hoping it would get better. The characters in this series are the embodiment of stupidity with each mistake they made being more obvious and ridiculous than the last and it drove me crazy listening to certain parts. The orginal black ocean series was much better.

Wonderful story and I loved the narration.

I want more black ocean stories. I enjoyed this series soo much! I wound up binge listening to the entire series.

A good story, but a lot of offensive language

Astral Prime. A continuation of the Black Ocean Universe. If you enjoyed Galaxy Outlaws, you will probably enjoy this. Many of the characters from Galaxy Outlaws are referred to or make an appearance, so it is a bit like seeing an old friend. While this is a stand alone story, you will get more from it if you listen to Galaxy Outlaws first.

There, for me, are only two problems with it. The first, and most off-putting for me, is the amount of offensive language, whether that is swearing or blasphemy. If you live in a world where this language is common place, then it will not be an issue, For me personally, it is jarring and unpleasant and unfortunately frequent.

The second is the author's over-use of the word "parse" or "parsing". It is a silly thing, but it comes up so frequently that I could not help but wonder if the author was playing a game with himself to see how often he could fit it in.

The story is basically well-told light sci-fi fare. It is not quite as "Firefly" as Galaxy Outlaws but is still close enough to say that if you like Firefly, chances are that you will enjoy these tales. Cross Firefly with Star Trek TNG and you will get a rough idea of what to expect. With dragons. And Magic. And swearing.

The characters are well drawn and rounded.

The narration is excellent.

Although I like the stories and the characters and the worlds in which they inhabit, I will not be listening to any more of this author's work. The swearing is too much for me - so much that despite my enjoyment of everything else, I regret starting the voyage.

Another very enjoyable book,

I enjoyed this alot, killed time during lockdown with a great story, funny and sad times. Always changes in direction that worked with the story. I find plot twists can be added as an afterthought, but these seem natural. So does keep you guessing and did like the hero's was not singler and flored in some way, so you were rooting for nearly all the cartators. my honest review from the dyslexic reader.

you might like it

Harry Potter meets Kirk. this book was not for me,but if you like dragons and space this book is for you

too many musings

loved the other books but this one dpent too much time with the characters thoughts and musings .
not enough doing for my likes.
I fast forwarded a lot. Great for others but not for me :/

Starts well

The first six stories are good and then it's a downward spiral. The narrator is good for the most part but he can't do accents and it's like nails on a blackboard when he tries.

I barley got through it awake!

The first few books engaged me and I quite enjoyed, but from about book 6, I pretty much lost interest, hated most of the characters and was waiting for it to finish! I have a high tolerance for bad books, but this one nearly broke me!

Ok'ish

OK'ish, a mixture of a soap opera, Flash Gordon and a whodunit mystery set in a space opera.

Phenomenal!!

Incredible story telling. Not just great value but brilliant SciFi full stop. I'm an avid reader of the genre and originally started listening to the Black Ocean series just as something light to listen to while i work that represented good value for my Audible credit. But it is so.much better than that! It consistently delivers and the scope of the Astral Prime series really blows my mind. Looking forward to meeting Esper and Kubu again in Mercy for Hire, but i will miss these characters greatly Even Kane....

Good but no Galaxy outlaws

I listen to a lot of audio books most probably in the region of 25-40 a year mainly long books in the genre of science fiction and fantasy but also historical fiction.

Ok so i had listened to the epic which is galaxy outlaws just over a year ago and loved it.

I had liked the idea of Cedric and was interested to see where the character would go.

I have given it 3 stars which i consider a rating of good and this was a good book it just didnt drag me into the world and the wider characters like galaxy outlaws did and i felt towards the last 1/4 of the book it was becoming monotonous and stretched.

I like long books i love world building but felt this was long for the sake of being long.

From Beginning to End

have loved every book in the WHOLE Black Ocean series. Sad it has come to an end 🤔