This is the first in the spin-off series to the main Black Ocean series. After the events that involved Mining Space Station YF-77, Calvin Black (better known as Cedric the Brown), has gone into hiding aboard Mining Space Station YF-77, trying to make up for what he did when he nearly caused the Station to crash (which is now known as Crash Day aboard the station), and doing significant damage to the stations systems in the process.

No one knows it was him, just that a Wizard did it. He is basically giving his services for nearly free, but he is also lying about the extent of his abilities.

This book picks up several months after the events of ‘Crash Day’, and the station is still in bad shape. They are desperate to try and find a new mining project, for a new revenue source and to fix the station.

Just when things look really bad, the Mega-Corporation that owns them goes under, and the Woman who runs the station, Fujita Hiroko, suddenly becomes the owner of it.

Desperate to keep things going, Hiroko authorises Black to use magic to move the station rather than using the Stations broken drive. Black, being far more powerful than any of them know, drops them deep into the Astral, and there they find a mysterious planet, and this is when things really begin to become interesting.

A small group goes to the planet for a quick look – as the Planet should not really exist, certainly with atmosphere.

On the planets surface, they discover a Dragon like creature that could hold the answer to all their problems.

However, the Planet moves between normal space and the Astral, so is difficult to keep track of.

This is the introductory book to the series, introducing us to the main characters on the station, letting us get to know the station and how everyone fits in, the relationships, both good and bad, the players and the desperation of the situation.

As with all the Black Ocean stories the quality of the Characters and the world building is just beyond exceptional. The incredible depth that goes into the background the Authors build for the story to be told is just incredible.

The character work is just masterful. Calvin is brilliant as the Wizard on the run, trying to play it down, hide his background, and at times having to unleash Cedric. Hiroko is written so well as the overworked and stressed station commander, and everybody has met or seen the overly enthusiastic executive assistant who is actually so much more such as Kendra is. Roland Kane is perfect as the annoying but likeable pain in the engineering department.

There are numerous other characters – all of them equally outstanding, as is this start to the next Black Ocean series.

If you have read the Black Ocean Series, you will love this, if you haven’t, you can probably easily get away without having read it, and enjoy this as a stand-alone story (although you should really go read/listen to Black Ocean as it is just the best Sci-Fi series out there). Either way – don’t miss out!!

As always, the Narration is just outstanding! Michael Naramore is totally engaging as a Narrator, as soon as you start listening, that is it, you get pulled into the world he is talking about. He tells the story so beautifully, and has such a wonderful range of voices, from irritated head mechanic, to over-enthusiastic executive all in a single sentence giving us such a wonderful story telling experience. To be honest, I actually prefer the Audiobook versions thanks to Naramore’s Narration he makes the story and the experience so good. This is another outstanding Audiobook experience from Morin, Larkin and Naramore in the Black Ocean Universe – Sci-Fi at its absolute best!!!