I recommend to most readers to read at least some of the older Black Ocean books so that they have a knowledge of the various characters and players.
Now the book starts a bit slow, and I would say it’s about 1/3 to 1/2 in that I really started to care for the two main characters, but I immediately acquired (with my own audible credits) the next part. Hence the 4 stars for the story (no 4.5 option), although the next book is a strong 5 stars.
You will get the usual mix of magic, tech, factions, politics, fights and chases, etc, with flawed but interesting and attaching characters. One of the two main protagonists feels quite on the autism spectrum, but put in a pretty good way.
The narrator is top notch as usual. Please keep Mikael Naramore as the voice of the Black Ocean books, he is really great at that.
Disclaimer: I used my own audible credits to buy this book and the next book (like I did for all my books so far, and for all of J.S. Morin’s books), before finding out that I do qualify for a free copy to leave an early review.
The only influence this future free credits have on my reviews is that I’m taking the time to leave the reviews, this does not impact my ratings.