I really enjoyed the very generous audio book packaging of books 1 to 16.5 of the original Black Ocean series. The writing had moments of introspection, beautiful philosophical thoughts sprinkled in, great observations of types of people, some interesting world building, and humor and humanity.
I was disappointed in the follow-up 4 pack, Astral Prime 1 thru 4, which was lacking all the *specialness” and writing depth that made the original series feel like Firefly. In Astral Prime, without the depth, the original characters were simply being used in ordinary science fiction. Very ordinary. With very shallow writing.
Ever hopeful, I bought this Mercy for Hire pack, but it is still shallow writing. Young Adult level rather than with the complexity and moments of writing sophistication and depth that was in the original Black Ocean/Galaxy Outlaws series.
This is reminding me of some series where the author just cranks out more stories with the original beloved characters for sales. Most readers are happy and just accept what they are fed. Grateful for the bland continuation of a series.
I came on to write a review, and say I am either in the first or second story (I fell asleep) and was going to return this book, but now see there are some other packs with some of the original crew members, so I’ll buy those and keep this too.
Why the writing has changed so much, the quality has gone to quantity, I don’t know. It’s disappointing. But, I am hopeful and will give the other follow-up books for the series a try too.
Narration: In this book the narrator is also slipping downward. The voice for the character Odin is the same as for Cedric the Brown.
If you are someone creative – like a writer or narrator – then why not do your best? This is . . . sad.