So I’m likely one of the rare fans who didn’t realize that this had come out last year and only recently stumbled upon it…periodically looking at series I’ve enjoyed to see if any new books had come out. Since the original 16+ book series for Black Ocean has been completed for a while and 2 successive (and mostly successful) spinoffs have also come iut and been completed, I didnt check back until mid way thru 2022.
ALL of that to say…WELCOME BACK! Knowing that this is a prequel to the OG of the series, I grant some time/grace to get into the series. It doesn’t take long and its been a refreshing look into the beginnings of Mort and Ramsey. With one of the short stories we already knew a bit about Mort’s past related to leaving his family. But this explained it more fully…among other back stories starting to fill in. Its been a mostly great romp thru the Black Ocean, but I actually thought there might be a bit more “mirth and mayhem” than we’ve seen thus far. Perhaps its building up to that in the next 4 book entry? But im enjoying it even if its a tad lighter on the M&M than I thought or expected…
Right now I dont know if 8 books or 12 or 16 will be the totality of the this prequel universe. It seems like there hasn’t been a book 9 released for a while so I’m guessing it may just be an 8 book series. I was sort of hoping for 12-16 since there likely is enough years in the Black Ocean between this and the start of the OG series. Either way, looking forward to books 5-8 starting in 3. 2. 1…deep into the Astral we dive!
ps. as always Mikael Naramore is one of the best in the biz and he is the perfect match for this series (I’ve listened a little bit for some other series he has done, non JS Morin books,, and while he’s good, thus far the JS Morin universes he is just a perfect fit for). So kudos!