Science to build a starship. Wizardry to take it past light speed. A crew to give it a soul.
The Mobius is a cobbled-together ship with a matching crew. Captain Carl Ramsey is an ex-Earth Navy pilot whose crew won’t let him fly his own ship. The pilot is his ex-wife, the mechanic is a drunk, and the chief of security is from a predatory species. Instead of a star-drive to travel through the … star-drive to travel through the astral space between worlds, the ship’s wizard does it by hand.
Mission 1: Salvage Trouble
A salvage mission turns into a rescue, and no good deed goes unpunished. With two refugees onboard, the Mobius crew is hounded by bounty hunters, border partols, and corporate enforcers.
Mission 2: A Smuggler’s Conscience
“Don’t open the package.” It’s the smuggler’s credo for good reason. When the Mobius crew takes a peek at their illicit cargo, the entire job takes an about-face.
Mission 3: Poets and Piracy
The Mobius crew gets caught in a turf war between a pirate fleet and a galactic criminal syndicate. The trick is getting everyone out alive (and maybe getting paid in the process).
Mission 4: To Err is Azrin
Sometimes you can’t go home again. When a job takes the crew to their security chief’s homeworld, she gets dragged into a familial power struggle. Can the rest of the crew bail her out of an old feud gone horribly wrong?
Bonus Short Story: Guardian of the Plundered Tomes
Mordecai The Brown has been on the run from the Convocation for decades. How does a respectable wizard with a wife and two kids end up crisscrossing the galaxy in the company of outlaws?
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**** SPOILER ALERT ****
I purchased “Black Ocean Mission Pack 1” That contains missions 1-4.5 and was very pleased that I did.
This mission pack contains “Salvage Trouble”, “A Smuggler’s Conscience”, “Poets And Piracy”, “To Err Is Azrin”, and the prequel short story “Guardian Of The Plundered Tomes”.
Morin did a great job of world building and balancing and maintaining the hybridization in a universe that holds both magic and tech throughout the mission pack.
I really enjoyed this humorous, at times, action packed pack of adventures.
I look forward to reading further missions.
I highly recommend this series.
This is my own honest opinion.
I discovered J.S. Morin’s fabulous Black Ocean universe through his Mercy for Hire series (which starts with Wayward Saint, a book that was super easy to give 5 stars to). I loved that book only to discover there was an astounding number of predecessor series books. On the one hand I’ve grumbled a bit since I’d missed reading those books when they first cane out. On the other hand, yaay for me as the author has collected those prior series books into a series of “Mission Packs” that I can buy all at once rather than having to purchase each book separately. The first of these is Mission Pack 1 which covers Missions 1-4 (and a double yaay for any reader here as it’s possible save a pretty penny, spending only $9.99 for the Mission Pack vs $15.96 if the individual Mission books were purchased separately). I won’t summarize this as the review would be pages (though the publisher’s blurb does a good job). Instead I will simply note that the lead-off line in the publishing blurb pretty much covers what crucial info is needed: “Science to build a starship. Wizardry to take it past light speed. A crew to give it a soul.” Yup, this is a crazy mashup of sci-fi and fantasy works perfectly. I love Captain Carl Ramsey of the ship Mobius, who has to leave piloting to his ex-wife, the equivalent of engineering (as there is no actual star-drive to travel through the astral space between worlds) to the ship’s wizard (yup, you read that correctly – he does it by magic spell hand gestures) and, oh yes, the chief of security from a predatory species. I had fun just describing that. Now add it in to well-plotted, well-written stories filled with other cool places to go and. people to see (and interact with). Total. Reading. Pleasure. But for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review my husband from my hospital bed I could go on and on with praises – this “Mission Pack” definitely deserves it. Since I can’t do that I will simply note that the collection is most definitely one to read, and it is easy to highly recommend. I’m already starting on the next Mission Pack in this series. Yup, totally addicted and loving it.
I really like this series. The characters are easy to like. It’s easy to read and a nice escape from the real world.
Awesome space series, a little like the first guardians, lol. Lots of fun to read. Wish they would write more of this series! Loved the laku!
A very fun series. A little science, a little magic, a lot of not too nasty criminal activity. I have mission pack two and am looking forward to #3.