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Black Ocean #14
Moral and Orbital Decay
science and magic don't mix.If anyone were ever to forget that magic can disrupt science and technological equipment, they need only refer to the incident at Mobile Mining Station YF-77. That poor, unfortunate station had a wizard for a guest, and that wizard lost control of his magical powers while the mining station was moving to a new drilling site. Bereft of attitude control, the station fell out of stable orbit on a collision course for a deserted, lifeless planet.The crew of the starship Mobius would like everyone to know that they had nothing at all to do with this incident. They had no knowledge of any magical anomaly. They certainly didn't cause it. And they most definitely did not plan to interfere with a team of Convocation investigators, rescue a fugitive from justice, or cause all the steel surfaces on the station to turn rubbery.That was some other ship.Orbital and Moral Decay is the fourteenth mission of Black Galaxy Outlaws, a science fantasy series set in the 26th century. Do you wish there had been a second season of Firefly? Do you love the irreverent fun of Guardians of the Galaxy? Have you ever wondered how Star Wars would have turned out if Luke and Obi-wan had ditched the rebellion to become smugglers with Han and Chewie? Then Black Galaxy Outlaws is the series for you!Pick up your copy of Orbital and Moral Decay, and aim to misbehave with the crew of the Mobius.
173 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 6, 2017
About the author
J.S. Morin
196 books634 followersI am a creator of worlds and a destroyer of words. As a fantasy writer, my works range from traditional epics to futuristic fantasy with starships. I have worked as an unpaid Little League pitcher, a cashier, a student library aide, a factory grunt, a cubicle drone, and an engineer--there is some overlap in the last two.
Through it all, though, I was always a storyteller. Eventually I started writing books based on the stray stories in my head, and people kept telling me to write more of them. Now, that's all I do for a living.
I enjoy strategy, worldbuilding, and the fantasy author's privilege to make up words. I am a gamer, a joker, and a thinker of sideways thoughts. But I don't dance, can't sing, and my best artistic efforts fall short of your average notebook doodle. When you read my books, you are seeing me at my best.
My ultimate goal is to be both clever and right at the same time. I have it on good authority that I have yet to achieve it.
Through it all, though, I was always a storyteller. Eventually I started writing books based on the stray stories in my head, and people kept telling me to write more of them. Now, that's all I do for a living.
I enjoy strategy, worldbuilding, and the fantasy author's privilege to make up words. I am a gamer, a joker, and a thinker of sideways thoughts. But I don't dance, can't sing, and my best artistic efforts fall short of your average notebook doodle. When you read my books, you are seeing me at my best.
My ultimate goal is to be both clever and right at the same time. I have it on good authority that I have yet to achieve it.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 10, 2020
A member of the Mobius family is in need of assistance and Carl Ramsey and crew find their next mission as they travel to Mobile Excavating Station YF-77. Working under the assumption that it is a dire need rescue mission, their arrival triggers a full station search only to find the family member in question enjoying the company of a few local members of the "questionable" side of the station community.
Unfortunately, the Mobius crew are not the only ones searching and soon a confrontation occurs that sends the entire station falling into disaster. And only a dead wizard could be the one to save everything.
Book 14 of the ongoing story of the BLACK OCEAN and the crew of the Mobius is a critical one. It introduces the MES YF-77 and those who are maintaining and running it and sets the stage for the spin off series ASTRAL PRIME co-authored by Jeff Morin and Matt Larkin. If you've read THAT series first then this is the BIG one that answers all the questions and references that fill those pages.
This book feels a little different in tone as the disaster ends up dividing the crew. The last several books in the series has seen Carl, as the captain, turning from a hard line criminal "I'll do anything to survive" type to a more moralistic Robin Hood type who begins to look at his actions as having a decided effect on others. But...when push comes to shove and the survival of the team is at stake, battle lines are drawn among the crew with the natural division between Carl's and Esper's morality coming into play. You'll have to read the book to find out the resolution of that conflict and where it leads to in future stories.
Unfortunately, the Mobius crew are not the only ones searching and soon a confrontation occurs that sends the entire station falling into disaster. And only a dead wizard could be the one to save everything.
Book 14 of the ongoing story of the BLACK OCEAN and the crew of the Mobius is a critical one. It introduces the MES YF-77 and those who are maintaining and running it and sets the stage for the spin off series ASTRAL PRIME co-authored by Jeff Morin and Matt Larkin. If you've read THAT series first then this is the BIG one that answers all the questions and references that fill those pages.
This book feels a little different in tone as the disaster ends up dividing the crew. The last several books in the series has seen Carl, as the captain, turning from a hard line criminal "I'll do anything to survive" type to a more moralistic Robin Hood type who begins to look at his actions as having a decided effect on others. But...when push comes to shove and the survival of the team is at stake, battle lines are drawn among the crew with the natural division between Carl's and Esper's morality coming into play. You'll have to read the book to find out the resolution of that conflict and where it leads to in future stories.
February 28, 2019
Continuously being told that you'll love this series if you "wished for a second season of FIREFLY"...gets a bit tired as it feels like I'm on season 27 of Firefly...
An overlong "adventure" where the Mobius crew finds themselves onboard an orbital mining station that suffers a wizardly failure and begins a VERY slow descent towards the nearby planet. What follows is an equally SLOW attempt to save said mining station.
The only mildly interesting part is a subplot featuring Esper, the consciousness of Mort the wizard who inhabits a space in her mind and Mort's son Cedric, whom Esper wants a relationship with (to the consternation of Mort who has to witness it firsthand).
An overlong "adventure" where the Mobius crew finds themselves onboard an orbital mining station that suffers a wizardly failure and begins a VERY slow descent towards the nearby planet. What follows is an equally SLOW attempt to save said mining station.
The only mildly interesting part is a subplot featuring Esper, the consciousness of Mort the wizard who inhabits a space in her mind and Mort's son Cedric, whom Esper wants a relationship with (to the consternation of Mort who has to witness it firsthand).
March 4, 2020
I enjoyed this one a lot. Rai Kub has taken over Esper's role in questioning the crew's moral choices which goes to show us how much she's changed since the first book of the series. We see more of how Roddy has learned to engineer when magic is jiggered things up, which I liked. And there is a merry hunt for Mort's son on a down-at-the-heels space station which allowed a look at a new environment from some of those dwellers' points of view, albeit brief. All in all, a fun romp.
July 8, 2019
A good episode in the overall arc - some familiar faces make a return to the Mobius crew and it's nice to see the overall story progressing now.
The episode was a bit slower than I liked but overall enjoyable.
Slowly seeing how the ending's going to turn out.
3.36 / 5
The episode was a bit slower than I liked but overall enjoyable.
Slowly seeing how the ending's going to turn out.
3.36 / 5
March 31, 2018
In the 14th story, we run into Cedric again. Esper receives an emergency call, he is in trouble and needs help desperately. Whilst a few of the crew (some of the newer members), have reservations), most of the crew, including Carl and Esper, have no problems with dropping everything and going after Mort’s kid to help him.
When they find him though, things just go from bad to worse, Cedric has gone into hiding, and when they find him, they also find to Convocation Wizards who stupidly try and take Cedric, who has other ideas.
In the middle of all of this magic, the poor mining station that they are on, where they have gone to find and rescue Cedric, is suddenly unbalanced in the finer balances of physical forces of the universe. When all that Sciency wizmagig stuff stops working, Station YF-77 suddenly finds itself with a minor issue, that it is out of stable orbit with the planet it is meant to be orbiting, and is now falling to certain doom.
Of course, this leaves the crew in a bit of a predicament, do they save themselves, they know how to fix the Mobius and flee, or given that it was Cedric that caused it, do they stay and try to help.
When they decide to stay and help, things become critical as the crew is in a desperate race against time to save thousands of lives, including their own. And this time, they don’t have Mort to help them.
Again, this is a change in the story arc’s we have seen from the initial series, with the crew having matured somewhat, and also now having different agenda’s (with partners, thinking of kids and settling down), making them more altruistic. Morin has really allowed his characters to grow, and it is the depth in the characters, the maturity that has really given the story an extra edge.
Whilst the stories are still the same consistent brilliance that we always expect from Morin, the shift in crew roster, as well as the sense of responsibility and the experience that the crew has now gained from their time in the Black Ocean has really allowed for a new path for the series and one that is being done exceptionally well by Morin.
As always, these stories are just too much fun, and once you pick them up, they are hard to put down (you know how it is, 1am in the morning, have to be up at 6am, but ok, just one more chapter, have to find out what is going to happen to Esper, or Rai Kub, or Carl, will Roddy fix it? There are a lot of good Sci-Fi stories out there at the moment, but there is nothing as good as Black Ocean, this just covers all the bases.
When they find him though, things just go from bad to worse, Cedric has gone into hiding, and when they find him, they also find to Convocation Wizards who stupidly try and take Cedric, who has other ideas.
In the middle of all of this magic, the poor mining station that they are on, where they have gone to find and rescue Cedric, is suddenly unbalanced in the finer balances of physical forces of the universe. When all that Sciency wizmagig stuff stops working, Station YF-77 suddenly finds itself with a minor issue, that it is out of stable orbit with the planet it is meant to be orbiting, and is now falling to certain doom.
Of course, this leaves the crew in a bit of a predicament, do they save themselves, they know how to fix the Mobius and flee, or given that it was Cedric that caused it, do they stay and try to help.
When they decide to stay and help, things become critical as the crew is in a desperate race against time to save thousands of lives, including their own. And this time, they don’t have Mort to help them.
Again, this is a change in the story arc’s we have seen from the initial series, with the crew having matured somewhat, and also now having different agenda’s (with partners, thinking of kids and settling down), making them more altruistic. Morin has really allowed his characters to grow, and it is the depth in the characters, the maturity that has really given the story an extra edge.
Whilst the stories are still the same consistent brilliance that we always expect from Morin, the shift in crew roster, as well as the sense of responsibility and the experience that the crew has now gained from their time in the Black Ocean has really allowed for a new path for the series and one that is being done exceptionally well by Morin.
As always, these stories are just too much fun, and once you pick them up, they are hard to put down (you know how it is, 1am in the morning, have to be up at 6am, but ok, just one more chapter, have to find out what is going to happen to Esper, or Rai Kub, or Carl, will Roddy fix it? There are a lot of good Sci-Fi stories out there at the moment, but there is nothing as good as Black Ocean, this just covers all the bases.
April 28, 2026
My Slightly Sarcastic But Ultimately Honest Book Rating System:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 Stars): This book achieved legendary status in my personal library. I will likely reread it until the pages fall out (or my e-reader spontaneously combusts). Consider this my enthusiastic endorsement – you should probably read it unless you actively dislike joy.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 Stars): A truly excellent read! I enjoyed it immensely and would heartily recommend it to fellow bookworms. You might even catch me subtly pushing it into their hands.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 Stars): Yep, it was a book I read. I turned the pages, absorbed the words, and emerged...unchanged. It was a pleasant enough journey, like a scenic detour that you wouldn't necessarily take again, but didn't regret.
⭐️⭐️ (2 Stars): This book existed. I finished it. That's about the highest praise I can offer. If you're looking for something truly captivating, maybe keep scrolling. This one's more of an "it filled the silence" kind of experience.
⭐️ (1 Star): Oh dear. This book and I did not get along. It was a literary tumbleweed in the vast desert of good books. Consider this a strong "do not recommend," unless you're conducting research on what not to do in storytelling.
Disclaimer: My enjoyment of the narrator is based on my listening speed. I only leave 5 stars for books I've read/listened to or will read/listen to multiple times. If you like this review please consider giving it a Helpful Vote below.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 Stars): This book achieved legendary status in my personal library. I will likely reread it until the pages fall out (or my e-reader spontaneously combusts). Consider this my enthusiastic endorsement – you should probably read it unless you actively dislike joy.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 Stars): A truly excellent read! I enjoyed it immensely and would heartily recommend it to fellow bookworms. You might even catch me subtly pushing it into their hands.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 Stars): Yep, it was a book I read. I turned the pages, absorbed the words, and emerged...unchanged. It was a pleasant enough journey, like a scenic detour that you wouldn't necessarily take again, but didn't regret.
⭐️⭐️ (2 Stars): This book existed. I finished it. That's about the highest praise I can offer. If you're looking for something truly captivating, maybe keep scrolling. This one's more of an "it filled the silence" kind of experience.
⭐️ (1 Star): Oh dear. This book and I did not get along. It was a literary tumbleweed in the vast desert of good books. Consider this a strong "do not recommend," unless you're conducting research on what not to do in storytelling.
Disclaimer: My enjoyment of the narrator is based on my listening speed. I only leave 5 stars for books I've read/listened to or will read/listen to multiple times. If you like this review please consider giving it a Helpful Vote below.
November 2, 2023
The Mobius crew receive a distress call from Mort's son who finds himself on the run from the Convocation. He's hiding out on a giant mobile mining station and Carl and friends have to bail him out. Naturally, you guessed it, everything goes horribly wrong. You can imagine that having some rogue wizards and the convocation clashing on an entirely tech-dependent space station being a bad idea. Like the whole moon crash, this story feels big. The characters all play important roles and the stakes are high. In the end, the chips are starting to settle and we can start to see the characters, who typically didn't think further ahead than the next job, thinking about their futures. Everyone has come a long way, even if they have changed rather slowly. I'm sure we'll see more of this in the next story.
May 4, 2018
I bought the complete 'BLACK OCEAN' series, 1 - 16.5, from Audible.
O.5 from Kindle.
85 hours.
So much fun.
In my mind I'm seeing 'FIREFLY,' and 'PHULE'S COMPANY. '
SO MUCH FUN!
I am almost finished #16, and am so dreading having to say goodbye to the 'Mobius' and it's crew.
But, given that I've read every one of 'PHULE'S' stories twice, and watched 'FIREFLY' twice, there's every chance I'll revisit the Galaxy Outlaws at least one more time.
I'll say it again ...
SO MUCH FUN!
(If you can relate to music and movies from 1969 -1985, so much the better 😂)
O.5 from Kindle.
85 hours.
So much fun.
In my mind I'm seeing 'FIREFLY,' and 'PHULE'S COMPANY. '
SO MUCH FUN!
I am almost finished #16, and am so dreading having to say goodbye to the 'Mobius' and it's crew.
But, given that I've read every one of 'PHULE'S' stories twice, and watched 'FIREFLY' twice, there's every chance I'll revisit the Galaxy Outlaws at least one more time.
I'll say it again ...
SO MUCH FUN!
(If you can relate to music and movies from 1969 -1985, so much the better 😂)
June 2, 2017
Love the Black Ocean
I love the "Black Ocean" Series. This episode was no exception. J. S. Morin definitely has a way with words . He can take a near tragedy and make it humorous. Take total panic and give it the ol' Carl twist of everything will be alright. And, he can take total heartbreak and well make it total heartbreak. Androgynous who has ever read any of the missions doesn't need cheering on. You already know. Just read it.
I love the "Black Ocean" Series. This episode was no exception. J. S. Morin definitely has a way with words . He can take a near tragedy and make it humorous. Take total panic and give it the ol' Carl twist of everything will be alright. And, he can take total heartbreak and well make it total heartbreak. Androgynous who has ever read any of the missions doesn't need cheering on. You already know. Just read it.
June 29, 2019
Another good story, and I think a good continuation with the changes that have been made. For those interested this is also.. basically the start of Astral Prime series, which was not as much of a start as I expected while reading those books. Either there is more ahead of the crew here or that is just relayed within the pages of Astral Prime itself.
January 17, 2019
If you were uncomfortable with wizards in space, then you might want to skip this one... it's very space wizardy. Meanwhile, the crew matures further and we can forsee the end of the series from here. Our quest continues!
March 29, 2021
Having received a distress call from Mort's son Cedric, the Mobius crew go looking for him. Finding him on a mining ship, they are confronted by his persuers and then uncontrolled magic makes a bad decision worse. Good story as the crew again come unstuck, trying to do the right thing.
February 10, 2018
Another great read in the series in which the crew help a friend in distress and Esper works a miracle.
June 4, 2018
The Möbius rides again for the fourteenth time, getting close to the end of the series but its been fun all the way.
July 6, 2018
I really feel like the series is back on track after some faltering. This was an enjoyable installment. Glad to finally see the effects of big time magic and big time technology butting heads.
November 19, 2018
Another imaginative adventure in the speculative future!
April 21, 2019
Not as good as the others in the series. I think the author is starting to struggle with ideas that could be used for plots.
January 4, 2021
The Möbius rides again for the fourteenth time, getting close to the end of the series but its been fun all the way.
April 15, 2021
Good things abound. And I slowly feel the approach to the ending of the series. One thing I appreciated about this "mission" was its singular location on the space station.
May 22, 2023
This was a fun one. Part really messes everything up, and have to put it back together. Or run away. Or both. You know how they are by now.
July 19, 2023
There was a lot of filler in this book, but the ending was great!
January 22, 2024
3.5 stars
June 10, 2025
Another fun adventure.
June 6, 2024
Esper's powers are really starting to grow, but the crew of the Mobius is not as cohesive as it once was.
July 22, 2019
That was a fun read. As always, they find themselves in a bind. It took a bit, but they got out of it. Esper did some cool magic. Plus, we got to know Mort's son, Cedric more. It's a good addition to the story.
June 27, 2018
I figured out one thing that is bothering me about these books. Rode's alcoholism is a major factor in the books, they mention it and how sad and awful it is fairly often. But, beyond social stigma, there are no negative effects. He is never too drunk to do his job, we don't find him passed out in a pool of vomit, he hasn't even said something drunk that he regrets sober. For as significant a facet of Rode's character as it is presented as, it doesn't affect him more than cravings and being grumpy.
Not a huge thing, but it has been tickling the back of my mind for a few books now.
Not a huge thing, but it has been tickling the back of my mind for a few books now.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews