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Astral Prime #5
Systemic Treachery: Mission 5
An old foe returns to collect a high price.
The syndicate had given her an ultimatum: disappear. Watched and wary, Fujita Hiroko obeyed for years, burying herself in work. Now one of the galaxy's most recognized faces, owner of the universe's must-see tourist trap, she can't hide any longer.
And that's going to cost her.
The Ruckers don't take kindly to loose ends, and they don't want their history with the station director coming to light. Already struggling to keep up with the demands of the massive influx of pilgrims, scientists, and tourists to Astral Prime, Hiroko won't be prepared for what's coming her way. All the new security personnel won't be enough to stop the assassin.
Because the assassin has help on the inside.
The syndicate had given her an ultimatum: disappear. Watched and wary, Fujita Hiroko obeyed for years, burying herself in work. Now one of the galaxy's most recognized faces, owner of the universe's must-see tourist trap, she can't hide any longer.
And that's going to cost her.
The Ruckers don't take kindly to loose ends, and they don't want their history with the station director coming to light. Already struggling to keep up with the demands of the massive influx of pilgrims, scientists, and tourists to Astral Prime, Hiroko won't be prepared for what's coming her way. All the new security personnel won't be enough to stop the assassin.
Because the assassin has help on the inside.
148 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 25, 2019
4 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
J.S. Morin
193 books620 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 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 13, 2020
These books in this series are all just so much fun - in the classic space opera style. I'm really enjoying them a lot.
This one is a transition for the next book, ending on a cliff hanger. But it added an interesting new character and made some interesting preparation for the future.
This one is a transition for the next book, ending on a cliff hanger. But it added an interesting new character and made some interesting preparation for the future.
July 9, 2019
The wall around the system was gone, but the Shadow Planet itself was not unprotected. Cedric the Brown remained as the only guardian between the Vaieen tech and the rest of the worlds and powers in the galaxy that wants what's hidden there for their own purposes. But while the Astral Prime (AKA YF-77) has become the focal point and hub for everyone and their semi-intelligent pets looking to make a profit... discover a new god... or simply experience the wonder of setting foot on what may be the only known remains of the creators of the multitude and multiplicity of life throughout all the known systems, there are others who care nothing about the planet, or its tech. These others want revenge for imagined … or not so imagined … slights and they plan to have it, regardless of the decimation that it may leave in its wake. And, with the strongest weapon the station has removing itself to take up sole guardianship of the newly discovered planet, the station is left to its own crew and defenses...and those may not be exactly what they were thought to be.
Morin and Larkin have laid down this the 5th chapter in the saga of the ASTRAL PRIME station and the strange and mysterious world of the Shadow Planet. They have continued to build on the rich detail and the well conceived beings who populate these stories...and...while the series itself is named after the aforementioned deep space station, the real story is about the people and their interactions with others and the strangeness found within the Black Ocean.
While this is book #5 and starts off a new story arc, readers who are first come to the series should procure as many of the previous 4 as possible so that they are aware of the personal dynamics and get the general lay of the land. The authors tightly intertwine their plots and story arcs so that needs and motivations, while touched on in the continuing stories are most fully flowered in the previous adventures.
Morin and Larkin have laid down this the 5th chapter in the saga of the ASTRAL PRIME station and the strange and mysterious world of the Shadow Planet. They have continued to build on the rich detail and the well conceived beings who populate these stories...and...while the series itself is named after the aforementioned deep space station, the real story is about the people and their interactions with others and the strangeness found within the Black Ocean.
While this is book #5 and starts off a new story arc, readers who are first come to the series should procure as many of the previous 4 as possible so that they are aware of the personal dynamics and get the general lay of the land. The authors tightly intertwine their plots and story arcs so that needs and motivations, while touched on in the continuing stories are most fully flowered in the previous adventures.
June 25, 2019
Systemic Treachery is certainly one of the more full on episodes of the Black Ocean series, and certainly of the Astral Prime series, even given what occurs with the Vaieen, and the darkness that we see with Cedric falling towards.
The episode picks up some time after the events that ended in episode 4, in which the station found Shadow Planet, the race called the Vaieen, and that led to the stand-off between the Eyndar, Zheen and Earth Navy, before Cedric the Brown ended the conflict with a show of immense wizardly power that now everyone is terrified of him. Since then Cedric has announced that he is the first of the ‘Prime Guardians’ of Shadow Planet, and has taken on the role of safe guarding the Vaieen complex, making sure that whilst he will allow visits to the sites by approved cultural, religious and archaeological teams, no one will be allowed to remove anything from it.
As a result, YF-77, the former mining station has now become ‘Astral Prime’, the primary space station for taking on visitors and guests that will visit the site, housing and entertaining them until they leave.
This means the majority of the characters from the first ‘Series’ remain on the station as we saw at the end, Hiroko and Kendra are now running a tourist operation more than a mining station, Myo Tam is back as a diplomat, but with a difference. Jace Jarvis is also back as a station advisor. Another character that had an interesting ending in the first series was Kane, and he is also in the new series, along with his Vaieen passengers, making for an interesting storyline.
Cedric and Heather Williams are on the surface conducting tours of the Vaieen complex.
In this new series we have multiple storylines to explore, and the team of Morin and Larkin have provided an exceptional start to the new series. The main storyline sees the Rucker Syndicate coming back to clean up Hiroko, and this ties in many of the characters. However, as other storylines, Cedric continues his investigation of the Vaieen, and this leads to some fascinating results, there is an interesting visit from a Laaku Monk, Zoti, to both the Station and the Complex, with some surprising outcomes, and it wouldn’t be Astral Prime without a scheme from Zane.
This is a fast moving, action packed story, with just extraordinary world building again from the Black Ocean Universe, and absolutely exceptional Character work. This episode has some darker elements to it though, giving it an edge we don’t see in the Black Ocean Universe that often. However, there is still a lot of the expected humour that we have come to love in this series that makes it so much fun to read.
Systematic Treachery shows that, after over 30+ stories in the Black Ocean Universe, the Authors are still creating outstanding stories, as this is easily one of the best stories yet for its clever writing, gripping plot, brilliant characters, and the ability to grab you so you just have to keep reading until it is finished. Don’t miss it!!!!
The episode picks up some time after the events that ended in episode 4, in which the station found Shadow Planet, the race called the Vaieen, and that led to the stand-off between the Eyndar, Zheen and Earth Navy, before Cedric the Brown ended the conflict with a show of immense wizardly power that now everyone is terrified of him. Since then Cedric has announced that he is the first of the ‘Prime Guardians’ of Shadow Planet, and has taken on the role of safe guarding the Vaieen complex, making sure that whilst he will allow visits to the sites by approved cultural, religious and archaeological teams, no one will be allowed to remove anything from it.
As a result, YF-77, the former mining station has now become ‘Astral Prime’, the primary space station for taking on visitors and guests that will visit the site, housing and entertaining them until they leave.
This means the majority of the characters from the first ‘Series’ remain on the station as we saw at the end, Hiroko and Kendra are now running a tourist operation more than a mining station, Myo Tam is back as a diplomat, but with a difference. Jace Jarvis is also back as a station advisor. Another character that had an interesting ending in the first series was Kane, and he is also in the new series, along with his Vaieen passengers, making for an interesting storyline.
Cedric and Heather Williams are on the surface conducting tours of the Vaieen complex.
In this new series we have multiple storylines to explore, and the team of Morin and Larkin have provided an exceptional start to the new series. The main storyline sees the Rucker Syndicate coming back to clean up Hiroko, and this ties in many of the characters. However, as other storylines, Cedric continues his investigation of the Vaieen, and this leads to some fascinating results, there is an interesting visit from a Laaku Monk, Zoti, to both the Station and the Complex, with some surprising outcomes, and it wouldn’t be Astral Prime without a scheme from Zane.
This is a fast moving, action packed story, with just extraordinary world building again from the Black Ocean Universe, and absolutely exceptional Character work. This episode has some darker elements to it though, giving it an edge we don’t see in the Black Ocean Universe that often. However, there is still a lot of the expected humour that we have come to love in this series that makes it so much fun to read.
Systematic Treachery shows that, after over 30+ stories in the Black Ocean Universe, the Authors are still creating outstanding stories, as this is easily one of the best stories yet for its clever writing, gripping plot, brilliant characters, and the ability to grab you so you just have to keep reading until it is finished. Don’t miss it!!!!
June 25, 2019
Our favorite wizard Cedric is brooding. Seems that his duties on Shadow Planet are becoming too much for his assistant and lover Heather. All he wants to do is browse the Vaieen archieve and find answers to his questions about the universe and she just wants him to take a break. So Heather calls in an old wizard friend of hers that she trusts for an interview.
Zoti turns out to be quite the character. He's a seeker monk and a Laaku. He's highly trained in a deadly Laaku form of Kung-fu but is trained for peace. So, what is he to do when Astral Prime hires him on find an assassin? Why, go about it peacefully until he has no other choice. (He is after all a monk with a past). I like this character and I hope he sticks around. Maybe Cedric will see reason and decides he does need a vacation after all.
As for the reason Zoti is hired, I will not add any spoilers. Just to say you will see some characters you love and some you love to hate.
And, hey what's that in the sky? Is it a bird? A plane? A ship? Oh no! It's a Earth-Navy vessel!
Zoti turns out to be quite the character. He's a seeker monk and a Laaku. He's highly trained in a deadly Laaku form of Kung-fu but is trained for peace. So, what is he to do when Astral Prime hires him on find an assassin? Why, go about it peacefully until he has no other choice. (He is after all a monk with a past). I like this character and I hope he sticks around. Maybe Cedric will see reason and decides he does need a vacation after all.
As for the reason Zoti is hired, I will not add any spoilers. Just to say you will see some characters you love and some you love to hate.
And, hey what's that in the sky? Is it a bird? A plane? A ship? Oh no! It's a Earth-Navy vessel!
June 4, 2022
All these ran together and I didn't update. But we find the reason there's multiple earths gotta fight extra-universal aliens and the ancients who created us. In the end sacrifice for the many saves the whole universe.
July 24, 2023
Great book love the story and the book narration can’t wait to listen to the next one I highly recommend this book 📖
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️😀👍
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️😀👍
June 16, 2024
Things are really starting to heat up, and take a turn more towards Stranger in a Strange Land.
January 14, 2025
Well, that was unexpected. 3.25 stars.
July 8, 2019
Time has passed since the end of Prime Guardian. Cedric The Brown has taken up permanent residence on The Shadow Planet. Astral Prime has been turned into a way-station for tourists who want to visit the Shadow Planet and tour it.
Cedric has become a reluctant tour guide who would prefer to spend his time studying the vaieen, the progenitors of all life in our universe.
Heather has become his on-again off-again more than a companion. On Astral Prime Hiroko Fujika is juggling the running of the station and the wants and desires of many and myriad individuals and aliens, all with help of Kendra, her able assistant who is in love with her.
But all is not as semi-calm as it seems. Underneath there is treachery, duplicity, and just plain criminal avarice and greed and a willingness to do anything to enrich oneself or gain an advantage. The Ruckers want to see Hiroko dead and gone.
The reach of the Rucker Syndicate, a mafia like organization centered on Mars, extends from Mars across the Universe to Astral Prime and has agents working to knock off Hiroko.
While there are no space battles in this volume there is plenty of other stuff going on to keep you enthralled and entranced as you read this and follow the characters. New characters are introduced, some with unique qualities and some that are just plain evil. Some of the new2 characters are forced to reevaluate vows of behavior they have taken to prevent a greater evil from taking place. And in the wings is the ship of the Earth Navy that wants to assume control of Astral Prime and the Shadow Planet.
The action is non-stop and once you pick it up and start to read you won’t want to put it down until it is finished. However, you will be left with a need to see what is going to happen Book 6 of Astral Prime
June 27, 2019
While Cedric tries to keep dangerous tech and information out of unscrupulous hands (which in his mind means out of everyone's grasp), an assassin roams Astral Prime with Hiroko as his target, though he's not loathe to put others in jeopardy to achieve his goal. When one of Cedric's few friends gets caught in the crossfire, the wizard allows a small piece of alien tech off Shadow Planet, then determines such will never happen again, causing most to see him as an arrogant tyrant with delusions of godhood. Hiroko, meanwhile, must deal with traitors aboard her station.
We see more of life on Astral Prime, including the underbelly where both the downtrodden (out of work miners, druggies, whores) and those who take advantage of misfortune and corruption (black marketers, thugs, mercenaries) try to make a living. These stand in stark contrast to those who run Astral Prime and those who have come looking for profit or higher meaning above a world believed to house the mystery of life's beginnings.
I enjoyed the introduction of Zoti, the newest addition to the cast of Astral Prime. Interesting to see where this series will go given the chaos left at the end of the book.
We see more of life on Astral Prime, including the underbelly where both the downtrodden (out of work miners, druggies, whores) and those who take advantage of misfortune and corruption (black marketers, thugs, mercenaries) try to make a living. These stand in stark contrast to those who run Astral Prime and those who have come looking for profit or higher meaning above a world believed to house the mystery of life's beginnings.
I enjoyed the introduction of Zoti, the newest addition to the cast of Astral Prime. Interesting to see where this series will go given the chaos left at the end of the book.
June 25, 2019
J.S. Morin and M.A. Larkin are back with the latest Black Ocean: Astral Prime tale, Systemic Treachery: Mission 5, and boy is this a doozy. It’s the start of a new story arc, and an assassin sent by the Rucker Syndicate aiming to get Fujita Hiroko, the station commander. We are in for done rough sealing - and it’s off to a fun start. Best read from book 1 (or even better to start with the predecessor series), if you’ve no inclination for that this this is a good point for a mid-series start. But for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review to my husband from my hospital bed I could go on and on with praises. The book definitely deserves it. Since I can’t do that I will simply note that the book is most definitely one to read, and it is easy to highly recommend. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.
June 25, 2019
Ummmm... What.. Wow.. Oh... I'm not ready to write a review maybe. I was not expecting such an ending... I liked the new character Zoti. Very interesting and adds a nice dynamic to the story. The more Cedric uncovers is nice but at some point this needs to come to a head. I'm still not over that ending...
On other thoughts a day after finishing… there were characters that felt a bit recycled in other characters and some of the storylines of previous important characters were almost ignored in this one. This felt much more like a television series episode, but I did enjoy it and will continue to follow the story as it gets released.
On other thoughts a day after finishing… there were characters that felt a bit recycled in other characters and some of the storylines of previous important characters were almost ignored in this one. This felt much more like a television series episode, but I did enjoy it and will continue to follow the story as it gets released.
June 25, 2019
We return to mining station YF-77, now known as Astral Prime. Life has started to fall into routine aboard the station, as Cedric works to unravel the mysteries of the Shadow Planet and the enigmatic Vaieen. Things are thrown into disarray when an assassin sent by the Rucker Syndicate arrives, intento on cashing in on an old assassination order by putting an end to the station's commander. This story was a little slow to get going, but as it is setting up the next stage in the Astral Prime adventure, it has plenty of setup for things to come
July 14, 2019
When last we left our plucky band of inadvertent explorers of the astral, they were defending the galaxy's biggest secret, and trove of its most powerful tech, against warships from every empire in the galaxy. Should be nothing but peace and quiet after that, right?
This novel is clearly the opening salvo in another galaxy-shaking long arc. And Morin pulls no punches. I look forward to the revelations of more Vaieen mysteries. Will we learn the origins of intelligent life in the galaxy? Only if some of our heroes survive!
This novel is clearly the opening salvo in another galaxy-shaking long arc. And Morin pulls no punches. I look forward to the revelations of more Vaieen mysteries. Will we learn the origins of intelligent life in the galaxy? Only if some of our heroes survive!
June 25, 2019
Lots of action and tragedy along with some new characters. Rather than being a complete story, this book is setting the stage for things to come. A good read, but I'm already read for the next book.
The new wizard is quite a fun character that I'm looking forward to getting to know better.
The new wizard is quite a fun character that I'm looking forward to getting to know better.
December 10, 2023
Here's something I don't understand. I'm reading this series because I like the stories and I like the characters. What should I do now that one of the main characters has been killed off? I don't think I want to read any more of this series.
December 5, 2019
Another great Black Ocean book. Some new characters were being added and flushed out, I am sure they will have a bigger role moving forward.
January 16, 2020
I want to see Cedric go full Mort.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews