It is hard to review any of the Black Ocean series on their own as the fit so neatly together. It is certainly easy to read them as stand-alone novels but the body of work J.S Morin is putting together hear is as interesting as the characters which make up the series

Ceres (Universe Eventual Book 3)
I was sent a review copy of the third book in the Universe Eternal series, which reminded me I hadn’t read the second book. Since I’d enjoyed Chimera, the first book so much I decided to binge, buying Helios, and then diving into Ceres.

One of the fascinating parts of this series I’m finding is that we are talking youthful characters stepping up to take on big roles in their worlds. This continues as the Chimera travels to find an older colony ship, Ceres. The first book laid out the generational reasons for the ships crews to be so young, and in a way this latest episode develops the characters as the young people would be developing in their own right.

Add in another world, a lost society, another psychopath, and a couple of new young characters and Ceres is a gift to sci-fi. I can’t wait until the next in the series.

Following Chimera, this second book in the series follows most of the same characters and has a similar set of features including the rites of passage. That said, we shouldn’t expect this to be just an update on book one as some of the characters gain significant depth, and some just die.

In Marcus you have a complete psychopath, comfortable at manipulating others to get to his goals, and killing them if they threaten him. Of all the characters Selena’s and Theo’s develops the most, though in very different ways.

Being only the second book in a series don’t be looking for ‘happily ever after’ but do expect gripping hard sci-fi.Helios (Universe Eventual) (Volume 2)