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In the Ironsworn tabletop roleplaying game, you are a hero sworn to undertake perilous quests …
This is probably the gateway drug. This will probably awaken something inside me.
Tiamat's Wrath is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name …
Content warning Vague plot spoilers
There's a lot to say about this book. It reminds me a lot of the first three books in the series, especially in terms of pacing. There's never a moment where the story stops happening, except maybe to build on some of the characters. The pacing is incredible, and sets up the final book in a way that had me both excited to finish the series and dreading the end - I genuinely don't want this to be over.
This book was incredibly well-paced. I won't spoil anything, but there's a major character death involved, but it happens during one of the massive battles in the book. But the others can't really stop, and instead, they carry that with them until the end of the book. When you finally get a chance to take a breath, you realize there's one more thing to do: you have to mourn with the remaining crew of the Roci. It's such a brilliant, well-written moment that truly reflects what it must be like to lose someone you love in battle, but having to continue fighting.
I'm taking a bit of a breather before Leviathan Falls, but good lord, I can't wait to see how all this ends up.
This makes me mad it was the only view we got of Laconia in the show, first of all.
Second of all, this short is completely brilliant, and I suspect even would be out-of-context. I feel like if someone had never read the Expanse, I could hand them this story to get a taste of it.
A revolution brewing for generations has begun in fire. It will end in blood.
The …
Content warning Discussion of plot and ending
I loved the setup and ride for this book. It was great. It's a lot like book 2, in that a massive system-wide war has broken out as a result of the previous book.
That said, some of the POV chapters felt a bit scattered. Don't know if some of the Medina Station Belters are included because they'll be characters in later books, or if there was just a need to show what was happening there. But those chapters felt out of place. But then you have the return of my boy Prax, who basically goes soft revolutionary from behind enemy lines. Not necessarily a guerrilla, but acting true to who we know him to be, showing that being human during a war isn't all about shooting the other side.
I did appreciate that aspect of the story, in that this is also a civil war amongst the different factions of the Belt at the same time it's a war of the Belt versus the inner planets. There's discussion of what a civil war is actually like, how sometimes you're shooting at friends or relatives. How there's that added level of guilt.
But the end sort of kicks the feet out from under the rest of the book. Usually I like it when the crew "sciences the shit" out of things, to borrow a term from Andy Weir. In this case, it felt like a deus ex machina, and a very literal one at that. If you watch the show, the ending is not substantially different from how the show ended (this is the final book used for the show, with the exception of some of the Laconia stuff that is still to come, I'm assuming), with one exception for a specific character (who I won't name). It almost felt like they'd written themselves into a corner and then didn't know how to get out. I was expecting something a little different....but then again, there's 3 more books, and while they've had their weaker narratives, the series as a whole seems to recover. So looking forward to what's next.
...but still a good listen on audiobook. It's like an 8 hour show covering a VERY broad range of very interesting topics relating to the question "what causes a society to collapse?" There's some real bangers in there, and I thought one of the best was "does abusing children lead to a more fragile society?"
The downside is with such a broad range, you don't get a lot of the detail that you get from the show, which typically focuses on one historical narrative rather than a broad question (with the exception of the Blitz or Addendum episodes). And a lot of the things that are detailed are either later topics focused in modernity or topics we've heard a bunch about, like the Greeks, Romans, Huns, etc.
The narration is good, though it's almost the same cadence that he uses in the show when he's quoting someone else, and then …
...but still a good listen on audiobook. It's like an 8 hour show covering a VERY broad range of very interesting topics relating to the question "what causes a society to collapse?" There's some real bangers in there, and I thought one of the best was "does abusing children lead to a more fragile society?"
The downside is with such a broad range, you don't get a lot of the detail that you get from the show, which typically focuses on one historical narrative rather than a broad question (with the exception of the Blitz or Addendum episodes). And a lot of the things that are detailed are either later topics focused in modernity or topics we've heard a bunch about, like the Greeks, Romans, Huns, etc.
The narration is good, though it's almost the same cadence that he uses in the show when he's quoting someone else, and then when someone is quoted in the audiobook, he -really- throws himself into it.
But, all-in-all, it's like an 8 hour Blitz episode. I enjoyed it, but I'm also a massive DC fanboy.
Somewhere in the vast expanse of space, a group of prisoners lives in permanent captivity. …
(Creep as in 'creepy', not creep as in 'sex pest')
Probably one of the stranger shorts I've read in the series so far. The POV is extremely unique, and it answers a lot of questions I've had until now. Hopefully I'm not spoiling too much by reading everything in order, but this one is absolutely fantastic.
The fifth novel in Corey's New York Times bestselling Expanse series.
A thousand worlds have …
This one was one of the more interesting entries in the series and it does something a little different: every character sort of goes off to do their own thing, and they all have to deal with what's happening in the solar system at the time. Every character gets POV chapters throughout the book dedicated to them, allowing some insight into characters from the Roci who aren't James Holden, which is nice. Not to say James Holden hasn't grown on me as a character, but his chapters can be a little too "boy scout" for me.
This is another book where the politics of the solar system are a main factor, and in a huge way. Everything revolves around the diaspora of the Roci's crew and how they weather the consequences of what's going on around them, and eventually get back to where they're supposed to be.
This book also …
This one was one of the more interesting entries in the series and it does something a little different: every character sort of goes off to do their own thing, and they all have to deal with what's happening in the solar system at the time. Every character gets POV chapters throughout the book dedicated to them, allowing some insight into characters from the Roci who aren't James Holden, which is nice. Not to say James Holden hasn't grown on me as a character, but his chapters can be a little too "boy scout" for me.
This is another book where the politics of the solar system are a main factor, and in a huge way. Everything revolves around the diaspora of the Roci's crew and how they weather the consequences of what's going on around them, and eventually get back to where they're supposed to be.
This book also sets up another villain in a great way, one I'm familiar with from the show, but you get a better depth of the character and how manipulative he is from Naomi's viewpoint, based on her past. It was a great way to show who the threat was and why, rather than just having information relayed to Holden by other characters through the book.
This book almost reads like the setup for the "next big part" of the series, with a war looming and mysteries yet to be solved. Time to move on to book six and see how it turns out.
At this point, this is one of the better sci-fi series I've ever read. I still haven't found a disappointing entry.
Enter a new frontier. "An empty apartment, a missing family, that's creepy. But this …
Finally reaching a point in this series where I am reading books I hadn't read yet. Impressed with how each one I like a little more than the one before it, with maybe the exception of book 2, mostly because there are some bangers of lines from Avasarala in that one...but this one probably has my favorite line from her.
This one is basically a frontier space western. A new Sheriff comes to town to go toe-to-toe with the mining company that is trying to stake a claim on a lawless world. I think the book sums itself up well with the line "The frontier doesn't have laws, it has cops."
As a result, the political intrigue that backbones the series becomes a lot more close-up and intense. There's a theme of how thin the line between enemy and ally really is, especially when survival is on the line.
On …
Finally reaching a point in this series where I am reading books I hadn't read yet. Impressed with how each one I like a little more than the one before it, with maybe the exception of book 2, mostly because there are some bangers of lines from Avasarala in that one...but this one probably has my favorite line from her.
This one is basically a frontier space western. A new Sheriff comes to town to go toe-to-toe with the mining company that is trying to stake a claim on a lawless world. I think the book sums itself up well with the line "The frontier doesn't have laws, it has cops."
As a result, the political intrigue that backbones the series becomes a lot more close-up and intense. There's a theme of how thin the line between enemy and ally really is, especially when survival is on the line.
On top of that, the scientists and engineers of the Expanse universe get a lot more screen-time, which scratches the "competency porn" itch that the series sort of teases at sometimes. If you liked it when Andy Weir had his protagonist "science the shit" out of a string of bad situations, you'll like this book.
I am looking forward to getting beyond the books coveted by the show, and I think either the next book or the one after should get me there.
I mean how could it not be. The only thing I like more than a Bobbie Draper is an Amos Burton. It's a gritty and dark origin for a gritty and dark character that shows how he ended up being a wrecking ball that just needed a moral compass.
Props to the authors for making it weird, but not shockingly gross. There's volumes in what parts aren't told, and that's a good thing. I feel like they really pared down what was actually important to the character in the story.
As tension between Mars and Earth mounts, and terrorism plagues the Martian city of Londres …
Don't get me wrong, the story is great. It's almost like an episode of Breaking Bad set in space. But there's something small about it that means it's more of a diversion from the story I have been reading
But that's okay! This was almost like a William Gibson short set in a hard sci-fi space epic. For a little while, you can forget the protomolecule, the ring, the stars. Forget everything and there's just this little story on Mars where the stakes aren't as high, but they kind of are in their own way.
Also, it gave me more Gunny Draper and that's the hallmark of most of my favorite Expanse moments.
It's Fred Johnson's introduction to the OPA. It's how the belt reconciled what happened at Anderson Station, and how Fred felt about it. It was context dearly missing from the show (unless I just don't remember it), because previously the character never talked about it.
I liked it. Very cool premise, very good execution. It's a small bone, but there's meat on it.
Abaddon's Gate is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey (pen name of …
The end of the second book was SO GOOD to me. Like we got this sort of extension of a war over the unknown from the first book, but the politcal games had much higher stakes. And then EVERYTHING GOES SUPER WEIRD and you're left with the "To be continued..." floating on the proverbial screen.
This is my first re-read of the first 3 books, but this was the book I remembered the least about. And it's something of a bottle episode, but in the tradition of the best bottle episodes, there are stakes afoot. And better yet, there's a massive grey area for those stakes, at least from the point-of-view of some characters.
The finale is easily the best action-movie plot we've gotten in the series so far. It was simple, well executed, and a helluva lot of fun to read.
My only complaint is that Bull almost seems …
The end of the second book was SO GOOD to me. Like we got this sort of extension of a war over the unknown from the first book, but the politcal games had much higher stakes. And then EVERYTHING GOES SUPER WEIRD and you're left with the "To be continued..." floating on the proverbial screen.
This is my first re-read of the first 3 books, but this was the book I remembered the least about. And it's something of a bottle episode, but in the tradition of the best bottle episodes, there are stakes afoot. And better yet, there's a massive grey area for those stakes, at least from the point-of-view of some characters.
The finale is easily the best action-movie plot we've gotten in the series so far. It was simple, well executed, and a helluva lot of fun to read.
My only complaint is that Bull almost seems like a stereotype of a character, but we also don't get much of his background. But then we get an incredibly awesome and 3-dimensional character from Anna Volovdov, who is somehow more altruistic than James Holden and seems to be just what the series needs after Holden is taken down a dark path earlier in the series.
I also felt like some of the quippiness in the writing was lacking, but that's just a personal thing. I loved the humor of the second book, and maybe it just didn't match with the stakes of the third.
I've now re-read everything I'd read of the series so far, and I'm venturing into unknown territory with some shorts, and then Cibola Burn!
Abaddon's Gate is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey (pen name of …
So there were stories in here I loved. GRRMs story about The Turtle was a lot of fun, and I thought the one about the Four Aces during the Red Scare was pretty compelling. The last story of the book, "Comes a Hunter" was absolutely fantastic.
But then some of it seems like filler. Some of it, like "Strings" seems to exist for shock value and to make the world seem darker. That story in particular isn't necessarily badly written, but the content was pretty dark/edgy and a bit out of my personal comfort zone. YMMV.
I remember reading this before and really liking it, but now I'm a little less in tune with it. It very much reads like a ode to an era of comics I never really experienced (Silver/Gold age) seen through the lense of the grimdark comics of the 80s/90s (aspects of which haven't aged well, …
So there were stories in here I loved. GRRMs story about The Turtle was a lot of fun, and I thought the one about the Four Aces during the Red Scare was pretty compelling. The last story of the book, "Comes a Hunter" was absolutely fantastic.
But then some of it seems like filler. Some of it, like "Strings" seems to exist for shock value and to make the world seem darker. That story in particular isn't necessarily badly written, but the content was pretty dark/edgy and a bit out of my personal comfort zone. YMMV.
I remember reading this before and really liking it, but now I'm a little less in tune with it. It very much reads like a ode to an era of comics I never really experienced (Silver/Gold age) seen through the lense of the grimdark comics of the 80s/90s (aspects of which haven't aged well, there is a contant and unironic undercurrent of toxic masculinity that gets pretty tiresome). I might read the second, but I'm not in a hurry.
Since I listened to the audiobook: Luke Daniels does a FANTASTIC job as the whole cast. His chapters as Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson were spot on. He manage to give each character a uniqueness that made it fun to listen to.
We are not alone.
On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches …
Everything I loved about the first book, the second book built on. The politics have higher stakes. The characters begin to really grow in interesting ways. Where the first book wrote rules, the second book breaks them in a way that never feels contrived or arbitrary. And the humor is still there.
I am still thinking about why I think the humor in this series is such an important part of it. I'm not 100% sure yet, but I think it's because as high stakes as the story is, it's still a series about humans who grow and laugh. Maybe humor is just important to me because it's where I look for characterization. Like I said, still thinking about it.
