Abaddon's Gate
Alien invasion stories are often about humanity overcoming their differences and coming together in the face of an unknown threat. One of the things I like most about The Expanse is that it's about humanity's utter failure to do that. Which makes it feel a lot more realistic in today's political (and meteorological) climate.
It probably helps that the alien threat in The Expanse isn't exactly imminent. The alien's are there. They've taken over Eros and Venus. But when the humans don't meddle, they're content to just stay out of the way. And in the third book, they've built a giant ring, which turns out to be a wormhole, out near the orbit of Uranus. It's not directly threatening, but it is weird. And more than anything, it symbolizes a political advantage. Which means a lot of political posturing as everyone tries to stave off conflict until they're sure that they're in the best position to win, at which point all hell will surely break loose.
There are a handful of people trying desperately to unify everyone and keep them united so that the threatened violence doesn't break out. Or if it does, humanity manages to direct it at an actual threat instead of each other. But even that threat is proving stranger and less threatening as more is learned about it. Which means that maybe violence isn't the answer. Which means that it sure was stupid to send in the marines.
This is all a vague on circuitous way of saying that Abaddon's Gate was my favorite book in this series so far. The new point of view characters, Anna and Bull, are both an excellent mix of compassionate and pragmatic. They're very different people who come to respect each other immensely. Melba is delightfully deranged and single-minded. And Jim Holden proves himself to be as naive and ego-maniacal as ever, always trying to do the right thing but fucking it up royally by acting before he thinks. It's fun.
At this point I'm so amped for the rest of the series that I don't think I can hold off reading it while I wait for the TV show to catch up. I'm going to burn through the rest of the books that are out then sit around impatiently until the final ones get released. My one consolation is that the authors seem to do a good job of keeping to their one book a year schedule. It probably helps that there are two of them, helping each other through writer's block and keeping each other on task.
It probably helps that the alien threat in The Expanse isn't exactly imminent. The alien's are there. They've taken over Eros and Venus. But when the humans don't meddle, they're content to just stay out of the way. And in the third book, they've built a giant ring, which turns out to be a wormhole, out near the orbit of Uranus. It's not directly threatening, but it is weird. And more than anything, it symbolizes a political advantage. Which means a lot of political posturing as everyone tries to stave off conflict until they're sure that they're in the best position to win, at which point all hell will surely break loose.
There are a handful of people trying desperately to unify everyone and keep them united so that the threatened violence doesn't break out. Or if it does, humanity manages to direct it at an actual threat instead of each other. But even that threat is proving stranger and less threatening as more is learned about it. Which means that maybe violence isn't the answer. Which means that it sure was stupid to send in the marines.
This is all a vague on circuitous way of saying that Abaddon's Gate was my favorite book in this series so far. The new point of view characters, Anna and Bull, are both an excellent mix of compassionate and pragmatic. They're very different people who come to respect each other immensely. Melba is delightfully deranged and single-minded. And Jim Holden proves himself to be as naive and ego-maniacal as ever, always trying to do the right thing but fucking it up royally by acting before he thinks. It's fun.
At this point I'm so amped for the rest of the series that I don't think I can hold off reading it while I wait for the TV show to catch up. I'm going to burn through the rest of the books that are out then sit around impatiently until the final ones get released. My one consolation is that the authors seem to do a good job of keeping to their one book a year schedule. It probably helps that there are two of them, helping each other through writer's block and keeping each other on task.
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