Bookish Thoughts

The Expanse novellas that Corey releases between books are a fun little expansion of the universe. As they've gone on, they've moved from filling in the background of interesting characters to foreshadowing the future of the series. The last one and this one provide a tantalizing taste of the threat to come in the final third of the series. Strange Dogs  in particular is a fantastic little horror story that relies on the innocence of childhood to move the scary bits along. Cara has grown up on an alien world, so things that seem strange and unnerving to her parents are just commonplace for her. She takes things in stride and neglects to report on strange or new things because nearly everything she experiences is strange and new and that's just part of life. When she discovers some dog-like creatures that restore a dead bird to life, she doesn't tell anyone because she's scared of getting in trouble for breaking her mom's drone. And when her little brother di...

The sixth book in The Expanse series concludes the war that was begun in Nemesis Games . As Holden and crew rally everyone in the solar system to stand against Marco Inaros, he faces mounting pressures from his own people. Inaros is an interesting villain in that he's doomed to failure from the beginning. It's inevitable. His vision is too great and too short-sighted. He's temperamental and incapable of taking responsibility for his failures. Everything is part of the plan, which served him well until he gained too much power to wield it effectively. So the concerns in this story aren't so much about defeating him. That's a given. It's more about repairing and minimizing the damage he's causing. It's about how people come together to help each other, about making peace with the unknown, and forging ahead anyway. This was an incredibly timely book, being concerned as it is with the tug between free will and destiny. Are the big things inevitable or c...

My favorite thing about e-publishing is the sudden proliferation of novellas. It lets authors of longer series pause between books to release shorter character studies. They enrich the world, even if they have no place in the proper novels. And since they only cost a few bucks, I happily gobble them up. This one comes after the fifth book in The Expanse  series, though it serves as something of a sequel to events of the first book. But since it hints at some pretty major spoilers in the fifth book, you gotta wait to read it. And then remember back to that first book to figure out who these characters are. Which is another fun way that characters who have been sidelined can suddenly pop back up again. The Vital Abyss  is told from the point of view of a sociopath, one of the researchers who was jailed in the wake of the attack on Eros. His justifications for what he did, his total lack of regret or empathy, his desire to do it all again and push forward is harrowing to read...

This was a long book. And yet, when I turned the page and saw that it was over, I actually said "no" out loud. I've fallen deeply in love with The Expanse  over the past year or so. Now, in the fifth book, we're officially past the point of objectivity. I love these characters and this world. I love hanging out here and seeing all the ugly, beautiful innards of humanity put on display. There is jaw-dropping evil and moments of incredible grace and caught up in the middle of it all are four humans who have finally found their family and will fight like hell for it. I was ecstatic to discover that the four points of view in the book are the four crew-members of the Rocinante. Sure, Holden always gets a point of view, and there was a novella that centered on Amos. But digging into the psyches of Naomi, Alex, and Amos, learning the backstories and what makes them tick, was an absolute treat. Less of a treat was the fact that, with the Rocinante undergoing repairs, t...

I love this series so much. I'm so glad it got turned into a TV series and was brought to my attention, or I may never have heard of it. In the fourth installment, the protomolecule has opened the doors to thousands of empty, terraformed worlds. The aliens were also carbon-based, oxygen-breathing beings, so all of the worlds they created are able to sustain human life. More or less. The critters there aren't exactly edible and it's taking some work to figure out how to grow edible food in foreign soil (with all its foreign bacteria), but the vacuum of space is being held at bay and that's a big thing. With all these worlds to explore, two groups of humans naturally decide to fight over the first one they come to. Because no matter how far we go, we take ourselves with us. The refugees just want a place to call home. The scientists want to study the biosphere before it becomes contaminated. The corporations want to get their hands on the huge lithium deposits. And Ho...

The Churn  is another novella in the expanse, released between novels to fill in backstory and make the universe a little richer. This one in particular is an origin story of sorts for Amos Burton, possibly the most enigmatic character in the series. Amos' background has only been hinted at, and I believe there's more of it in the TV show than the books. Or rather, the TV show is pulling from all of the books to make a more fleshed-out character, and that results in the audience gaining a bit more information through osmosis. That said, this story also glosses over the things I learned from the show. Amos' early childhood (son of a prostitute, used as a prostitute from a young age) is only hinted at. He has a highly questionable sexual relationship with an older woman that is by no means consensual, mostly due to Amos' youth and the momentum of that relationship. He's been so abused that it never even occurs to him to say no. But this story is about how he get...

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 bre...

Gods of Risk  is a quick story about Bobby and her family following the events of Caliban's War.  She's actually a side character; the story focuses on her nephew. But it was a nice exercise in both world-building and character-deepening. This story takes place on Mars, and it was a treat to see the partially terraformed world. People mostly live underground. And while there is a criminal element (which Bobby's nephew gets involved with), there's still an emphasis on efficiency and looking towards the future that drives everyone. They all hold on tight to a vision of a future Mars, one that requires sacrifices from everyone but will provide a better life for their descendants. It's an optimistic world-view that's absent from the rest of the galaxy. It was also nice to spend time, however tangentially with Bobby. She was my favorite addition in the second book, and I was disappointed when she decided to go home at the end of it. But it made sense, and this st...

I started reading the Expanse books when I couldn't figure out how to watch the TV show that began airing last year. They're fun, exciting books that deal with a time period science fiction tends to skip over. Humanity has colonized the moon and Mars and established mining operations on various asteroids and moons of the outer planets. But we're still traveling at sub-light speeds, which keeps us confined to the solar system. And all the same old prejudices and politics are with us. In the second novel, the alien threat begins to take shape. New characters are added and bring exciting points of view. Once again, the action is centered on the search for a young girl, though this one is much younger. Humanity remains on the brink of war as everyone vies to get ahead before the alien threat on Venus makes its next move. What I appreciated about this book was the additional characters. There are four viewpoint characters instead of two, and their stories come together much ...

I should start this review by saying that I'm not really a fan of this trend of publishing supplemental material in e-book format only. I suppose it makes it easier to fill out background in long series, by not worrying about the printing costs of the short stories and novellas used to flesh out the minor characters. But it makes me feel like my bookshelves are missing something. And I still don't entirely trust that e-publications are really mine to keep forever. With that out of the way, I did download and read The Butcher of Anderson Station , the first novella of The Expanse series, published between the first and second books. At 9000 words, it's really more of a short story, and it didn't take long to read at all. But it fills in some important background. Both how Fred Johnson earned the moniker of butcher and how he joined up with the OPA. The story cuts back and forth between Johnson's memories of Anderson Station and his interrogation by Anderson Dawes...

I started hearing about The Expanse months ago. And then I kept hearing about it. And the more I heard, the more it sounded like something I would like. But I couldn't figure out how to watch it. The final episodes were streaming with a cable password, but there was no way to watch the first few episodes. So I broke down and bought the book. It's actually the first in a series that will eventually have 9 books and a similar amount of novellas. The first season of the TV shows only appears to cover the first half of the first book. So I don't entirely know what's going to happen with that ultimately. But the good news is that the book is really good. So good that I went out and bought the first season of the TV show on Blu-Ray. The story takes place in the middle future. Humanity has managed to colonize the moon and Mars and is working to terraform them. There are mining operations and way-stations in the asteroid belt and some research outposts on the moons of Jupit...