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Book Blog: The Expanse by James S.A. Corey
This series is both books and television. I encountered it backwards, as in the series appeared on Netflix and had enough decent recommendations for me to take a look. It was very confusing at the start, because a lot happens in a short time and the action flips between three sets of characters on Earth, on Ceres Station and in space on a succession of ships. [And no, I will not try to say that last bit aloud].
A few episodes in I discovered the books and in short order became hooked. In my opinion, this is very good science fiction, with believable science (at least to me). It is character driven but with a fascinating universe around them. There is the ancient story of war and politics between Earthborn, Marsborn and Belters, the people who have lived and worked for generations in the asteroid belts. There are intriguing characters. Humans have evolved to some degree. There is no longer any sort of fuss made about what relationships people choose to have. But they still pick fights with one another about real estate and business interests, and they still talk about "them" and "us."
One of the things I enjoyed, though, is that this isn't a straightforward battle between two sides. The several human sides aren't even all the players there are, though it takes the characters a while to understand this. Within one side - Earth - you have various political players and alliances and also a chilling scientific experiment which uses the population of one space station as its sacrificial lab animals. The science they're playing with, however, doesn't come from anywhere human.
You've got the crew of a small warship, which they sort of acquire from the Martian Navy along the way. James Holden, the ex-ice freighter crewman/now captain, becomes a trigger point for war because he can't stop himself telling people everything about a situation. There's a detective on Ceres station who's a bit of a joke among his coworkers, who gets assigned a missing person case that ties him in with the events enveloping James Holden and his crew aboard the corvette Rocinante. It's a long and engrossing story that is actually written by two authors (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) who use the name James. S.A. Corey. Read it. They tell it way better than I do.
There are small differences between television and book story, but these are done to better suit the medium. I've seen Daniel Abraham's name in the writers but will have to look again to see whether Ty Franck is there. For instance, you can't show a space journey of several months in real time on screen and expect anybody to watch it. So some events are moved up, or a character will appear on screen who doesn't show up until much later in the book.
The characters and viewpoint of the Earth United Nations, for example, aren't really a thing in the first book. They are more a faceless enemy, but in The Expanse, as the television series is called, they're there from the start. James Holden's mother, well, one of them, makes an appearance. He has eight mothers and fathers and that too is a long story that boils down to real estate and true love. Kind of. It's complicated :-). Essentially, so far as I've watched, it's faithfully the same story in the two mediums.
The ones I've read so far are Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War, Abaddon's Gate and Cibola Burn, with two full novels, Nemesis Games and Babylon's Ashes left to read, plus five novellas; Gods of Risk, The Butcher of Anderson Station, The Churn and The Vital Abyss. Nor are the authors finished, as far as I can tell. I hope the pace holds up. They also have a Star Wars novel, Honor Among Thieves, which I don't know if I'll read, not being an active fan of Star Wars, but their writing is really good and enjoyable.
They don't forget about the little, human things, like when James Holden first comes aboard Rocinante and finds that it has a good coffeemaker and some excellent coffee in storage. He's won over instantly. Or when the first alien world is settled by humans, who are promptly swamped by the local analogue of insects, who bite them, drink their blood....and drop dead.
Little things and big things; well handled by these authors. I was in the mood for some decent science fiction and they've delivered.
A few episodes in I discovered the books and in short order became hooked. In my opinion, this is very good science fiction, with believable science (at least to me). It is character driven but with a fascinating universe around them. There is the ancient story of war and politics between Earthborn, Marsborn and Belters, the people who have lived and worked for generations in the asteroid belts. There are intriguing characters. Humans have evolved to some degree. There is no longer any sort of fuss made about what relationships people choose to have. But they still pick fights with one another about real estate and business interests, and they still talk about "them" and "us."
One of the things I enjoyed, though, is that this isn't a straightforward battle between two sides. The several human sides aren't even all the players there are, though it takes the characters a while to understand this. Within one side - Earth - you have various political players and alliances and also a chilling scientific experiment which uses the population of one space station as its sacrificial lab animals. The science they're playing with, however, doesn't come from anywhere human.
You've got the crew of a small warship, which they sort of acquire from the Martian Navy along the way. James Holden, the ex-ice freighter crewman/now captain, becomes a trigger point for war because he can't stop himself telling people everything about a situation. There's a detective on Ceres station who's a bit of a joke among his coworkers, who gets assigned a missing person case that ties him in with the events enveloping James Holden and his crew aboard the corvette Rocinante. It's a long and engrossing story that is actually written by two authors (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) who use the name James. S.A. Corey. Read it. They tell it way better than I do.
There are small differences between television and book story, but these are done to better suit the medium. I've seen Daniel Abraham's name in the writers but will have to look again to see whether Ty Franck is there. For instance, you can't show a space journey of several months in real time on screen and expect anybody to watch it. So some events are moved up, or a character will appear on screen who doesn't show up until much later in the book.
The characters and viewpoint of the Earth United Nations, for example, aren't really a thing in the first book. They are more a faceless enemy, but in The Expanse, as the television series is called, they're there from the start. James Holden's mother, well, one of them, makes an appearance. He has eight mothers and fathers and that too is a long story that boils down to real estate and true love. Kind of. It's complicated :-). Essentially, so far as I've watched, it's faithfully the same story in the two mediums.
The ones I've read so far are Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War, Abaddon's Gate and Cibola Burn, with two full novels, Nemesis Games and Babylon's Ashes left to read, plus five novellas; Gods of Risk, The Butcher of Anderson Station, The Churn and The Vital Abyss. Nor are the authors finished, as far as I can tell. I hope the pace holds up. They also have a Star Wars novel, Honor Among Thieves, which I don't know if I'll read, not being an active fan of Star Wars, but their writing is really good and enjoyable.
They don't forget about the little, human things, like when James Holden first comes aboard Rocinante and finds that it has a good coffeemaker and some excellent coffee in storage. He's won over instantly. Or when the first alien world is settled by humans, who are promptly swamped by the local analogue of insects, who bite them, drink their blood....and drop dead.
Little things and big things; well handled by these authors. I was in the mood for some decent science fiction and they've delivered.
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