Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey - Book Review 334

 

Book 5.

I have read, or listened to, books 2 through 4 but haven't reviewed them here.

They were all very good.  Book 4 especially rang true with today's examination of colonialism and its terrible legacy.

But this is book 5.  Back in the solar system, the crew of the Rocinante get some well-deserved shore leave. 

The ship is in dry dock at Tycho station getting major repairs done.  Meanwhile Alex, Amos and Naomi all leave to take care of personal matters.

But the world they live in keeps churning.  Somehow everybody winds up in the middle of a solar system catastrophe and each plays a part in dealing with it.

I enjoyed this book very much.  Best of all, after each book, I get to watch a season of the television series.

I've always found stories that break up a team frustrating.  Because teams work best TOGETHER.  However, this was a terrific opportunity for character development and to reset the ground rules. 

What can I say?  I'm all in with this series.  Absolutely terrific stuff.

Gods of Risk by James S. A. Corey

This is my kind of Science Fiction.  Humans live and work in space, on Mars, in the asteroid belt.  No big deal.  We figured out how to do that.

However, people are people and they have the same troubles and desires we do today.  And that's what makes the whole Expanse series so compelling for me.  Sure, there is an alien baddie.  But humans used it, without understanding what it was, for their own desires; money & power.  The classic corrupters.

David Draper is a young student trying to get through a tough patch in school to get a good placement in university.  His aunt is ex-marine Bobby Draper, an important character in the previous novel, Caliban's War.

Somehow, he got tied up with a dangerous drug dealer by cooking the drugs he sells.  David falls for the drug dealer's girl, Leelee.   She gets in trouble and David tries to help.

This book is much like a tie-in novel or fan fic, but provided by the authors themselves.  It expands The Expanse, if you will.   It is an excellent story and fills in the gaps between Book 3 and Book 4.

I would love to see the spread sheet the authors must have had to create before writing a word.

Well worth the effort to read this story.

The Butcher of Anderson Station by James S A Corey - A Short Story Review

Fred Johnson was a very important character in the first Expanse book.

This is the story of how he became known as the The Butcher of Anderson Station.

It was a nice way to enjoy a little bit more of this world without having to dive into another 500+ pages.

It's entirely possible this was edited out of the original manuscript.  If so, it's a nice way to get the story out there.

James S A Corey's website - https://www.jamessacorey.com/

The writing team known as James S A Corey

Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey - Book Report #298

Book One of The Expanse series

My first taste of the series was of the television show.  I only watched one episode and it did not grab me.  I had the copy of the first book in my basement for years.  After hearing that the TV series has been renewed for a fifth season, and friends telling me how much I would like it, I decided to dust off book one and give it a read.

I was hooked very quickly.  This is the kind of lived-in, day-to-day, blue-collar kind of science fiction that I love.  For those of you as old as me (born in the 60's) think of what you felt when you first saw the Millennium Falcon.

This was an excellent blend of gritty neo-noir detective story and grand political drama set in a solar system that has been dominated by humans.  Mars, the asteroid belt, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn all have human presence.  And much like humanity of today we are not there for scientific reasons; we are there to make a living.  Water and oxygen are more valuable than gold to the people living and working off Earth.

An ice mining ship answers a distress call, which is a trap that starts a war between Earth, Mars and The Belt.

What I liked most about the story is how it focused only on two characters and the people that surround them.  This kept the larger story from spinning the the whole thing out of control.  It is a gigantic story and it took discipline to contain it in this first book.

This is a big series, with novels, novellas and short stories that bounce around the timeline of the novels.  I've decided to read thing in publication order to experience it the way fans from the beginning would have.

Generally I like my SF to be about humans, FTL and aliens tend to make storytelling a bit more lazy.  I like that we are stuck in our own solar system and that people have to be very careful about acceleration, maneuvering and things like the Coriolis effect.  (I had to look up that last one.)

It was well written, fun, fast-paced, believable and had lots of characters that I liked.

Highly recommended.

Website of James S A Corey - https://www.jamessacorey.com/

James S A Corey is the pen name for authors
Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck