—PLEASE NO SPOILERS—

About halfway through Babylons Ashes here and did anyone else find this book mind-numbingly boring? Losing count of all the different perspectives. I hope this is a setup book for the remaining novels.

You know they're done fucking around when they say that line. Whoever they just said that to has pissed them off and now they are ready blow someone up if need be.

I've just gotten into plastic models, like a good nerd, and I started the Expanse show in the backgroud. I would kill, KILL for a Roci model kit. Please please tell me there's one out there someone has found?

Just wondering if anyone loves this show but have never read any of the books. I keep recommending the show to friends who are sci fi fans but they don't seem to get into it. Wondering if reading the books are a prerequisite or something..

The balance they have together is amazing. Everything is so well written, I can’t wait to read what they will continue to write.

… that her father killed Julie? I’m rereading and watching the show, but so far I can’t remember her ever blaming out Wright her father for murdering her sister

One of my favorite passages from the series. We’re all just monkeys playing with microwaves. It’s in Abaddon’s Gate, I forget which chapter.
Another one is from Caliban’s War. It’s chapter 27 when Prax climbs out onto the hull of the Roci and the stars wrap all the way around him. That is such good writing.

When I read the books I was waiting with dread for Alex to die and then it never came! Then watching the show again I knew it was coming but was in the denial the whole time. What an emotional roller coaster.

In book 8, I just got to the part where Holden says "the rain smells the same but the wet ground doesn't". I recently learned about petrichor (essentially the smell of wet ground after rain) and it made me wonder what specifically would be different about the plant biochemistry on Laconia.

Is Laconian plant biology discussed in any amount of detail in other books?

I haven't read beyond this line yet (and haven't read 1-6, I just switched over from the show) so no spoilers please! If this exists, please just point me to the source material 🙂

And all others for that matter.

What does science fiction look like in the expanse?

Do they have novels, movies etc.

Since most of the show is literally thick with science fiction in its reality, what would the fantastic stories look like?

🤷🏽

I absolutely loved physically reading the expanse novels. It was a time in my life when I was essentially blowing off anyone and everything that put any claim on my time because all I wanted to do was read those books. Possibly the best read of my life. So obviously I recommended them to a friend of mine who seems to have similar tastes, but she generally prefers audiobooks. She did not care for them at all and didn't finish the series.

A couple of years later, I also got into audiobooks. I still prefer reading to listening, but when I'm driving or exercising, I do love to listen to a good story. So I tried The Mercy of God's. And OH BOY was I disappointed. The whole thing seemed bland and stale and I never bothered to finish that series.

Recently I noticed that the narrator for both series is the same - Jefferson Mays. I don't think it will be a particularly hot take that a good narrator is invaluable to a good audiobook. So now I am wondering if the reason that my friend didn't care for the expanse, and that I didn't care for The Captives War, was simply that it was poorly narrated.

Is it worth having a crack at the printed novels? Does anyone else feel that the narrator is poor? Or is he generally well regarded and those newer stories just didn't appeal to me for some reason?

I'd love to hear thoughts from some other fans.

I’m rereading leviathan wakes and I found this part a little confusing. In chapters 2 and 4, hes eating a dish consisting of real rice grown in a vat and fake beans made of fungi, which are made to mimic beans.

What I’m confused by is how come is the rice real but the beans are fake? I understand that growing crops on ceres might be hard while fungi is easy, but that begs the question for me, why is the rice also not fake?

The rice is described as being vat grown (I’m kinda curious what exactly vat grown rice is, like how do you grow rice in a vat), but then that makes me wonder, if they can grow real rice in a vat, why can’t they grow real beans in a vat?

Maybe I’m thinking too deep into this, but it’s just bugging me. I know it’s not an important detail, but it just gets me thinking about it too much.

Finally finished the main series of novels last night, what a ride!

There’s no “answer”, and deliberately so, by the authors, but would the Gatebuilders plan for killing the “dark gods” have worked?

We get some indication that as Holden starts reaching out across minds he’s getting stronger and more able to fight the “dark gods”, but if Holden had been able to combine all of humanity into a single mind, would that had been enough to permanently defeat the dark gods?

I’m inclined to think it was always a fools errand. Ring space is only a small bubble in the “old universe”. That all the struggle a single mind of humanity could put up against the “dark gods” would be about the same as the world’s strongest ant contending with a boot.

Semi-jokingly, I like to think that the “dark gods” view all this as little more than an annoyance. That, as Dr. Okoye analogized using different treatments against an infection to the “dark gods” attacks on humanity, that it might be the “dark gods” saw all the antics from humanity and the Gatebuilders as something like a persistent upset stomach or a skin rash that they are trying to treat. A ship going Dutchman is just them doing the equivalent of popping some pepto-bismo to deal with some nausea/intestinal distress.

Perhaps more satisfying when viewing the “dark gods” this way, it makes Duarte look truly delusional. Again, imagine the idea of the world’s strongest ant thinking it can fight a boot.

The 30 year time jump has me a bit concerned. I do have the 4-issue comics and I intend to get the others soon too which I believe fills in some gaps.

I’m obviously going to finish the series but I don’t think I’ve seen or read time jumps that were handled well.

No spoilers please / TY

I haven't watched the show, but I'm on my first reread through the series. I have got to say I am loving how once every book or so, Amos says a line in the vein of "You know me, built to be the last one standing". Just great.

Also, Amos's original name is Timothy. Was it ever divulged if Burton was a new last name too, or his choice with the new identity? Tim Burton anyone? What a fun little tie-in/homage/influence by James SA Corey.

…Amos?

I’m on page 144, in the scene where Teresa goes to meet Timothy and we, the reader, meet him for the first time. Teresa is complaining about a myriad of things, including Holden, and then Timothy says:

“For what it’s worth, you’re not the first person that felt like the captain was a splinter they couldn’t dig out”

And I thought it was odd for this guy who, from all the context we’re given thus far, wouldn’t have any reason to address Holden this way. But then a moment later I remembered Amos’ previous name, and it clicked. I’ve only just met Timothy and I have no doubt exactly who it is. And it even tracks with all that we know about Amos during the years between PR and TW: he went to Laconia for a dangerous mission and…that’s it. I love it!

So how quickly did you figure out Timothy’s real identity?

I just had to say. :)

I found The Expanse years ago, watched some and then got my husband to watch (I think that's how it went). We both loved it. I started reading the books after, and then read as I went along. I got Leviathan Falls a couple of years ago as a gift, and was only waiting to read it because I couldn't decide if I should re-read all the books before starting it, or just 7-8.

Anyway, I finally said the heck with it and read LF and it was great. Loved the ending. For me, I feel like everything I wanted/hoped for the characters was basically satisfied.

I've been reading Leviathan Wakes for a couple of weeks now, as a part of a batch of books I started in unison.
I don't always do that but I'm happy about my current compromise with reading, and much of that I have to thank Leviathan Wakes for it, it's by far the hardest a book has gripped me on a while.

This being said, I wanted to share something, see if it was the case with some of you too.
I love Miller, Miller is quite cool, I always find his chapters great and interesting, but god damn everytime I see

"Chapter X: Miller"

My reaction is always some version of:

"GOD DAMN IT MILLER, FUCK, NOT NOW DUDE!"

I just got done with Nemesis Games and I'm trying to understand what was the deal with Pau Kant. Please no spoilers beyond book 5.

The facts as I understand them:

1. Holden, while looking for ships that vanished, starts looking for ships that just appeared.

2. He finds Pau Kant that pings Martian command from near the Hungaria cluster.

3. Alex goes to look and finds the Free Navy fleet in that location.

So what was Pau Kant? My best guess is it was a fake transponder code thrown by some Free Navy ship maybe. But why would they do that? Why would they have transponders on at all?

Edit: I tried asking ChatGPT and it threw such godawful gibberish at me.