I had friends recommend The Expanse tv series to me over the years, and I had trouble getting into it based of the first few episodes. I finally tried again last year, used my patience, and was HOOKED. I also read online that the book series was also great; I am generally able to separate and enjoy books from series/movies as two separate things (*cough* Wheel of Time fans *cough*), so decided to give the books a go as well. Abaddon’s Gate is book 4 in the series.
For folks unfamiliar with the series, it is a hard sci-fi series set largely in space, with competing political factions based out of Earth, Mars and the Outer Rim. An alien technology/lifeform is discovered, and an already uneven and fraught societal system is thrown into absolute chaos. People are always going to people, even in a solar system where long distance space travel is matter of fact – greed, recklessness, power, hubris will always seemingly take precedence. The series centres on James Holden and his crew/family who live on the ship Rocinante, who are at optimists and try to do the right thing as everyone is forced to realize, time and time again, that very little is actually within our control.
As if the galaxy is not big enough, Abaddon’s Gate opens it up even more, with the alien technology having created a gate with doors to hundreds of other galaxies on the other side. The distance and possibility and threat is really just too big to comprehend, but the Earther and Martians and Outers still cannot help themselves from trying to control and profit from the galaxy, reacting out of fear and anger. As with the previous book, the reader does not spend all the time with the crew of the Rocinante; we have several other point of view characters to learn about. I really missed some of the POV characters from other books (Chrisjen Avasarala, I love you) and didn’t get enough of Alex, Amos and Naomi, but particularly enjoyed the introduction of Anna.
The Expanse series, on the whole, reminds me a bit of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, in that I get very clear visuals from the text. I can picture people, and surrounding, despite the text not getting bogged down in minute descriptions. This book is excellent, cinematic in scope, and does not suffer from the editing sprawl I complained about in my last review.
Side note: the only thing I miss about Twitter is Jennifer Lee Rossman’s live Tweeting of science fiction TV series. She is so clever and funny and her live Tweets of The Expanse is really what persuaded me to try the series again. She is both wrong and not wrong about Apollo from Battlestar Galactica, but she was absolutely right about Anna VolvoLoveDove from The Expanse.