Review: Auberon

Auberon by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Auberon is certainly one of the more interesting pieces of short fiction coming out of the Expanse. The pacing, prose, and general themes of the novella are all fairly well conceived and executed. It even has an added bonus of including a side character we haven't seen in a while, but, to be fair, most have probably mostly forgotten about. Creating a perfect "Oh yeah, that guy" moment when it finally dawns on you.

It's, of course, not really important to the main series and might as well not exist aside from being a good piece of short fiction. Honestly, it could even be read outside the Expanse without much issue. There are enough common threads that even a decent reader could piece together much of it. The containment of its plot and scope is its blessing but, in some ways, a curse as well.

I'll get more into the last bit when I review the short collection as a whole later on. I have thoughts.

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Review: Tiamat's Wrath

Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This volume of the series almost seems deliberately written to challenge its own constructs. Holden isn't the throughline and barely does much of anything beyond his best impression of Princess Peach. And, knowing it's the penultimate volume, there's an air of doing both of wrapping certain things up while setting up what will happen in the final book. Clearing up things that aren't needed to make room for the bigger plot points. This causes some balance issues, but I'll get to that in a minute.

First off, I liked Teresa. She's a fleshed-out character that is different enough from previous characters to feel fresh and interesting. That's always the goal with new characters in long-running series, especially towards the end. I welcome her and was always excited to read a chapter from her perspective.

Second, some legacy characters felt dated. This is very true of Bobbie. Since Persepolis Rising, she just didn't feel like her old badass self. She has plenty to do in both the last book and this one, but her actions felt more like she was merely doing her part to push forward the plot. The Corey team also has a certain way of doing things and it creates telltale signs. What I mean is that a similar event happens to another legacy character and I knew it was a fake-out because they didn't handle it the same way. Anyone who has or is reading the book can probably understand my meaning.

The uneven nature of this book was perhaps more noticeable than in other volumes. When something exciting is happening, I couldn't put it down. But, when it was waiting for the next shoe to drop or balloon to go up, reading felt like a painful slog. Nothing about the book felt unnecessary but also felt like it was pushing for a word count quota.

I've made it this far and have one book left to go. While this volume has its issues, I'm honestly excited. It's been a long ass road and we're almost at the end. I suppose if this book got me excited for the next one than i suppose it has done its job.

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Review: Persepolis Rising

Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I broke down my thoughts on this book into one word, it would be "well-balanced". Not super great by any means, but shows a clear path to tell the best story it can within its universe. Its faults are more missed opportunities than anything else, and what it does well it makes sure to do so in abundance. As the first book in the final Expanse arc, it behaves much like a good breakfast. Giving everything you need to start your day on the right track.

PR is better-paced than most other books in the series. most of the books had a problem with repeating patterns. Build up to calamity, calamity, deal with the fallout. This book isn't much better than in that regard, but it paces it much better. It also has multiple ebbs and flows rather than one massive event to build a story around. If anything, it feels much like the first book but has learned how to write it better over the course of multiple years. There's a feeling of getting back to basics without becoming basic in the process.

My only major problem with it is the lack of usage in the time skip. The advantage of a time skip is that you can dislocate characters and events to create the feeling of starting anew. It can be disorienting, but exciting at the same time. The problem here is that most of the characters are pretty much the same as they were at the end of the sixth book. Older to be sure, but different in any real way. There's nothing bad about it, just feels like something more could have been done.

Stupid example: The introduction of Goten towards the beginning of the Buu Saga. Years had gone by and the audience was hit with several things they expected. Then, they were hit with a development they weren't.

The political dynamics are strong and the writing is smart. I would even say the prose and characters are better than in most of the previous novels. Seemingly knowing this is the final arc and the authors put their best foot forward. All in all, I rather enjoyed this volume of the Expanse series. I had to chew on a lot of Teflon to get to this point, but I'm glad that I'm here to enjoy it.

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Review: Strange Dogs

Strange Dogs by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This Expanse novella did a good job of keeping my attention as it's well-paced and written, but I can't rate this book above a simple 'it's okay'. This is simply a random horror-themed story set in the Expanse universe. That's fine in and of itself, but I couldn't help but feel the story was just spinning wheels until everything comes to a stop. If you're decently familiar with what's going on with the series by this point, it's a fine story. But that's also its problem. It doesn't do better than okayness.

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Review: Babylon's Ashes

Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's honestly not what I expected. With this novel basically being "Nemesis Games Part 2", I had high hopes this novel would bring its A game. Instead, it brings its OK game. Not bad in any real way but fails only slightly fewer ways than it succeeds.

I think its biggest problem is that the narrative is all over the place. The previous novels did an excellent job keeping a tight control on their structure, but Ashes tends to reach for things to talk about. We end up getting scenes and long stretches of reflective perspective that have little to no impact on the overall story. For example, Prax gets the fifth degree over some leaked information. While the scene itself is well written, there is little progress in what is happening with the rather high-stakes war that is currently evolving. To be fair, a lot is going on across the solar system, but we get entire scenes of characters thinking to themselves when any information their scenes have could have been relayed through a footnote. We have meetings when it could have just been an email.

Also, Marco isn't a strong villain. He's shallow, not overly bright, and honestly easily undermined by even the slightest hiccup in his plans. This seems to be done mostly on purpose, but I still would have preferred someone who felt like a worthy opponent. Though, as much as Holden relied on coincidence and plot armor, a smarter villain might have won.

Prose and characters are still a strong aspect of the series. Nothing to lose your shit over, but there's a fair amount of polish on everything. Pa is an interesting character but is defined by their relation to the plot more than anything else. While there are a lot of natural elements between Pa and Holden that practically write themselves, the focus should have been to make Pa more of a counterweight to Holden. It further highlights how the issues with the Expanse on more with the marco rather than the micro. It's probably why I liked Nemesis Games so much as both sides of those elements came together.

With six books down and three to go, I don't see any reason to stop reading. I'm not as involved with the story as I probably should be by this point, but I'm still mostly enjoying myself. There just seems to be some familiar patterns in how the novels develop that fail to provide the originality a long-form story needs. We'll see how this changes, if at all, as this series enters its endgame arc.

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Review: Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm honestly fairly conflicted about this book. I was equally intrigued and bored by this book. Simultaneously interested and disinterested.  One of the great real-life heroic stories of scientific strife in our lifetime times written by the world's most average dad. I wanted to like this book but walked away with very middling feelings about it. I don't regret reading it, but still wished it was better.

The book is written with a very dry, matter-of-fact writing style. There are vague outbursts of emotion, the rant on CO2 scrubbers sticks out in my mind, but most of the volume is just recalling examples of the trials of being a navy pilot, test subject, and space dad. There's nothing particularly wrong with the writing. But not bad doesn't mean it's good.

Side note: The by-line has the name Margaret Lazarus Dean added to it. My guess is this is the person who physically wrote the book. Or, at least, was assigned by the publisher to refine the text. Either way, the prose needed work.

I will praise the book in that it does successfully create a strong sense of what it's like to be an astronaut. I learned a good deal and realized it's far more physically demanding than most might suspect. Most of the novel isn't written in a well-constructed exciting way, but it is at least interesting from a pure experience sort of way.

There's not much else to say about this book. Looking back on it, I'll probably only remember the more interesting facts of the novel and disregard most of the text. It's a great story but would have preferred it was written in a different style. Or any style really.

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Review: Nemesis Games

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is easily the best of the series so far. After a couple of books that tended to spin in circles, Nemesis Games puts the series back on track. Not a perfect book but it firmly establishes itself as an extremely engaging story with (mostly) great pacing and characters. A volume that succeeds far more than it fails by focusing on what makes the series good in the first place.

NG kind of reminds me of Caliban's War. In a good way of course. NG and CW both strike the right balance of elements like plot and characters. Abaddon's Gate and Cibola Burn felt a little more one-sided with slower plots and less than interesting characters. NG had the good idea to split up the main crew so we can focus on each one of them as characters and offer a unique angle to the unfolding plot. It also guests stars series favorites Avasarala and Bobbie, which is always a good idea.

I have two major complaints. Both of them are roughly connected.

One, Naomi gets kidnapped. Again. At this point, I don't think this qualifies as a spoiler as if I had a dollar for every time this happened I would have plenty of gas money. I don't know if this is a result of it coming from male writers or if they can't think of anything else to do with the character. Neither would surprise me.

Two, the last few chapters lack a true climax, and the book just kind of putters out. There's a sense that this is the opening round of a larger plot, but books, especially ones of this nature, still need a feeling of completeness. What we end up getting is the breather between rounds. Every character that we remember the name of is safe, but probably not for long.

After the series took a turn in a direction I didn't expect but also didn't fully enjoy, it's nice to see the interplanetary drama take center stage once again. The dynamic might be familiar, but that doesn't mean it's an unpleasant one. NG has shaken the series up in a very good way and leaves me with the hope that maybe the best is to come. Maybe in the next book, Naomi can avoid getting captured.

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