It’s been more than a month since my last post. I’ve done a little writing but work has gotten in the way. I’ve spent as much time as I could reading this book, which is now up to a series of 7 more the same length. It is a long read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I watched part of The Expanse on a streaming service a few years ago and never got back to finishing it. I do want to keep reading this series; I love it. It is exactly my type of read.
An ice hauler en route back spinward. Tensions between Earth, Mars, and the Outer Planets. A detective on a missing person assignment. And a dark mystery. These four threads get woven tighter and tighter together, culminating in a surprise ending and there is a lot more at stake than we originally knew. I am pretty sure I am not spoiling anything by saying that it becomes clear about halfway through the book that we are not alone in the universe. But what that means, and how it was portrayed, was new to me.
The characters felt real. At one point the detective is alone in a bar, trying to figure out what to do next. “The whiskey was not a drink, it was permission to sit.” I love the little details like that. The ex-military now ice hauler ship captain is a polar opposite to the detective, yet they have to work together. The head of the Outer Planets “resistance” organization is a former military leader who was the fall guy for a misguided attack a long time ago. The writing is neat and clear. I felt completely engaged in the world. The Extras at the back of the book share that this is decidedly not hard SF, but it feels realistic enough to not be magic. The high-g thrusts seem very realistic. People aren’t just flitting about the solar system but the mathematics (distances, times, orbital mechanics) are behind the scenes. But the setting is vast (the whole solar system… and beyond) and it reads as an epic.
I definitely have other books on my to-read list before I try the sequel(s) but this is definitely a keeper series for me!