Tiamat's Wrath

Tiamat’s Wrath by James S. A. Corey (2019 Orbit softcover 533pp)

Book 8 of The Expanse series - so for goodness’ sake don’t start with this one.

It’s about a year since the events of the previous volume (“Persepolis Rising”), Mankind now exists under the heel of the Laconian Empire. Our heroes are scattered across the stars and while some of them begin to doubt the very idea of being part of a resistance others have the means to strike back fall into their laps. Reckless experiments by the Laconians trigger a series of events that could lead to everyone’s doom.

The alternating viewpoint structure remains although we see the action via fewer people’s eyes this time around. Elvi, a key character from way back in book 4 plays a major role and Teresa, the daughter of the Laconian dictator provides another angle for us to see the drama unfold.

While the previous two instalments were OK to good, this one really felt like it was firing on all cylinders again – Spaceship combat, heroic self-sacrifice, political strategy, inscrutable alien technology and actions. It all reminded me why this series hooked me in to start with. Everything’s now racing towards the big finale in book 9.

Persepolis Rising

“Persepolis Rising” by James S. A. Corey (2017 Orbit softcover 549pp)

And on to volume 7 in The Expanse series. Again, not a good place to start although its more self-contained than the previous volume. This seems to be the start of the grand final act in the whole saga and immediately we’re hit with a 30 year time jump from where we last left our heroes. But don’t worry, they all seem to be much the same despite all sorts of hinted at developments in the intervening years.

 Baddies who escaped to a colony world years ago and developed advanced technology with the help of the alien proto-molecule come back attempting to gain control over all of mankind. Our plucky crew have to join forces with the resistance and well umm resist. At this point I was prepared to give the book a fairly negative review – we’ve been here before in this series and not too long ago, it was all feeling pretty much ‘rinse and repeat’. A couple of things saved it for me however. Firstly, the typical Expanse alternating viewpoint structure this time included one of the baddies – a military functionary and true believer who has his world view shaken by his experiences. The other thing happened about ¾ the way through the book when an element of alien mystery was re-inserted into the plot. Something I had felt was missing in the all the recent human vs human conflict. By the end characters had actually developed and there was a certain death so I finished thinking it wasn’t so bad after all.

Babylon's Ashes

"Babylon’s Ashes" by James S. A. Corey (2016 Orbit softcover 539pp)

This isn’t much of a review I’m afraid – not that there’s anything much wrong with the book, its just that this is book number 6 in a 9-book saga and it makes no sense for anyone to suddenly jump on board with this volume. “Babylon’s Ashes” is really the second part of a third act in the overall storyline, one that started with the previous book “Nemesis Games”. Having dealt with the alien proto-molecule and after a brief sojourn on a new world, humanity’s factions are back trying to kill each other and take control.

All the fan favourite characters are back (apart from ‘Miller’ who I missed) and the usual Expanse structure of alternating chapters from different viewpoints carries on, although there seems to be slightly more viewpoint characters this time out. The action when it comes is still spectacular but there’s also an awful lot of internal monologuing and reflection in the quiet sections between set pieces.

Probably not the best in the series so far but does an admirable job of keeping things chugging along.