The Mercy of Gods, by James S. A. Corey

I enjoyed this book from start to finish, mostly because I think the craftsmanship of the authors shines through. It is not part of or related to the Expanse novels--the science McGuffin that allows FTL expansion in this universe is something called "asymmetrical space". Much closer to ideas in other SF series where one species that got a head start is dominating all others. And humanity beats them. This is disclosed in the chapter headings, so there are no spoilers possible--humanity wins. The story is in how, and even that gets a lot of disclosure (many hints about a single human that directs humanity in service to the big baddies the Carryx, but who eventually subverts and defeats them). So how does the story hold our interest?

The secret sauce is in the details of the relationships of the characters, and what they go through. Some reviewers compare this group unfavorably to the Expanse characters, but 1) That's setting the bar insanely high, and 2) Give them a little time to grow! The novel is deliberately paced. It's planned as a trilogy but I'm already seeing one "filler" story in between 1 and 2 so there could be a lot of content here. It's very enjoyable reading if you're an Expanse fan and willing to not compare this to the Expanse too closely.

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Leviathan Falls, by James S. A. Corey

I've read several fantasy and science fiction series in my time, though only a few are as ambitious as this one. The absolute hardest thing to do is end them well. Many don't even try, they just let them tail off (looking at you, George R. R. Martin and Song of Ice and Fire. Tolkien too) or rush the ending. Leviathan Falls brought this incredible series to a satisfying conclusion, exactly when it was done. The crew of the Rocinante had gone from a tight group of people who worked really well together to a team that was infatuated with each other--and the authors manage to convey that the characters KNEW it. Brilliant. All the elements were brought together to get across that sense of impending doom. No soap opera here, it was very clear that things were coming to a head and that everyone was sacrificing themselves, all they had, and all their loved ones and followers to make it work.

The Expanse was a great series for making the reader feel like a very small part of a sweeping history, and Leviathan Falls managed to scale that up an order of magnitude. A Jupiter-sized diamond containing all the knowledge of the Ring Gate builders? Really works to convey the scope of their accomplishments.

In the end it all comes down to James Holden, and individual decisions that he makes. That sacrifice trope has been done a lot, but it still works here. He grew the most out of all the characters, and that was set up from the beginning--it was foreordained that the man with "no inner life" would acquire one. I feel like I know them all.

In my view this is the defining work in Space Opera. The speculation is amazing and the storytelling is perfect. For me it does not break new ground, but it is the very best example of all that has gone before in that genre.

My Goodreads Review

Auberon, by James S. A. Corey

I read the other novellas and short stories in the Expanse series mostly because I'm an obsessive completionist. But you would definitely miss some things about the Expanse if you skipped them. Strange Dogs introduced Cortazar, who of course becomes very central. I don't think this book will introduce a character of that scale since the series is almost done, but it is an essential moral commentary on how people and systems would work at that scale. We've had Winston Duarte *thinking* he understood that problem, and creating a system where absolute control delivers healthy and satisfactory lives for most people. But absolute moral codes don't survive contact with reality, and boy is the ending a zinger of a way to deliver that. The outcome is in some ways telegraphed, but you really understand more about this universe by reading this novella. Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank really know how to write together.

My Goodreads Review

Tiamat's Wrath, by James S. A. Corey

 I don't give out a whole lot of five star reviews. This book earns it in part based on all that leads up to it. All of the characters are incredibly real, and that realism rubs off on Teresa Duarte, whom we don't know nearly as well.

Hard for me to say anything previous reviewers have not. The main characters have an incredibly intense relationship, and the authors ride right on the edge of having the intensity spill over into sappiness. There are a lot of authors trying to do this kind of book or series now, but this is the one they have to live up to for sheer entertainment value. I don't know if there's any one aspect where The Expanse is the best of its kind, but it's so close to the top in all of them that it's my favorite in 50 years of reading SF. I loved Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga series, but this one edges it out and I can't think of any other extended series that comes close.

Now comes the hard part--the ending. So many series in fantasy and science fiction come to an unsatisfying end. But I think they're going to pull this off.

My Goodreads Review

Persepolis Rising, by James S. A. Corey

I'm coming back to this series after a long hiatus, and this one's been out for seven years. Spoiler - the Laconian empire falls! Not yet though, in this novel it's just getting wound up. I would have to say, maybe with the hindsight of knowing how the series continues, that Corey kind of telegraphs that ending. Here you see the hubris of Duarte rising, right through to the end where his powers increase even as the empire has fallen somewhat short of its goals.

I am reading more for the fun of the story and the characters at this point. And they have had so much run time together that they are family, like Proust novels or something. Holden has evolved in these books, because he had to--from a "man with no inner life" to a man still driven by honor but with everyone around him pretty much convinced that it's quirky. I saw a blurb for the next book refer to Holden as "Mephistophelian", which is a long trip from where he started.

The social setting of the book might be more like the Roman Empire than current times, but really the series is Space Opera all the way, and does not try for deep philosophy. It just keeps you reading. Am going to do my best to catch the series all the way up.

My Goodreads Review

The Vital Abyss, by James S. A. Corey

The Vital Abyss by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a decent read, but pretty dark stuff. The protagonist is able to reflect very dispassionately on his experiences, because he made a decision to have his empathy centers cut out. Now he has empathy for no one, including himself. There's a few connections to the main line of the story--the only one I could identify was Michio Pa from Cibola Burn. I struggled with where in the timeline the story goes--it's published after Nemesis Games, but the action definitely takes place before it. Still, I think the ending is going to explain some things that happen later in the series.

That said, it doesn't seem like an essential read unless, like me, you are compulsive about reading complete series.



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Nemesis Games, by James S. A. Corey

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This series is great for escapist reading--you can put the news aside and spend time with some characters that, while they deal with a lot of rotten human behavior, in the end have total faith in people.

All of them. James Holden, Naomi Nagata, Alex Kamal, and Amos Burton come to this from different directions, but they all end up in the same spot in terms of having faith in people. That does take somewhat different forms--James is more about people being fundamentally good, while Amos goes for people being people. Alex and Naomi are more biographical. But in the end they are in the same place.

There's some pleasing space opera wrapped around that. The aliens are a presence in this novel, but not much of a one--more of a foreboding of things to come. This is a good stage-setter for the rest of the series. I'll keep reading.



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Cibola Burn, by James S. A. Corey

Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm in the process of catching this series up. This book seems to be the real turning point when we settle into a long running franchise.

The book takes a long time to find its stride. Setting up the immigration/colonization situation and the natural disaster component takes several hundred pages. But once it gets going the main characters settle into their familiar, explicitly explained roles and the action gets going.

The authors are putting forward a basically positive view of humanity, with the crew of the Rocinante making the best of the situation through their faith that most everyone will, given enough chances, do the right thing. Not everyone does, but enough to save the situation.

As noted, the main characters are predictably themselves. The side characters are somewhat weak--Elvi and Basia are facets of the main characters. Havelock is sort of interesting in that he is a reflection of who he's following, and he knows it, but again, this is explicitly stated. The series is a reflection of its main character. James Holden is known as a man without subtexts, and so is this series. I'm still enjoying it, though.



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Abaddon's Gate, by James S. A. Corey

Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm catching this series up--read Leviathan's Gate early on, then didn't pursue it. As space opera it's quite excellent--your pulse races and settles all the way through, and you never lose interest. But I have to say this did feel like the middle of a long march, rather than a new exciting installment. Jim Holden as the hero is kind of a parody of a wooden hero, and the books kind of wink at him. "He made his reputation as a man with no subtexts". In this book he has a sort of female counterpart in Anna V., that minister on the cultural mission.

This book spends a lot of time on the meaning of justice and revenge, and not quite as much on technical subjects. The Ring is out there scaring them all--is it a gate? Is it a space of its own? The technical side is mostly about the ships that navigate the expanse, especially the converted generation ship Nauvoo.

The Ring is pretty much in Fantasy territory, and the authors are comfortable there. At the very end we get a sense of how much bigger the Expanse is going to get, which is interesting. All in all it's more than enough to keep me going in the series.



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Drive, by James S. A. Corey

Drive by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As short stories that are small part of a larger series go, this is a really good one. We get some good character setup, and then the whammy.
(view spoiler)[The story spends most of its time developing the character of Solomon Epstein, inventor of the spaceship drive that makes the Expanse possible. We see what motivates him to create it, and his relationship with his wife. And all that is disposed of due to the success of the experiment. He grows quite philosophical at the end, thinking about the great future he is making possible but isn't going to get to see. It reads very well. (hide spoiler)]
It's more of a piece for people that have already read the series, but that's fine. If you liked Leviathan Wakes you should spend about half an hour and catch this up.



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Gods of Risk, by James S. A. Corey

Gods of Risk by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm catching up this series and am something of a completist, so I'm reading the novellas, but so far they don't seem to add that much. In this one the protagonist is a pretty unlikeable teenage boy, the nephew of Bobbie Draper, superhero of Caliban's War. Bobbie ends up being central to the story, but not so much so until near the very end. What we get is the view of a pretty self-centered teen as we get indicators over their news feeds that their society is going to hell. It's decently written and I guess I am not going to demand the time back, but you could skip it if you are less obsessive than I am.



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The Butcher of Anderson Station, by James S. A. Corey

The Butcher of Anderson Station by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm getting around to catching this series up after several years. So far I've read Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War, then came back to this piece. So at this point it didn't make a lot of sense to me. Fred Johnson was a supporting character in Leviathan Wakes, and he's barely a presence in Caliban's War. I didn't find myself burning with curiosity about the backstory of The Butcher of Anderson Station. That said, it fits in well with the series and will probably help later. It's a well written "story segment".



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Caliban's War, by James S. A. Corey

Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I first read Leviathan Wakes back in 2013 when it was nominated for major awards, and have not revisited the series since then. Just came back to it. It's great as a late night read, because it does not make you work too hard and it's fast-paced so you stay awake. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will continue to catch the series up at some point.

I'll leave the plot summaries to others. When I read a SF book several years after it came out I like to note what the authors were anticipating. Smartphones had not consumed us in 2012 the way they have now, but the authors and others saw it coming. But the phrasing is kind of awkward--the characters in the novels all carry "hand terminals" that seem to have the same function as smartphones. I'd bet a good bottle of scotch that, for as far into the future as we actually carry them in our hands, we will call them "phones", because it's such a simple word and carries the history of large-scale person-to-person communication with it. Even though phones are busy subsuming all other media (and tools) into themselves.



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The Hunger After You're Fed, by James S. A. Corey

One of the better ones in the Wired Science Fiction issue.  The Hunger After You're Fed tells the story of a man searching for a mysterious author, one Hector Prima.  This is not a society of want--everyone seems to have a basic income.  The problem then is purpose.  The protagonist suffers from purpose issue--this seeking of Hector Prima makes him doubt himself.  The town he visits suffers as well, with its denizens looking to get more appreciation than their neighbors, by sharing food they make.  Doesn't seem so bad.  The story is reflective and sad, pulling you along.  I enjoyed it.  3 stars.

I have read James S. A. Corey before, but that book was much more of an adventure.  This is more of a reflective story.  I also did not know that the author is actually a husband and wife team. 

Leviathan Wakes, by James S. A. Corey

Have just finished Leviathan Wakes, a Hugo award nominee for 2011. It's the first in a series, and pretty slick.  George R. R. Martin endorses it as "old-fashioned kickass space opera", and I guess I'll agree with that. 

The story starts out set in a reasonably plausible future--mankind has discovered a cheap fusion drive that lets us get access to the planets and expand settlement there.  We've got asteroids that have been hollowed out and spun for gravity, and lots of mining activity.  Into this space comes the stretch part--a "protovirus" that seems to be trying to restructure whatever life it encounters. The struggles with and over this life form are set in a backdrop of political strife between Earth, Mars, and the Belt (everyone else).  We have a hard-boiled detective, an idealistic captain, and various other characters to root for.  Lots of good action and some nasty horror scenes.  The book is long enough to be satisfying without bogging down.  Is there anything surprising in a literary sense, or do we go somewhere we haven't before?  Not at all.  That's kind of the point here.  This is pure entertainment, and it delivers in a very fine way, like a half a pizza or a 20 ounce beer.  Good and plenty. 

James S. A. Corey is a pen name.  The book is actually a collaboration between Daniel Abraham and George R. R. Martin's assistant, Ty Franck.  It's a fine blend, I've read plenty of Daniel Abraham and would not have guessed it was him. I give it a nice round 3 stars.  I got it from our local library, and it's quite possible to finish it in the usual lending time.  Have fun.