I read the first two books of The Expanse book series around 2013 and 2014. I meant to read the third book soon... and then I didn't. Instead, I watched the entire TV show The Expanse, which just ended recently. Occasionally while watching the TV series over the years, I would think, "I should read the rest of the books someday." And then I didn't. Until now!
So how was it to return to the book series several with Abaddon's Gate years later after having watched the TV series? A lot of this third one seemed to drag for me in a way I don't remember for the first two, but I usually enjoyed the Holden and Anna chapters and it all comes together in an interesting way.
First, what I didn't like: Two of my idiosyncratic tastes are that I find revenge plots boring and I rarely have sympathy for rich kids. So the Melba/Clarissa chapters were mostly a slog for me, until closer to the end. The Bull chapters weren't much better: I used to live in Albuquerque (where the authors still live) so it's fun to see a New Mexican in space, but otherwise he just wasn't that interesting as a gruff military type (I barely remember the character from the TV series, but I read that they gave a lot of his action to Drummer, who's one of my favorites, so that was a good move for TV). So, half the book wasn't that interesting to me. The absolute worst part: no Avasarala!
I also wonder if we really needed a 500+ page novel about .... trying to open a gate? And squabbling about it? I'm much more interested to see what happens next, so this novel often feels like it's spinning its wheels. And there's more military SF than I usually care for, but which no doubt pleases many other readers.
So what did I like? I continue to really like Holden as a character. And I love his weird conversations with "Miller" and the cool stuff about the Big Picture of the Galaxy (almost, but not quite, veering into what I call Big Ideas SF). I also really love Anna, who's just an interesting character. I'm not a religious person, but I felt like she brought a moral perspective that's often lacking in the gritty universe of the Expanse. And it's fun to think about what religion, even Anna's mainstream Protestantism, might look like in space in the future.
I also liked where this one ends up, which makes me more interested in the next one.
Like I mentioned earlier, this one dragged for me in a way I don't remember for the earlier books. As I was reading, I wondered why. There may be a philosophical reason.
My favorite philosophical science fiction often delves deeply into human nature and how we might change in the face of space exploration or other future developments (Dune or Star Trek are good examples for different reasons, but also other favorites: Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson, etc.).
But that's not really what The Expanse is about. Its message is more: we can go into space, meet aliens, and more, but human nature will remain basically the same. We will continue to have intense social and political factions, war, poverty, vast inequality, etc.
I'm not criticizing this type of SF. The Expanse is, I hate to say, probably right about all this if you're going to place bets on how things might turn out. It's "realistic" and "gritty," but in a somewhat depressing way. To be sure, there is something philosophically interesting about that.
Call me a utopian, but I'd like to think of ways we could do better. Or at least change. Or at least I personally prefer science fiction that tries to think about how space and time might change us, different paths we might take as a species.
And the Expanse is not really that kind of science fiction. And if you like that, more power to you. If you see science fiction as predictive rather than aspirational, as extrapolation rather than exploration, then The Expanse is probably more your thing.
But maybe I'm totally wrong! Maybe The Expanse is working up to something more in the philosophical direction I tend to enjoy. Or maybe it's just not my thing. But still, there's enough to like that I might keep reading to find out, even if it might take me another several years to get to book four!
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