Over the six novels of The Expanse saga so far, Captain James Holden and his incredible crew have been through the wringer repeatedly. They’ve weathered wars and tangled with extraterrestrial tech; they’ve been hunted and they’ve been haunted; they’ve played their parts in power struggles aplenty and dealt with disaster after disaster, not least an uprising, a rebellion and, of late, an apocalypse of sorts.
The times, to be sure, have been tumultuous. And inasmuch as they’ve affected the series’ setting—what started in the Sol system is now an interstellar affair thanks to the arrival of the ring gates—they’ve also had a dramatic impact on the ongoing narrative’s characters. Holden, Naomi, Amos, and Alex—along with relatively recent recruits like Bobbie and Clarissa—are not the idealistic whippersnappers we met in Leviathan Wakes. In the canny hands of Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham, collaborating here as James S. A. Corey, they’ve grown, be it for better or for worse, both as individuals and as a team. They’ve grown… and guys? They’ve gotten old.
Thirty-odd years have passed since the fall of the Free Navy under Marcos Inaros in Babylon’s Ashes. Some things have changed in the intervening period, and some things, happily, haven’t.
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Persepolis Rising (The Expanse)
“The Earth-Mars Coalition had been the center of humanity once—the innermost of the inners. Now it was an important spoke on the wheel whose hub was Medina Station. Where the weird alien sphere sat in the middle of the not-space that linked all the ring gates,” and where the Transport Union, under the leadership of President Drummer, is based.
Holden and his have been doing odd jobs for Drummer for decades, but at the start of Persepolis Rising, they’re charged with a rather ghastly task. Some of the people of Freehold, a small colony with no love for government, have been caught cutting the line that the Transport Union triage. They may well have been in dire need of supplies, but there are checks and balances on the use of the ring gates for good reason, and Drummer feels she has to set an example before such dangerous behaviour becomes commonplace. So it is that she dispatches the Rocinante to Freehold to deliver a message that is essentially a death sentence.
It’s a dirty deed indeed, and however much Holden recognises its necessity, he doesn’t want to do it, damn it. To wit, he breaks the rules a bit, gets told off for being such a presumptuous shit, and, in the end, decides to quit. On the flight back to Medina Station, he and his XO Naomi hand over command of the hunk of metal and memories that has been their home since time immemorial to Bobbie, who’ll be the boat’s new boss. They, for their part, hope to retire somewhere with an atmosphere and live out the rest of their lives quietly.
However unlikely the chances of that actually happening are, it does seem like it might be the right time to leave the limelight. Life in the galaxy hasn’t all been roses and posies since the events of Babylon’s Ashes, but broadly speaking, Holden and Naomi have every reason to believe that the peace they’ve been pushing will persist:
Belters had tried to kill the Earth, but here it was still spinning. They’d tried to burn the inner planets’ ships, and here was the EMC navy, scraped back together and flying.
And on the other hand, Earth had tried to choke the Belters under its boot for generations, and here was Drummer. Time had made them allies in the great expansion of civilisation out to the stars.
At least until something else changed.
Inevitably enough, the thirty years of tranquillity preceding Persepolis Rising have been the calm before a storm many decades in the making. And that storm—that something else on the tip of Drummer’s tongue—has a name: Winston Duarte.
Though Holden and his had more pressing matters to attend to at the time, longtime readers of Corey’s awesome space opera will probably recall Duarte hightailing it through a ring gate towards the end of Nemesis Games. He didn’t go it alone, of course: several hundred ships full of followers, including some of the best and the brightest minds in the Milky Way, went with him, and with them went the stolen protomolecule sample that may be the key to understanding the extinct alien race that created the gates in the first place.
Duarte has been a busy baddie since. On Laconia, he’s engineered an empire, and that empire—bolstered by technology centuries ahead of anything any of the other major players in this milieu has—is about to come knocking. And when it does, don’t kid yourself into thinking that its fearless leader will make the same mistakes his fallen Free Navy frenemy did. A particularly potty-mouthed centenarian, returning to a round of applause from this critic, advises Drummer as much:
“Don’t talk yourself into underestimating him because you want him the be the next Marco Inaros. Duarte won’t hand you a win by being a dumbfuck. He won’t spread himself too thin. He won’t overreach. He won’t make up half a dozen plans and then spin a bottle to pick one. He’s a chess player. And if you act on instinct, do the thing your feelings demand, he’ll beat us all.”
Persepolis Rising is a slow starter by The Expanse’s standards, but what its first half lacks in action and in-fighting factions its startling second section shoulders skilfully. Several set pieces that are simply staggering in their scale serve to underscore the severity of the threat Duarte represents—specifically a stand-off between his small army and the rest of humanity that certainly doesn’t conclude the way you expect it to.
As massive and as meaningful as such space battles are, Corey doesn’t forsake the folks we’ve come to care about over the course of this superlative series either. In fact, they’re his foremost focus in Persepolis Rising‘s otherwise protracted prologue. Holden’s decision to hang up his captain’s hat proves a powerful paradigm shift here at the outset of the third of The Expanse’s triumvirate of trilogies. This is, in no uncertain terms, “the first act of the end of the world,” and the saviour of civilisation on so many occasions that it’s honestly gotten a little silly can only sit back and watch it happen. You can guess how infuriated that makes our hero feel, yes, but you can’t begin to imagine where his frustration will take him.
Holden is far from the only character to come out of Persepolis Rising changed. Alex is left out in the cold, if the truth be told, but Amos, Clarissa, Naomi and Bobbie’s arcs are all advanced by a narrative that takes no prisoners as it approaches its devastating destination. And I do mean devastating. Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham have developed such a distinctive voice over the years that it was only when the bodies started stacking up that I was reminded of ties they have to George R. R. Martin. I’ll only say that they’re painfully clear here.
Though the seventh part of The Expanse opens on an unusually hopeful note, with humanity writ large finally united and our ever-hopeful heroes planning happy retirements, Persepolis Rising is ultimately among the darkest chapters of this insatiable saga. It takes a little longer than I’d like to get going, but when it does, Persepolis Rising proves as pulse-pounding and poignant as any of its powerful predecessors, and given how near the end is from here, I don’t expect there to be another dull moment before the whole story’s over.
Persepolis Rising is available from Orbit.
Niall Alexander is an extra-curricular English teacher who reads and writes about all things weird and wonderful for The Speculative Scotsman, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com. He lives with about a bazillion books, his better half and a certain sleekit wee beastie in the central belt of bonnie Scotland.
“Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham have developed such a distinctive voice over the years that it was only when the bodies started stacking up that I was reminded of ties they have to George R. R. Martin.”
I have a bad feeling about this. Just started reading the novel and notice from ToC that Holden drops off as a PoV character halfway thru… They wouldn’t… would they?
Agree about the difference between the first & second halves. It was a bit of a slog at first, but Corey pulled it off, and now — a mere 4 days after the publication date — I’m already waiting with bated breath for Vol. 8! I have great trust in Corey, partly because the changes they’ve made to the story in the TV series have done nothing but improve on the books, which is a unique achievement, and especially in Daniel Abraham whose “Long Price Quartet” is IMHO the greatest fantasy saga since Lord of the Rings, a truly adult study of a human life from childhood to old age, as well as an engrossing tale that constantly subverts every expectation and avoids every common fantasy cliche.
I’ve just finished it and enjoyed it immensely, although I was a bit taken aback by the thirty year time hop. I understand that it’s needed to give the Laconians time to build up that Empire, and for the Transport Union to settle into its role (love the void cities!), but it’s weird trying to visualise our crew with thirty extra years on them.
I also liked that one of the PoV characters was a minor character from Strange Dogs, although we don’t find out exactly whatever happened with the dogs themselves. Maybe in the next book, which I am now jonesing for! What does it come out again??
I am about half way finish my reread, which is going much smoother than my original read. I got thrown off by the time jump. It just didn’t make sense initially. I found it irritating that we didn’t get the ending of some ongoing stories. Like what happen to Filip, off on his own for the first time since his father put blood on his hands. Why did they waste book six’s epilogue, when we weren’t going to hear from Anna, her wife, and child? Perhaps the authors think that it is appropriate to play with readers emotional health. Once I grew out of my resentment, I was more willing to accept the changes.
I found Drummer as boring as I remember her. It might have been more interesting to have a reformed rebel like Sanjrani, who was acknowledged as a former Union President. Or even Dawes, who must be older than dirt. Did any one notice that for most of the current associations, the person in charge is a female? I am not certain what that says about the authors’ viewpoint. I did love that Avasarala is still running around getting into trouble. Back to the near female leadership, did he want a weaker victim group, that the Laconians could run over. On the other hand Singh is an idiot. A young man that the test in the governor’s chair, who has almost zero practical experience.
What happened to Holden, didn’t surprise me. He is always stuffing his nose into other folks business. I guess we will see in number eight, what happens to him. In general, most of the plot worked, and I love all the new stuff that the Laconians created with the help of the Protomolecule. Duarte is sufficiently scary and totally brilliant. This is going to take everything that our crew has to fix by the end of book nine. With luck, maybe they can save the universe again.
Didn’t like it. If I liked a Deus Ex Machina inside my Deus Ex Machina that came from a different Deus Ex Machina I might have liked it. If I liked a plot that immediately throws away all the setup and consequences from the previous book I might have liked it. If I liked authors trying to pass homicidal authoritarian maniacs (with superpowers, by the way) as lovable and caring I might have liked it. If I liked stories that hinted at complex discussions about individual liberty but then just laughed brazenly about the concept I might have liked it. As it turns out, there was no chance I’d like it.
#5. Rodrigo:. Question. How did you feel about the first six books? We have over the years been given a steady diet of what to expect from Winston Duarte. We knew that he was peculiar, changeable, and that his scientists were experimenting with the protomolecule. That taken with the generally superior attitude of Martian officers, I found few surprises. Personally, I loved the series. I am in the middle of my reread and it is going smoothly. I have stopped battling the thirty year time jump, and accepted Drummer as a POV. I love that Avasarala is still around making trouble. Drummer would be harder to bear if Avasarala were not there. I love the technology on both sizes and their development would be possible in the time jump. I love that Jim and Naomi were ready to retire, but was personally pleased that Jim chose to stall the Laconians, for others to escape. Besides, this leaves him right where he might want to be to fight the Protomolecule and its billion year old enemy. I am not upset over Clarissa’s death, we knew it was coming and she got to go out fighting with a friend by her side.
All and all, I am very pleased by where it left us, so full of possibles. It sounds like we will see Elvi again about the mysterious affects and objects, which might be related to the enemy of the Protomolecule. Maybe next book, might allow us to look in on where ever Anna and Filip ended up decades ago. Of course, poor Jim, he does need to get away from Duarte, who is crazy. So many possibles.
AlerieCorbray, I enjoyed the first two tremendously, had to drag myself through 3, 5 and 6 because all the villains were silly caricatures and the way they managed to implement their crazy plans were so contrived, liked 4 because it avoided that and advanced the protomolecule plot but still wasn’t as good as the first two. Read this one hoping we’d see some interesting developments for the whole new civilizational setup we got at the end of 6 and maybe an actually believable antagonist, but instead we saw the setup killed from the start and got an actual supervillain that never gets anything wrong.
On top of that, we got a whole buildup of a superweapon with a possible exploitable flaw (good storytelling) that was then thrown off for a brand new superweapon that no one had even hinted at before (horrible storytelling that throws the good part in the garbage) – plus absolutely zero actual development on the ancient backstory.
The problem with Duarte is that he’s portrayed as kind and caring with no apparent conflict of conscience at all (and we see this from his own perspective) when he was directly responsible for the murder of billions. No one even calls him on it, not even Holden. Not even something about him being the sole person responsible for attracting the “bullet” despite his whole hypocritical spiel. His bullshit about how “we were always going to do this” is just that, bullshit, and we don’t get a single line from Holden to argue against it. All that AND he gets superpowers. Seems like the authors are infatuated with their own character.
All that, of course, after a start that hinted at a discussion about individual liberty versus even apparently benevolent authoritarianism (could be by far the best part of the human element since the gates opened if they had followed up on it) that’s abandoned for the whole book and brought back at the end just so two of the main characters can laugh about it.
I don’t see this series going anywhere good. As I said, there were a few books I already hadn’t liked before (almost dropped the whole series after reading the first few chapters of book 3), but gave it another shot. It not only missed it, it hit its own foot with it.
#7. Rodrigo:. I am quite the fan having read the entire series, other than the brand new book, at least three to six times. The new volume, I am almost finished my second read. The authors’ original idea for this series wasn’t a scholarly perfect paper, rather it was a RPG to be played on line, designed by Ty Franck. It later evolved into a table top game. A friend of his, Daniel Abraham suggested turning it into a novel. When Franck said he had never written a novel, and Abraham had, they decided to write it together. Thus Expanse was born.
The series Expanse is known for explosive action scenes and the ability to laugh at itself. Expanse is called a Space Opera for a reason. You even have Duarte wrong. He didn’t kill billion of people. That was Marco and his son Filip. What he did was to sell ships and technology to them, but other than the paint they stole, most of what they did was the lowest tech possible. They had obtained obsolete lasers, which they strapped to their backs, to use in the raid. They then painted the meteors and sent them toward Earth. We were never told that Duarte planned that action. To me, he seemed a classic bad guy, like a Hitler, where he was able to build a super army from young people. He is experiencing on himself, which has made him extra crazy. He is relaxed and fairly happy in his hidden hide a way. And it looks like he is in very big trouble, as far as the thing that killed the Protomolecule. He has been slowly building his world since the rings were discovered. He was able to build such ships because of using alien technology from the beginning including using the elevated platforms. I believe it was said that there were pieces of one of their ships left on the planet. I am a logical person and the authors were great in laying a breadcrumb trail of clues on how it could be done. Plus remember that he stole one third of the Martian fleet. What he didn’t sell/give away, he took with him when he left. He had great models.
As far as attracting the great Other, he used the Protomolecule’s technology in a destructive manner. That is hard to miss. As far as background on the ancients, I am betting we get to see that secondary character again from book four, who was able to help Holden turn everything off. She will definitely be back for book eight.
I love this series, and so do a lot of other readers. And they are doing a great job on the TV program. It should be back in February.
Nah, Duarte killed them. He gave them the tech knowing exactly what they’d do with it, it’s on him as much as on the idiots who followed his lead, if not more. And he did attract the bullet with his ignorant meddling and he didn’t get called on any of those. It’s a shame, really, when authors fall in love with a character. This series now feels like Honor Harrington.
#10 Rodrigo. Yes and no. He gave them the tech, but personally I doubt that he knew exactly what they would do with it. Yes, they were likely to attack Earth and or Mars. Of course they would do that, because that is what they had been doing. As far as their chasing the people in charge and eliminating leadership. Yes, they were likely to do that. Shutting folks out of the ring systems, yes, that meets some of the radical rebellion’s goals. As far as killing half of the Earth’s population and making the Earth difficult to live on for decades. Especially knowing that any non-Sol based planets, their nature environment cannot easily support humans and their animals. Any food must be grown using Earth based plants and animals, and with Earth based soil and nutrients. Duarte must have known this well and brought supplies to support the years of isolation. If you read the novella, Strange Dogs, the little girl runs into problems, when she attempts to feed a bird like animal on Laconia left over bread from her lunch sandwich. Just like her story books. What Marco’s group did as far as stealing the special paint and the cover damage to the base, and a couple years later with the rocks aimed at Earth, could have been done with their existing ships. The only high tech involved was that one ship out in the middle of no where, which was used as tracking. It wasn’t really necessary to their plan.
# 10 Rodrigo. I don’t know Honor Harrington, but it looks like you are trying to find a way to feel negative about an Expanse character. Perhaps, I am less judgemental about the series. You seem to be constantly looking for fault. It was a series written for fun, between two very smart authors. I for one am very much enjoying the ride.
Note as far as Duarte fooling around with the Protomolecule and attracting the Other, Holden called him on it.
No, I was trying to find ways to feel positive about it – after three really bad novels that followed the great two first volumes I had almost dropped it entirely, but the TV show brought it back to my attention, I got the latest book trying to give it one more try to see how it developed and was utterly disappointed.
As far as the details of the story go, there’s no way Duarte couldn’t have imagined what they’d do with a bunch of stealth paint, especially knowing that it’s not a huge help for ships once the railgun rounds start flying. The terrorists certainly couldn’t have expected any huge advantage against actual navies just by paining their ships, and Duarte, infallible as he’s described as being, must have known that. So it’s entirely his fault that billions were murdered on Earth, and still the authors ignore that entirely and skip any opportunity to have other characters call him on his hypocrisy.
I used Honor Harrington as a comparison because it’s another series that started well and degenerated into nonsense because of the author’s infatuation with a few of his own characters. I see it happening here and it’s a damn shame.
“Note as far as Duarte fooling around with the Protomolecule and attracting the Other, Holden called him on it.”
No, he didn’t call him on it, he meekly accepted Duarte’s spiel about how it was “inevitable”. And it wasn’t, as indicated by the fact that everyone stayed away from that system just because of a warning beacon and a couple of lost probes. If he was really concerned about it he could have just blockaded it, and even if mankind reached the same level of technology that he got for free it would have had plenty of time to learn about the nature of the bullet as it learned about the nature of protomolecule technology. He calls it inevitable then goes on and does it in the most rushed, haphazard and misinformed way possible, thinking somehow that civilizational-level military discipline is an advantage despite knowing virtually nothing about how the previous civilization was organized and how it was destroyed, and even Holden just shuts up about it. Great writing there guys!
It’s good that the series is still inside the first two books and they have plenty of room to explore those and change the crap that came later. We can get one more good season, and maybe even more if the producers realize what crap comes afterwards.
#13 & #14 Rodrigo. I guess, we are going to need to agree to disagree. You see things in the writing that I can’t find. No matter what I say makes sense to me you disagree. I guess that is the way it is going to be. I really like reading and especially, I like reading the Expanse. If the series bothers you sooo very much, you might be better staying away from it. That way, all of the fans, who love the books and the television series can peacefully enjoy the view. It has been nice talking to you.
It doesn’t “bother” me, I really loved the first two books and enjoyed the one on Ilus, it disappoints me because instead of evolving into greatness as it could it’s falling into mediocrity. The TV show is awesomely produced and every time I watch an episode I try to forget the crap from the latest books and give them another try, but I guess after this one I won’t fall for that trap again.
Have to agree with Rodrigo on this. The whole ile time jump is a deus ex machina showing that the writers had written themselves into a corner within the original time line of the story and needed a get out. With an extra hundred or two hundred pages at the beginning of this book introducing the world and characters, you could essentially excise the first six entirely and call it a new trilogy. The events of the first 6 books are all history and we’ve been cheated of seeing their immediate effects. The fact that laconia needed time to develop, and that it needed at least 30 years to do so is not an excuse, only an admission that the writers screwed themselves by setting it up to be so. The most annoying thing with this is the characters’ ages which are very conveniently fudged. Holden was in his mid 30s by the end of the last book meaning he’s in his mid 60s by this one. Amos and Alex are even older and must be in their 70s!! And still they’re cavorting around the galaxy like geriatric bandits??? The writers new the timeline jump would make the age differences ridiculous, so they conveniently decided to avoid spending much time describing these oaps physical appearances after decades of living and and barely surviving in deep space. Too unbelievable by far. Rodrigo’s other points about the ultimate supervillain arising are on point too.
Didn’t love this one as much as the earlier ones. It’s a very efficient plot machine, perhaps too efficient. Sometimes the place-setting pieces falling into place are a little too obvious.
On the one hand, it’s way past due for the macro plot to start going. On the other, the 30-year skip forward is not very satisfying. It’s required for the Laconian presence in the plot to make sense. It would take awhile to build the advanced fleet.
But it doesn’t entirely work on a character level. Similar to the recent season of Outlander where the characters were 20 years older while the actors only a year, the main crew is not convincing as near retirees (in their 60s?). In a couple cases, it comes across as if they haven’t even talked in many years on a personal level. In other words, no complex character progression at all.
After the stylistic change of the Strange Dogs novella, I expected something richer. The conflict on Medina is a retread of the crew’s previous fights there, and Drummer is not a very compelling character lens/POV thru which to present the rest of the story.
I would disagree that there’s a Deus Ex Machina, in the sense that the alien threat has been built up a long time. The threat isn’t coming from nowhere.
@17 & @18
It’s been made clear that humans live longer, healthier lives thanks to advances in medical sciences. Avasarala started the series in her 80s, if I recall, and now she’s well over 100 and still quite sharp mentally and about as solid as an average 80 year old now-a-days can hope to be. Not sure your complaints about the ages of the characters following the jump is valid.
19. ajp88: I don’t have an issue with the characters being in their sixties, even though they are referred to as old by others (old man Holden in the Laconian prison cell). The problem is decades have passed and it’s as if we pick up the story thread just a couple years after the last book. The characters remain largely unchanged, in service of a plot device.
&19
It was not clear that humans live longer lives, healthier lives before now. We have not encountered any characters over a hundred before this book and at the end of the last book Holden had grey hairs and Naomi had lines next to her eyes. These guys have lived a very tough life. The authors had always gone to great lengths to explain the travails of living in space and the strategies that people have employed to survived there. The technology and the effects of the medicine that was developed was very well realised and described. Now there is a magic elixir that is barely referenced other than a few throw away lines about anti-aging meds and all to accommodate the plot. Whenever these were developed we can assume it was in the decades after the last book in which Holden was feeling his age and the effects of his adventures, and they’ve not just arrested his aging but even to an extent reversed it. The fact that the science and technology of the universe was so well realized in the first one, makes swallowing this sudden cavalier attitude to the science of the rebooted universe quite hard.
@21. Colin: Yes, the earlier volumes made much of Belter resentment about the hard lives they led in space and the harsh treatment they received at the hands of the Inners. Earth and Mars kept the best meds, like cancer treatments, for themselves, instead of sharing with those who needed them most. Holden himself is still on cancer meds as a result of his contact with the protomolecule, but don’t think that’s even mentioned here. Clarissa has been suffering for 30 years because of her implants, with no options for relief, except for constant dialysis. Health care is not a paradise in this future.
Also, almost forgot. Had to check with my other half, an actual female person, about one scene I thought was sexist.
It features three female characters: Drummer’s PoV, Chrisjen, and a female Martian admiral. Drummer describes the admiral as leaning forward like a “schoolgirl” and, after the admiral gives a technical explanation of an ongoing battle (which of course shows her expertise), Chrisjen comes over and calls her “chatty.”
What the hell is that?