Post by mdorman

James S. A. Corey's The Expanse is perhaps my favorite space opera series. I don't think they quite stuck the landing, but it was hard to put down right up until the very end.

I read The Mercy of Gods, the first book in their new trilogy, when it came out in August of 2024, so when the second book, The Captive's War came out last week, I re-read that and continued on with the new one.

They're compulsively readable, and much like The Expanse, while there's a lot of plot going on, the characters are compelling. There's one death in the second book that was sad and shocking, despite the fact that they start the chapter where it happens with "The last day of so-and-so's life started with..." I spent the whole chapter knowing that it was going to happen, waiting for it to happen, and yet I was still startled when it actually happened. And they did a superlative job of setting up the reason for that death without (to me, at least) making it obvious that was what they were settng up.

I also find them interesting as books that are, at their core, really about politics---about how different people accommodate (or demand accommodation from) the world and others around them, who has patience in trying to achieve their ends versus who demands immediate change, and how you can best live in circumstances that are beyond your determination.