Micro Mention "Nemesis Games"

"Nemesis Games" by James S.A. Corey represents yet another seachange moment in The Expanse series, a series of stories known for those moments. It's a story about how a little bit of vainglorious stupidity mixed with a lot of anger can get a lot of people killed.

This is the story that, in my opinion, sets the tone and contributes the most to how the latter half of this excellent series would be shaped. The earlier novels are certainly related and flow from one to the next, but they still feel like self-enclosed containers. Each book has its own story that is distinct in time and place. Starting with "Nemesis Games," though, the macro, overall story, becomes the A plot, and that feeling of discreet, individual stories strung together fades away.

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Micro Mention "Cibola Burn"

If "Abaddon's Gate" told us why "The Expanse" series is called "The Expanse," then "Cibola Burn" by James S.A. Corey gives us a glimpse of what that means.

I think I'm a minority opinion on this one, but I liked that this story was a bit of a detour from the main action of the series. We get to explore an alien world with the Rocinante crew. And sure, there was still the geopolitical struggle going on between the belters and inners, in miniature. But what really took me in is the creepy setting of a colony on a world with a dead civilization. Ever since I played "Mass Effect," that shit has been my jam.

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Micro Mention "Old Man's War"

"Old Man's War" by John Scalzi blew me away. I've been a Scalzi fan since reading "Red Shirts," and I thought I knew his writing pretty well, but man, this book was next level and took me by surprise. I'm kinda kicking myself now since it's been in my library for a couple years before reading it.

What bums me out is that I've read a few books from Scalzi, which were published later in his career than this novel, and I liked them, a lot even. However, I didn't love them like I did with this book. For example, I can remember John Perry, in clear detail, even after months after putting this novel down and writing my full review here. But I can't actually name any of the protagonists of "Red Shirts," which was a funnier book, sure. Also, I can't remember any of the protagonists' names from "The Collapsing Empire," either. That's a disturbing trend. 

This makes me wonder, is it really accurate for me to call myself a "fan" of Scalzi's fiction, or do I just like it a lot in the moment? Because there is a difference.

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Micro Mention "Abaddon's Gate"

I'll admit that when I first read "Abaddon's Gate" by James S.A. Corey, I didn't know if I liked it quite as much as the first two books in The Expanse series, but with a bit of time and retrospective, it has really grown on me. 

It introduced one of my favorite Expanse side characters, Bull, who recently made it into season five of the show. Not trying to spoil the show too much here, but with how they used Bull in season five, I have no idea why he isn't in season six. 

They had a need that his character filled. He clicked right into the story, and then poof, he's gone after the last episode of season five. No explanations were given. The need his character filled is still there. They just decided, "eh, Holden can do it." No, Holden can't do it! Holden is the captain, and captains can't do everything on the ship, or else there would be no point in having a crew and being a captain!

Sorry, I get fired up about this injustice to my boy Bull.

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"Leviathan Falls" by James S.A. Corey--Fiction Review

We’re finishing off my favorite series that I’ve read in the past two years, obscurists. Today we’re talking about “Leviathan Falls” by James S.A. Corey, the ninth and final novel in The Expanse series. Get your anti-aliens from beyond space and time security blankets on because it’s going to get bumpy.

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

I have loved this series since about the middle of the first book, “Leviathan Wakes.” I remember diving into the second book immediately after finishing the first because I just had to know where Corey would go after the deeply unsettling setting of Eros. Oh, how things would change since that first novel by the time we get this novel “Leviathan Falls” yet still be so compelling.

I bring that first novel up because one of the chief things I like about this book is how it mirrors the first novel. It’s as if the whole series describes a perfect parabola leading to an ending a lot like the beginning but different—history doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme. 

The Expanse has always been a pretty intense series, but this novel takes the prize. The stakes could not be higher, and everyone is on edge from beginning to nearly the end. But while its nail-biter of a plot unfolds, “Leviathan Falls” still makes time to chew the fat on some of the biggest ideas in sci-fi.

We also get to see more of a story where Naomi is more in charge overall rather than Holden, which I found interesting. Holden is still captain of the Rocinante, and Naomi is still ostensibly the XO. But, she is also the leader of the underground and resistance against the Laconian empire, which makes her more of an Admiral than just a mere executive officer. The dynamic could lead to tension, but I love how Naomi and Holden have been together for so long that they make it work without a single hiccup to distract from the primary plot.

What I don’t love about this book:

There are a lot of samey metaphors and phrases that come out of different characters’ mouths who aren’t remotely similar or even share similar geography. And sure—I get it—how many ways are there to describe dark gods from beyond space and time or god emperors? But, it feels like it should at least be more than one. It’s a quibble, but for a series that does individual characterization so well, it was disappointing to me that all those wonderful characters—with all their distinct voices and styles—all started sounding the same on literally the most significant issue in this universe. 

I don’t want to get into spoiler territory, but “Leviathan Wakes” doesn’t take enough time wrapping up all the loose threads and story arcs of all the major supporting characters introduced in this series. It doesn’t even finish off the stories of all the characters prominent in this novel. It wraps up the story for the main core characters—sorta—well, really only definitively for two characters the others just kind of end, and we never see them again in the narrative.

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***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

After the battle at Laconia, where the underground led by Naomi Nagata successfully beat the Laconian navy on their own home turf—the crew of the Roci is laying low. Naomi managed to recover her lover and the captain of the Rocinante James Holden during that conflict. Holden also brought with him Teresa Duarte, daughter to Winston Duarte, High Consul of the Laconian Empire. She wanted to escape her father’s empire after his mind was shattered during events before this novel.

Micro Mention "Caliban's War"

"Caliban's War," the second novel in The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey, is still firmly in what I mentally categorize as the sci-fi horror section of the series. The Protomolecule is still so new and creepy that it dominates the narrative—and I love it.

I actually just finished the whole novel series a few days back, and it's hard to capture how satisfying the entire series was to read. By the time I got to the later books in the series, it was startling to think about how much ground Corey covered in these books. 

True to its namesake, the book series's scope gets bigger and bigger as it goes on, and the events in "Caliban's War" are what set the story down the road it takes and where we end up is, well, unexpected.

I expect that I'll be working on a full review of "Leviathan Falls" the last book in this series, soon. So keep checking in for that.

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Micro Mention "Leviathan Wakes"

I picked up this novel because I wanted to get into the expanse show, and per my usual preference, I like to read the source material before watching the show. That said, "Leviathan Wakes," by James S.A. Corey, is one of my favorite sci-fi novels I've read in years.

This series is firmly space opera, and it's the kind of multifaceted political struggle that appeals to a lot of my sci-fi leanings, which I talk about more in my full review and again on my podcast. I really like this series.

But what I really want to bring up today is the audio experience. I know I bring up I'm a fan of audiobooks quite a lot on this blog, but the narrator for this book, Jefferson Mays, is amazing. There is just something about the tempo and quality of his voice that makes any sort of dry humor hilarious. 

It isn't inherently a funny book or series. It's a very life and death kind of serious story, but the number of times Corey got me to laugh in this and future books in this series—well, I lost count long ago. Mays, as narrator, enhances this quality with a sly sense of timing and oft deadpan tone. 

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"Old Man's War" by John Scalzi--Fiction Review

Alright, Obscurists, aging sucks, but there’s no way around it. But what if you could get a second start in your seventies? Sounds good, like in “Old Man’s War” by John Scalzi—oh, and you need to also join the army, and your second life will probably end tragically soon and violently. But! Other than that. It’s all peaches.

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

I’ve read a few of Scalzi’s books before picking up “Old Man’s War,” the first of which was “Redshirts.” Liking those books—a lot—but never actually loving them, I was surprised at how much this book struck me. Like the rest of his work, I’m familiar with, it oscillates between being profoundly funny and tragic science fiction. That said, there is something about the pathos of John Perry, the protagonist, that pushes this novel to another level for me than the other Scalzi books I’ve read.

I think I love John Perry as a character so much first because he’s a soldier but not your traditional soldier. Perry doesn’t join the army until he’s in his seventies—and if you can’t wrap your mind around why he’s so effective as a soldier, clearly it’s for science fiction reasons, though I’m not going to spoil the “how” as of yet. Novel as that all is, the real reason I’m enamored with this character is that you can feel the weight of Perry’s lived experience carried with him from his long life at all points of the story. A lot of the time, I don’t believe highly functional “old” characters because many writers don’t know how to write them, in my opinion. They just feel and act like young characters, and their age is really just an artifice of the story. 

Perry’s relatable-ness as a grandfatherly type extends to the rest of the cast of supporting characters too. This means that once sci-fi-style super-advanced warfare starts happening, it’s terribly sad when characters start dying.

What I don’t love about this book:

So this book is famously—as famous as things go with these things—inspired by Robert A. Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers,” a science fiction classic that, for all its merits, I ideologically speaking just don’t like. This book and that book exist in a pessimistic vision of the future. They inhabit the polar opposite of where I first entered into my love of the genre as a boy, which is with “Star Trek.” I can still like them, even love them, but ultimately not to the same degree as I love the more optimistic stories in the genre.

Clearly, this book is about a war, hence the title, and I feel it’s only a small spoiler to reveal that it’s a war against aliens. Not just one group of aliens, but several different and not necessarily affiliated groups of aliens. Building off my unease about the inherent pessimism of future space war, it’s especially bleak for me that all other spacefaring species humanity encounters are hostile, and conflict is just inevitable. It goes a step further to even suggest that not only is conflict unavoidable with alien life but that anyone who doesn’t think so is either naïve or trying to self-aggrandize—or both. There is lip service that peace should be possible, but it isn’t really explored, at least not in this story.

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Author's Website: https://whatever.scalzi.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

John Perry is an old man—seventy-five to be exact. So it’s odd after saying goodbye to his wife, at her grave, that he’s about to leave Earth forever and join the army. At first, not much is known about the Colonial Defense Forces other than they’re an army that exclusively recruits old people.

"The Re-Emergence" by Alan K. Dell--Fiction Review

Battle stations, Obscurists! Today we’re talking about Alan K. Dell’s “The Re-Emergence,” a space opera with all the starship-on-starship violence you could want. Unless you don’t want any, then there is quite a lot—also, who are you!?

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

Dell’s novella is a sci-fi made by, and for, sci-fi geeks—and since I am one of those, I loved that aspect. It’s specifically space opera, and it’s got a feel somewhere between “Star Trek” and “Battlestar Galactica.” Without spoiling too much, this story has a lot of focus on two nearly evenly matched starships tilting and thrashing it out in a running fight across star systems. He includes all of my favorite starship duel stuff. There are sparking consoles, technobabble, shield levels falling menacingly, et cetera, et cetera. But it’s also got that visceral feel to the ship combat that Battlestar brought, point defense weapons, metal slugs tearing straight through shields, armor, and crew.

There is a vaguely creepy aspect to this story that I appreciated—sci-fi horror being my favorite mix of horror. It’s a light undertone, nothing too overt, like walking past a graveyard at night. The tension is brought on by the setting more than anything, which is one of horror’s best tools, but other than violence is scary, there isn’t anything more to it in this story.

An AI character is present in this story, and Dell injects what I think is the most interesting question regarding artificial intelligence. It isn’t whether or not AI is or isn’t alive, conscious, or only mimicking it; it’s whether or not when it says it is alive and sentient if you can make the leap in empathy to believe it? Because at the end of the day, what this reveals about a person’s character is, is your first instinct to treat things with respect or curiosity, or is it to dismiss and be afraid?

What I don’t love about this book:

So the flip side of a science fiction story written for science fiction nerds is a double-edged sword. As much as I personally might like Dell’s story, it’s not particularly welcoming to readers unused to space opera. It forces the reader to make an empathic jump right away: why do we care about this thing—an AI that achieved sapience that runs a detection satellite built by an alien race of bird people—in the first place? Then when we meet the bird people, now why do we care about them? The point I’m trying to draw here isn’t that we shouldn’t—by all means—it’s that this story, much like the classics of the genre, is a very you’ve got to stick with it for a while to get it. In that regard, it reminds me of “Dune,” but that might be just because I watched the new movie recently, too. I don’t like or dislike this quality in this or any other sci-fi plot, but I do think it is the genre’s biggest barrier to entry for new readers.

What doesn’t help the dislocation in time, space, and culture at the beginning of the story is it’s relatively slow on the jump. Again that’s not an inherently good or bad thing. I know plenty of wonderful stories that have slow atmospheric building beginnings. But since this is a novella, it’s a short read. So the slow start where there is a lot of talk about an ancient enemy primes you intellectually for that threat but not viscerally on an emotional level when shit hits the fan, and it becomes a fast-paced action story. It’s the sort of difference between knowing fire is hot and can burn you and understanding fire is hot and watching it burn down your house—with loved ones inside.

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Author's Website: https://www.alankdell.co.uk/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

The novella opens with an old satellite—ancient really, hundreds of thousands of years old—named Unit-17, minding its business of being an early detection satellite that has never detected anything of note in its long existence. Then it does. It detects an enemy vessel near Maldaccian space, which is the very reason Unit-17 and its fellows were created to watch for in the first place. It then launches a probe to warn its makers, per its programming.

Talking In Obscurity, "Leviathan Wakes," by James S.A. Corey

Or Download This Episode Here: 

https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/n6nk9b/Leviathan_Wakes_Edited60t8d.mp3

So it's the end of July, Obscurists! Steven and I are back to discuss one of my favorite books I read during the pandemic, "Leviathan Wakes" by James S.A. Corey. 

This is the first book in "The Expanse" series, and it's a mixture of Hard Sci-Fi meets neo-noir and all-out horror. There is also a show on Amazon Prime based on these books, which I love as well.

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Author's Website: https://www.jamessacorey.com/

Micro Mention "Tiamat's Wrath"

I haven't finished "The Expanse" novel series yet, mainly because the last one isn't out yet, but I can firmly say that "Tiamat's Wrath" is my favorite of the series, right up there and tied with the first novel "Leviathan Wakes."

Without giving too much away about this book or the series—I think it's pretty safe to assume that people have inferred that years and years have taken place after eight novels. Ok? Ok. So, a darkhorse favorite character of mine is Old Man Holden, as I call him. I know—I know there's Amos Burton or Chrisjen Avasarala, and I love them both, but it's Holden who comes out on top for me. How do I justify space Jon Snow as my favorite character? Well, it all has to do with his "The Dancing Bear" chapters in this book. Without spoiling too much, you find out that Holden in his old age isn't just funnier—he's far craftier too.

I still don't like the covers of these books, though. I'm sure some extremely talented, well-paid artists created them, and I feel bad about that, but I never know what the fuck is going on in them. Maybe I'm just thick. 

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Author's Website: https://www.jamessacorey.com/

Micro Mention "Of Fire and Night"

Space Amish or rather Neo Amish—either way, there is Space Amish in this book, and as someone from Pennsylvania, they were my favorite part of “Of Fire and Night” by Kevin J. Anderson.  The whole series was worth reading to get to just this moment.

This series has such depth at this point with all of its characters' personal histories that it defies summarizing. Suffice to say, the titanic war between god-like elemental forces, aliens, robots, and the different factions of humanity is genuinely staggering in its scope in this novel. How Anderson keeps this stuff all straight in his head is a feat in of itself.

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Author's Website: https://www.wordfire.com/

Micro Mention "The Collapsing Empire"

Between "The Collapsing Empire" and "Redshirts," no one writes a better prologue than John Scalzi. On the shitiest day, I can always reread these, and the day is better—well, funnier, at least. Nothing is actually better, but you get my point, and Wil Wheaton's delivery is on point in the audiobook.

Prologues aside, Scalzi's sci-fi is equal parts soft sci-fi epic and humorous adventure with poignant interludes. If you've ever watched "Guardians of the Galaxy," of the books of his that I've read so far, they all feel like that. There is just something about the irreverent way he writes both the dialogue and narration that is unbounded and, above all else, fun. 

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"The Ark," by Patrick S. Tomlinson--Fiction Review

Today we’re going to escape Earth for a new beginning in a new solar system—sounds pretty good given everything going on right now—in this science fiction/detective mystery “The Ark” by Patrick S. Tomlinson. Don’t worry—people are still shitty generations later and in space.

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

It’s an interesting concept because the plot is essentially a murder mystery baked into a science fiction setting. You might think that blending the two genres might weaken both elements, but Tomlinson has the chops to do both justice.

I was pleasantly surprised that “The Ark” is pretty consistently hard science fiction despite having one of those high-concepts that could easily shift into soft science fiction. You’d think a murder mystery in space would be more focused on the more psychological elements, typical of crime fiction, and shared by soft science fiction. Tomlinson does address the psychological motives, so it isn’t unaddressed, but he also never takes his hand off the wheel when describing the science and engineering behind “The Ark.”

 

What I don’t love about this book:

Our main character, Benson, for the most part, is a likable gumshoe to be following around, but his follow-through feels inconsistent to me at times. So when they discover the body of a murdered crew member, floating out in space outside of the ship, he personally goes out in a maintenance pod to retrieve it. Then there is the bit where he alienates the owner of his favorite restaurant and another time where he storms onto the bridge to demand answers from the captain, to get the truth, damn it! So you’d think, this here is a guy that will do anything to get the job done right. Except he also sleeps with his girlfriend at a crime scene. Then there is the time he calls off a manhunt half-way through because, eh, he doesn’t feel like they’re going to find anything.

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Author's Website: https://www.patrickstomlinson.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

So the story begins with Benson at a sports event. It’s a game called zero played at—you guessed it—zero gravity. Benson is a big fan because he used to be a captain of one of the teams when he was younger and before he was a cop. Now, he’s “chief,” such as it is of his own police department on his side of the Ark, the great generation starship humanity created to save a select few and find a new homeworld when Earth was destroyed.

"Leviathan Wakes," by James S.A. Corey--Fiction Review

Happy Friday obscurists, it’s May the 15th —the 15th is always a happy day for me because it is always a new book(s) day for me. Today’s review is of the first novel in “The Expanse” series, “Leviathan Wakes” by James S.A. Corey, a science fiction space opera. There are arguments to be made that it could be classified as science fiction/horror, but I personally think of it as Space Opera with horror elements.  

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

A lot—it’s in space, there are big titanic spaceship battles, there is a scary biological weapon that at first transforms people into zombie-like husks that mutate further into horrible glowy abominations. It’s got that “Game of Thrones” feel with several parties all following conflicting motivations/political machinations. Oh, and it’s quite funny here and there.

For this first book, there are only two perspective characters, and they have dueling outlooks on life. Holden is the idealist, and Miller is the pragmatist. I’ve only read the next three novels in this series as of today, but you never get that dichotomy again with the perspective characters. So in this first novel, since the perspective characters are separate at first, you get a feeling for the scope of the world and then that scope contracts—ironic for a series called “the expanse”—when they meet. After they part ways, the world opens up again, or you could say expands, get it—get it? No, that’s not why the series is titled that, but it’s a funny little observation.  

I love the attention to detail to the practical realities of life in space, especially over generations. People who were born in, and lived their entire lives in near null gravity, would be strikingly different in physiology to people who live on Earth. My admiration also extends to the realities of life on ships operating in space. Save for little details like the protomolecule or the Epstein Drive—not that Epstein—everything is presented hard science fiction style as practical outgrowths of technology we have today or can at least describe the mechanics of how they would function. There is no gravity other than what can be generated by either enough mass, constant acceleration, or spin—like reality, so far as we know.   

What I don’t love about this book:

Maximum pettiness here, but I hate the cover art, and I continue to hate the cover art for every subsequent novel in this series. The perspective is always odd, and I can never get a sense of what is going on, or the full definition of the objects shown. For me, if you’re not going to go with a clear moment from the story for your cover art, then make it meaningfully symbolic, or have a picture of a character so your audience can go: “hey, that’s so-and-so.”

Also, the ships are described as ugly, which is probably more of an accurate assessment of ship design in a zero-g environment than star wars’ x-wings. But still—I don’t like it, I like my sleek aerodynamic starships even though logically why would you design something to be aerodynamic when it operates in an environment where there is no air.

It may seem like I’m reaching for things that I don’t like about this book, and that’s because I am. “Leviathan Wakes” is one of those novels that hit on nearly every sweet spot for me for a story to have, so it’s a struggle just to find things I don’t like. There isn’t any element of the story that I hate. 

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Author's Website: https://www.jamessacorey.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***