James S.A. Corey - The Expanse

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Kovaks

Mr. Poopybutthole
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well that left off on a fucking cliff hanger.I felt m night shamalongadingdonged at the end. I too like the crew additions hope they are both still there next book. I'm very interested to see who they get to play Bobby on the show if it lasts that long.
 

spronk

FPS noob
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yeah just finished the last book too, i think this one of those where the TV show is gonna be better than the books. Last book was 80% boring ass shit but also felt written in a way to be a TV show. Not really that impressed with the books honestly, they have a few cool ideas but sooooo much filler crap.
 

Zyke

Silver Knight of the Realm
185
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I'm liking them a lot. Cibola Burns was the slowest for me by far but I really enjoyed nemesis games, which I just finished last night. The Amos chapters especially. All this series really needs is more Amos being Amos doing Amos things in Amos ways and I'd buy another 5 books easily. I do get a little tired of the "Oh look humans being shitty to each other" theme but at least they're consistent and people fucking each other over at least seems to be for reasons that are well established in the universe and not just coming out of nowhere, and they seem fairly logical if not always super exciting.

Could use more space battles though, we haven't seen much of that the last couple books except for things happening off screen mostly.
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Just read this series over the Holiday.

Awesome overall. But god damn Holden is the worst piece of shit character ever. I just despised him more and more as the series went on.
 

Ukerric

Bearded Ape
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Finished Babylon's Ashes just before christmas. It was a bit slower and less packed than the previous ones, but that's basically because it's the second half of Nemesis Games.

Too much Marco, not enough alien, I guess
Even if the alien Gates make a wonderful weapon
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Finished Babylon's Ashes just before christmas. It was a bit slower and less packed than the previous ones, but that's basically because it's the second half of Nemesis Games.

Too much Marco, not enough alien, I guess
Even if the alien Gates make a wonderful weapon

It also kind of annoyed me how pretty much nobody was really taking into account how horrible a literal extinction level event on Earth was.
 

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
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I finished it last night and felt it wrapped up too quickly and too convenient.

I really thought they were going to go with the gate teleporting them to a different location instead of it vaporizing them. I kind of hope it's like that and then Inaros (as much as I think the character is stupid) brings back an alien force through some wormhole. You heard it here first.
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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I finished it last night and felt it wrapped up too quickly and too convenient.

I really thought they were going to go with the gate teleporting them to a different location instead of it vaporizing them. I kind of hope it's like that and then Inaros (as much as I think the character is stupid) brings back an alien force through some wormhole. You heard it here first.

Oh god I hope not. But I do think you're right that Marco has to play into the incredibly obvious Filip Redemption Arc coming up. That redemption arc pisses me off because Filip intentionally killed literally billions of human beings. Any redemption arc he's given simply isn't enough. Seriously anyone complicit with the Free Navy's plans needs an unconditional bullet to the head. Making Michio Pa the new leader of the Spacing Guild is hard enough to swallow.

And that is still worse than Basia from Cibola Burn at least he never actually intended to kill anyone and was only complicit in the killing of a dozen or so people and even that one is hard to take.

But back to it. The next book will have to be about the Laconia colony and whatever Xenotech they've found that allows them to produce a bunch of shit. I guess the marines defending the Rail cannon thing in the Slow Zone will give up some shit on it eventually and they'll start to press their new power.
 

LachiusTZ

Rogue Deathwalker Box
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Not clicking spoilers, and way behind the curve on this. Just finished book#1 last night, and I thought it was really good. Better than the show, and minus the dumb UN bitch. Which annoys me in the show. Was interesting to see some of the deviations they made from the book to the show. Readin the above "TV will be better than books" statement was shocking, after 1 book I Thought this was surely to be better than the show.
 

Ukerric

Bearded Ape
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Not clicking spoilers, and way behind the curve on this. Just finished book#1 last night, and I thought it was really good. Better than the show, and minus the dumb UN bitch.
She appears originally in book #2. The season 1 is 3/5th of book 1, plus a couple of additions from book 2 they felt were necessary. Because otherwise, there would be nothing about earth or mars at all, it would be all belt, and earth "too much in the background". So they pulled Avasarala early, along with the rest of the earth cast (Jules Mao, the undersecretary, two admirals).

With book 1, you've got spoilers for the first 5-6 episodes of season 2, then it should be mainly book 2.
 

LachiusTZ

Rogue Deathwalker Box
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Just finished book 2, the first 100 pages or so were kind of tough to grind through. THen it really picked up.

Loving this series so far. Enjoying the differences in the book and show.

And actually said "YES!" out loud at the last line of book 2. Fucking great.

And had a "Oh goddamnit no" when they faked Amos dying midway through.

I read through all the Wikipedia stuff before reading the books, so I general overall story and where it is going. Still loving the series. Amos is by far my favorite character, then Miller, then Avasara or whatever. Not a fan of her in the show, just cant get past her voice.

What is the pace for the show compared to the books? Are they going to get through book 2 in season 2 of the show? Seems like it is moving forward at breakneck speed. Nauvoo already flying towards Ero etc.

I know its been covered (or I am thinking the chance it has been is high, but thinking they might get near the end of book 2 by the time season 2 is up? Definitely Venus, might end near Ganymede? EH, I could look it up on the Wiki for season 2 . . . but I don't want hard spoilers for the episodes since I enjoy the changing pace etc and trying to anticipate where each episode will end etc).
 

Ukerric

Bearded Ape
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What is the pace for the show compared to the books? Are they going to get through book 2 in season 2 of the show? Seems like it is moving forward at breakneck speed. Nauvoo already flying towards Ero etc.
The balance between book 1 & 2 is odd. There's a lot of the same general storyline, with different corps and different mad scientists. This is why they added Mao and most of the additional characters from book 2 (save Bobbie which came on S2 and Prax, which doesn't seem to be there) appear in season 1.

Otherwise, given that Prax seems to be absent, I presume the various stuff from Book 2 will be compressed into the last 6-7 episodes of S2, with Venus the background. And then, of course...
And actually said "YES!" out loud at the last line of book 2. Fucking great.
... Thomas Jane comes back immediately for season 3. :)
Definitely Venus, might end near Ganymede?
If you've missed it on ep 3, Bobbie grumbles because instead of going to fight Earth, her squad is headed to Ganymede to secure supply lines for Mars. So yes, Ganymede is probably happening as soon as Eros crashes...
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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Finish d the series so far and love it. Excited to watch the tv show too. This is my new game of thrones.
 

LachiusTZ

Rogue Deathwalker Box
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Just finished book 3, how much of book 4 and on is aliens vs "stories of humanity and character building"?

Not sure I wanna do multiple books of stories about random ppl settling planets etc . . . with the rave reviews here I might do it either way. Rather have more of the 2 billion year old alien story.
 

Ukerric

Bearded Ape
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Just finished book 3, how much of book 4 and on is aliens vs "stories of humanity and character building"?
The core and focus of the books is humans and mankind's adaptation to changing things. The alien stuff is mostly a large McGuffin at that point. You get some serious peek at the alien stuff in book 4 because it's on the first real alien colony world (where Holden is sent to negociate peace between factions. What could possibly go wrong with that?), but relatively little in 5 & 6, which are all about OPA. Bits of Alien Ex Machina here and there.
 

LachiusTZ

Rogue Deathwalker Box
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So reading book 4, then calling it done is a viable approach?
 

Ritley

Karazhan Raider
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I wouldn't. The series is still good, and while 5 and 6 are very light on alien stuff it's pretty much guaranteed to pick back up at some point
 

Ukerric

Bearded Ape
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I wouldn't. The series is still good, and while 5 and 6 are very light on alien stuff it's pretty much guaranteed to pick back up at some point
However, if you're really interested in the alien stuff and turned off by human politics
(even colored by massive-scale conflict and splinter hostile factions)
then it wouldn't be too odd to wait until book 7 arrives later this year to resume the series.