Yes, the first third of book was slooow but worth sticking with it for a "hard burn" finish. The Roci crew back stories were interesting and helps fill in their characters but could have been written with a little more originality. As usual nice twists and turns to the end.

Man, the beginning of this book was sloooooow - so slow, I was close to giving up on it! In the last half, the action picked up, thank goodness. I realize the author had a lot of work to do to get characters from point A to point B, where he needed them for the plot, but couldn't we have had more fun getting there? After the grand events of books past, it's a letdown.

I loved this book! I'll be honest and say that some of Naomi's POV chapters were a bit rough to get into. But the rest of the POV's were awesome. This novel was a great look into all the main characters on the Roci and their further development in the Expanse Saga. The story definitely was filled with action, fast-paced build-up, and gripping in suspense. Wow. A great 5th book in a series that I don't want to end.
"As he walked out the door, he could picture Miller smiling and saying, 'You can tell you've found a really interesting question when nobody wants you to answer it.' [p. 92]."
Most definitely.

No. 9 in "The Expanse" series

No. 9 in "The Expanse" series

This instalment of the Expanse series hearkens back to the flavour of the first two novels. The separation of the crew, their individual struggles, brought back together by need and circumstance; the sense of very alien horrors lurking beyond the gates; and the arrogance of people in positions of "power" who think they alone know what is best, begging the question: "best" for whom?" All this with five or six great action stories interwoven in the larger questions. Great read. I may have to read it again just to 'get' all the stuff that is in this book.

As I big fan of most of the previous installments, I was a little let down by the latest.

The joint authors behind S.A. Corey don't seem to be particularly short on self-awareness, so I can't help but feel they are veering dangerously close to the territory of self-parody when they stitch together yet another story that puts the members of the now comically understaffed Rocinante at the centre of events shaking the entirety of Human Civilization yet again. But this time they went too far, and threw some new information about a key character into the mix that made me seriously question everything that had gone before, and not in a good way.

Freaking fantastic.