Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse, 3)

Oof. This is a much more introspective story than the first two, but when the action happens the authors definitely don't pull their punches.

This book picks up about a year after Caliban's War. The protomolecule has created a massive structure outside of Uranus - a ring of some kind that leads to places unknown. Although he was hoping to end up on the opposite side of the solar system from this alien artefact, Jim Holden and the rest of the Roci crew end up as part of a group of ships from Earth, Mars, and the Belt going out to examine the ring to figure out exactly what it is, and what it does. Once there, Holden finds himself in the middle of a plot to destroy his reputation that puts the lives of his crew and everyone else near the ring at risk.

In addition to Holden's POV we also get three new POV characters: Carlos "Bull" de Baca the Chief Security Officer on the Behemoth who has been tasked with keeping the peace by Fred Johnson, Pastor Anna Volovodov who is looking for way to make sense of what is happening with the ring and also bring peace to those who are terrified, and lastly Melba/Clarissa who is hellbent on destroying James Holden's life.

Though I really liked both Anna and Bull as characters, I did really miss having both Avasarala and Bobbie (hopefully they will be back in future books). Bull and Anna wildly different character with incredibly disparate views of the world, but this story needed them both. Bull is a pragmatist. He's someone who will put his head down and get the job done because somebody's gotta do it. His ability to bite his tongue is admirable - I wouldn't have been able to do it. As someone who is not religious, I was a little worried that I wouldn't like Anna's chapters, but I did (even if I found her a bit naïve at times.) But, I appreciate her approach to religion and the discussions she had with others, but especially with Cortez.

I liked the questions this book was asking about humanity and faith. And, the risks we take and the sacrifices we are willing to make for advancement, or scientific inquiry, or money. I cannot quit thinking about this line: "Show a human a closed door, and no matter how many open doors she finds, she'll be haunted by what might be behind it."

Three Things:

1. I never really understood Clarissa's motivations - why she did what she did beyond just defending her family. I kept waiting for some kind of explanation that make it make sense or justify her actions (even if only in her own mind), and it never really does.
2. Ashford is the literal worst. And, I blame Fred Johnson for about half of what happens in this book. Ashford should have never been given command of that ship.
3. Tilly was a fantastic character, and I wanted to clap every time she called someone on their crap.

This book may not be my favorite in the series, but the impact of the events of this book are going to be massive. And, I can't wait to see what's next.

The third book in the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey is Abaddon's Gate. Happily, it maintains the quality of the first two entries Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War, which were both excellent examples of sci-fi space opera at its finest.

Abaddon's Gate continues the story by following the series of events that are happening to Jim Holden and the rest of the crew of the spaceship Rocinante that began in Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War.

The structure of these books is that the story is told from the point of view of various characters, which in this book are Holden, Anna Volovodov (a lesbian pastor from Europa who is part of a humanitarian contingent sent to investigate the anomaly called "The Ring" that has formed at the edge of the Solar System in the end of Caliban's War), Clarissa Mao (the sister of Julie Mao who was one of the key characters who died in Leviathan Wakes; Clarissa is masquerading as Melba and is determined to kill Holden as revenge for the part he played in her sister Julie's death) and Bull (security officer on Behemoth, the largest ship in the fleet of the Outer Planets Alliance, which is also on its way to The Ring).

Sadly, key characters from the previous books do not return in the latest book, most notably Undersecretary Chrisjen Avasarala (the profane grandmother who while appearing to be a mid-level functionary in the United Nations is probably the most important on Earth) and Sergeant Bobbie Draper (a Martian Marine who was the sole survivor in the alien attack on Ganymede that catalyzed events in Caliban's War).

The only character who has had POV chapters named after him in all three books is Holden. What Corey seems to be doing is introducing new characters in each book while simultaneously ramping up the action and expanding the scale of the plot.

The Expanse series (as it is now called) is most well-known for incredibly detailed action sequences, wry humor, political intrigue and thoughtful and nuanced characterization. All of these features are apparent again in Abaddon's Gate, in addition to another aspect of the books: pulse-pounding suspense!

Although the series was initially conceived as a trilogy the great news is that the series has been expanded to six books, and the fourth book in the series, Cibola Burn, will be released on June 17, 2014. I can't wait!

Title: Abaddon's Gate. Author: James S.A. Corey. Paperback: 576 pages. Publisher: Orbit. Date Published: June 4, 2013. Date Read: July 23, 2013

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0). PLOT: A-. IMAGERY: A-. IMPACT: B+. WRITING: A.

I am seriously enjoying James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse series of military science fiction books (with a touch of horror). I’m up to Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse, 3). When the alien structure lifted from Venus in the last book, it moved itself just outside the orbit of Uranus and assembled a ring. When a fame-seeking young man goes through the Ring, it becomes obvious that doing so takes you somewhere else–and is exceedingly dangerous. Meanwhile, Clarissa Mao, Julie’s sister, is working to ruin Holden’s legacy before she kills him for ruining her father and causing him to be put in jail. She’s calling herself Melba and working as an engineer on one of the ships headed for the Ring. When Holden’s ship arrives, she sends a fake broadcast from Holden taking credit for blowing up a large, manned ship. Holden is forced to take refuge through the Ring, setting off a bizarre and deadly chain of results.

As always I just love the characters. I missed Avasarala and Bobbie, but I figure with such a long series of very long books (I swear each one could be turned into a trilogy on its own), they’re almost guaranteed to come back in later books. Meanwhile, we spend most of our time going back and forth between several spacegoing vessels. There’s the ship Clarissa is on, a UN ship full of dignitaries sent to the Ring because of the optics, the Rocinante of course, and the OPA’s Behemoth–a huge ship that used to be the Nauvoo and has been retrofitted as a weapons platform. Sort of. On the ship of dignitaries we spend most of our time with Pastor Annushka Volovodov, an idealistic woman who thinks mankind needs to start asking questions about what the Ring and its makers mean to the realms of philosophy and religion. She and Tilly, a wealthy, grouchy woman who latches on to her, are a ton of fun to spend time with. Even the mostly-unnamed members of Anna’s ersatz congregation on board the ship are given detail and weight. On board the Behemoth, we catch up with engineer Sam again, who’s good friends with Naomi. Bull is the head of security, and he’s at odds with image-conscious Captain Ashford. Monica is a journalist who wants to get to the Ring and who hires Holden and his crew, and while her crew is mostly background, Monica is a low-key interesting player.

Holden, despite being a self-righteous man (righteous man? Eh, depends on who you ask) has a tendency to start wars by just putting all the information he gets his hands on out there for everyone to see. He’s been used to manipulate relationships between the major powers several times already, but that doesn’t stop him. He and his crew are living well and getting plenty of jobs. He has some narcissistic tendencies, and usually makes his decisions based on what’s emotionally most comfortable to him at the time, but he does genuinely care about his crew and want to do the right thing. He’s also seeing visions of Miller, the dead detective who ended up a part of the alien mess on Venus, who’s only being semi-coherent and seems to be talking in circles about death. But Miller is definitely trying to tell him something. Because of that and some other things that happen, Holden becomes convinced that the aliens want him to go through the Ring for some reason. (See those narcissistic tendencies there?)

Meanwhile, Clarissa is willing to kill hundreds, even thousands of people if it means she can destroy Holden, his crew, and their reputations. She develops a lot along the way to the Ring, learning to fit in better, making an actual friend, and flipping out here and there. She eventually becomes a very fascinating look at dissociation and psychotic breaks, and not in stereotypical ways–her decision-making processes are crucial to the story and they make sense.

The story is riveting, the pacing perfect, and I don’t know why I never read this series before now. I’m going all the way through!

Content note: some deaths/injuries/blood.

Abaddon's Gate takes the characters of The Expanse series and sets them up for an adventure that feels both incredibly complete and a tiny stepping stone toward something unfathomably huge in scale. Trouble on the Rocinante leads Holden and his crew to the mysterious Ring. The dreaded protomolecule has pulled up stakes on Venus and placed itself in orbit around Uranus as a ring shaped structure that could be a portal to another realm. But Holden and his crew are not alone. Mars and Earth have sent military, scientific and even religious representatives to study the Ring. The Outer Planetary Alliance has sent the Nauvoo, rechristened the Behemoth, to take part in the expedition. On the edge of the solar system, they are all set to explore the mysteries of the protomolecule and more importantly, the people who made it.

I have to be honest, Abaddon's Gate was a bit of a slow starter. The previous two books in the series both had me instantly hooked when I started reading them. This one, however, took me awhile to get re-engaged with the characters and events. Part of that is because the book starts out with a new character who isn't very likable. Thankfully he isn't around long. Still, even with that guy out of the way, there are more new characters, and it took some time for them to be developed. As their personalities began to form, their parts in the book became clearer and things began to smooth out. Once the plot starts kicking in with hiccups, tension and disaster, I was fully hooked. By the end, I was completely onboard, blown away, and loving the series again. The new characters might take awhile to warm up to, but it's totally worth it.

As far as the new cast goes, there are three major players. First off is Bull, an Earther working for the Outer Planetary Alliance on the newly christened Behemoth. Fred Johnson, the leader of the OPA, gives Bull the special mission of making sure things don't get screwed up. Bull's role highlights a couple things. On one hand he's an Earther working with Belters which highlights some of the racial tension in this universe. Earthers, Martians and Belters all have an underlying, racial tension between each other. Their characteristics are different enough that they can tell each other apart, and that's all it takes. Fred himself is an Earther, but he knows he can't put an Earther in charge of the Behemoth which will be manned by a crew full of Belters. That said, he doesn't trust the person he's put in charge to get things done. So he calls Bull aside and places the responsibility of the mission on his shoulders. Bull won't be in command, but he has to do everything he can to manipulate the captain and executive officer of the Behemoth into doing what's right. It's a delicate role and leads to a lot of suspenseful events.

Aside from Bull is Anna. She's a preacher. She's also selected to join the Earth forces in their study of the Ring. By going out on this expedition, she's leaving her family behind. She doesn't have any friends coming with her, so she has to make new ones. For her, the mission is one of faith. It's an exploration of what the Ring and the existence of this advance technology means to her belief system. Yet Anna is also a central figure in that her faith allows helps lead others to the correct path. Like Bull, it's a delicate role that has subtle effects on the story and the main characters.

Then there is Melba. Of all the characters in the series, she's probably the most complex. She wants revenge against James Holden. Her lust for revenge is so powerful that she's willing to kill as many people as it takes to complete it. The Ring is part of the bait to lure Holden in where she can strike at him. On the surface, she appears to be a homicidal maniac. But rather than simply leaving her as a pure evil character, the book explores the after effects of someone who goes nuts and comes down from the experience. How does someone actually live with themselves when they've committed such heinous acts? What must that be like? They explore those ideas and it makes her one of the deepest characters in the book. She wars with your emotions. Do you hate her? Do you feel sympathetic for her? Do you forgive her? Should she die or should she live? With the twists and turns, I constantly found myself re-evaluating my opinion of her. In the end, she was one of my favorite characters.

Storywise, there are a lot of surprises in Abaddon's Gate. Characters do things you don't expect. The mystery behind the protomolecule is finally dived into, but the result is both bizarre and immensely fascinating. The plot starts off fairly plain and straightforward only to fall apart and rearrange itself into entirely new directions. It's fun, exciting and unexpected.

With this being the third book in the series, The Expanse is turning out to be a great adventure. If it ended with this book, the payoff would be completely satisfactory. I think that says a lot about how good this book is on its own. While there are things that lead up to another book in the series, the story within is so complete that it's not really necessary. Still, I'm really looking forward to where things go next. The stuff that happened in this book blew my mind as a reader and sent my excitement skyrocketing. This sci-fi at its best, and because of that, I give Abaddon's Gate a five out of five.

The novel started losing points from me immediately because of how the patriarchy still exists in the future. Everything is still so hetero and cis, women are still objectified, and the pornography at casinos is still violent. It’s approximately the year 2355 – how have we not moved past this? There are still instances of the male gaze throughout the story, at weird points that distracted from the character development. All of my buttons were getting pushed quickly and hard early in the novel; I almost gave up on the book because of this – once we got away from that and got to the meat of the story, I was interested.

There are two other things that always bothers me in the novels. One of the things is that the Belter language is called “slang”. It’s not slang - it’s a full-blown language. It has syntax, grammar, development, and is passed down. It evolved, as languages do. I hope that it gets called a language in the next book, but I’m sure my air tanks will run out long before that actually happens.

The other one is the lack of O’Neill Cylinders. We technically have the technology to build those now, and there is a distinct lack of them in the books, excluding the Behemoth and the station that Mao owned. They took the time to spin up Ceres (which should disorient everyone because gravity is pulling their heads in one direction while centrifugal force is pulling their feet in another direction), when it would have been much more efficient, cost-effective, and safer, to just mine Ceres and build O’Neill Cylinders inside the empty shafts.

Okay, there is a third thing - the lack of laser weapons. Granted, the moment I noticed this and complained to a friend of mine, they began converting the com laser into a laser weapon at the worst time possible, which I then complained about to said friend. At least someone there realized that energy weapons are still weapons, but when going against something that can change the laws of physics on you, it’s probably better to not throw coherent light at it. Me: “Use energy weapons. No, not like that.” (I try to be self-aware, and I’m glad to have friends who help me stay that way)

Migraines still exist? Well, that sucks.

Ah, well…

The action is interesting, seeing people from various cultures come together was great, having a queer character not die was refreshing, and now I’m interested in finding out how the UN, the MCR, and the OPA will mess things up again. Though I wish that the marines weren’t so incredibly dumb and brutal. The UNMC squad in the skiff kill themselves by trying to break the speed limit in the slow zone after (probably) being told what happens in the slow zone, and then the MCRMC squad on the station kill so many humans on accident because they open fire without provocation inside the space station and later let Holden just run out of air. Like, come on.

Character progression in this book was great overall, but there were spots that just didn’t make any sense; buildups that didn’t pay off.

I think that this is the first time that Fred Johnson is described as being Black. His “White Savior” (“Earther Savior”, perhaps) complex is at a minimum in this book, but I think that is because he isn’t really in this book. But virtually every POC character is described in relation to some sort of food item. It is tired. The authors really need to look up “Writing with Color”.

The greatest thing about this book is when it makes one think about humanity. Being a decent human once doesn’t mean that you owe someone something. Why are we supposed to be more okay with what Clarissa did than what her dad did? Why are we supposed to be more okay with what Amos did in his past than with what Clarissa did? Is it a numbers game? The trolley problem? Circumstances? Chris told us that he was getting a medal for falling into a pressure hatch, where he lost an arm and a leg to keep seven sailors from being trapped in a compromised area of the Thomas Prince; it didn’t matter that he was unconscious at the time and didn’t know that he was doing it – if he were drunk and fell into a harvesting combine, he’d be called an idiot.

Perhaps that’s the best part of the book. Thinking about humanity. That’s what brought it back up to 4 stars for me.

Get rid of the gendered crime and male gaze, and it would have been five stars.

I found this novel in the series, to be another good choice. I really enjoyed it. I do find that the authors drag things out a bit too often though. I believe you could have tightened up the writing and only had it 3/4 of the current length and had a much better book. I realize my review could potentially shortened as well, but then I’m not an author of an exceptional series, soIll use that for my excuse.

It’s great to have so much back history and development but you don’t have to overly explain every single little concept. This is the third book not including short stories, and there might be a few people who read only this one, but you don’t have to fill in so much just for that reason. Once you hear how gravity or the lack of it affects your actions, it doesn’t need to be explained every time it occurs. Fewer words would suffice and would make this novel so much better.

I do think the foreshadowing and ‘hand of fate’ concept gets a little heavy at times too. It was obvious early on that the the Clarissa/Melba character would become important and that she would eventually have her savior moment in the end that allows the heroes to finally achieve their desires. It also was obvious, early-on, that Doctor Anna would be her instrument to salvation.

With the computers and facial recognition, the Thomas Prince, should have been able to recognize the image of Clarissa long before they even thought to look. I would think that automatic computer systems are in place running facial software often, not just when it was activated. Even if it was on a run as needed basis, some enterprising person would have run the comparative analysis as soon as they had the 3D sketch from the camera man. This is a military run ship, they probably have a checklist for processing potential evidence. No corners skimped.

I don’t know if they meant to do this, but it almost seemed that the Miller/Holden early interactions were just Miller saying stuff to Holden when he finally arrived on the Ring Station. Maybe somehow the earlier conversations were pushing Miller back in time. Especially since Miller said he wasn’t even aware of those conversations. Many of the same words and phrases appeared in the Ring Station dialogue as he had said them in the past. He is in an Einstein-Rosen bridge, who’s to say that it doesn’t impact a temporal component. It is considered a space-time conduit, after all.

I think if I had been one of the people who were killed in the Ring, I would have wanted my body to be left with the protomolecule. Who is to say they couldn’t get another lease on life if they could be converted into something the ‘alien software’ could utilize. The more humanity infects the alien system, the more likely the alien system would look at humans as a favorable item. Bull especially would have been a great add-on to that system. You’ve got the investigator, Miller and the security bad-ass with Bull, and could even add in Sam for engineering and the humanity touch. That we haven’t seen or heard from Julie Mao seems surprising. Though maybe that only works with Miller because he was created after the nucleus of the alien system was already coalesced into being from Julie and the people of Eros.

Shouldn’t Doctor Cortez be held accountable as well as Ashford? Just because he’s a man of God, doesn’t exempt his actions. He helped with an unlawful mutiny and assisted in getting Ashford and Clarissa out of prison. Yes in the end, he may have done something to stop Ashford, but that doesn’t excuse his initial revolt.

To me, the best characters in this novel was Amos. His nicknames for people are awesome. Red and Peaches were quite humorous for those characters to be called. Though I don’t think we got to see enough of him. I look forward to finding out more of each of the Roci’s crew and their back history that originally got them aboard the Canterbury. Naomi, Alex and of course Amos’s pasts are going to be enlightening. I hope more is revealed sooner then later.

Part 1 I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning of this book. It had intense characters, it had ghosts from the past, it had the “object,” it had esoteric questions, it had murder in mind and plots afoot. And after every screeching halt, gore abounded (thank you physics!).

The writing, as usual was very good, and the plot was straightforward and much easier to follow than the convoluted plot of Caliban’s War.

I’ve read some criticisms about the characters being too one-dimensional, and while these weren’t the roundest of individuals, I found their motivations believable and their decisions solid. Even the one character that really annoyed me (Anna), I was annoyed by her personality and not by the way she was written. This book also had a more solidified antagonist to cheer against that gave me fun flashbacks to the Trashcan Man from Stephen King’s The Stand.

I was expecting great things as the book rolled along. I ate it up and read it very quickly.

The Tale of the First Half is an easy 5 out of 5 stars.

Part 2 The second part also had wonderful premise. After slamming on the breaks, and the bloody mess that followed, a mutiny! Definitely not the direction I thought the book was going, but all of the character’s motivations made sense, and so I happily followed along...

...and then some things started to change. The direction of the antagonist changed significantly, and I did not find it believable even in the slightest. In fact, the book swapped out one antagonist for another, and the results were just disappointing.

The big finale fight was still fun to read and well written, but it lacked any emotional punch because I just didn’t give two rat patoots about the new enemy.

And the instant change of heart some characters make regarding other certain characters who were trying to kill them was just stupid, and it was out of character. I understood the theme of forgiveness and redemption, but, come on! The ending started to borderline on preachy and delusional. And the “object”? How was the “object” utilized so little? I don’t understand.

If it sounds like I hated the ending, well, some parts I liked, but some parts, yeah, I hated. Hated, I tell you. But this is not being fair to the book because overall the book was very fun and enjoyable. (I just don’t understand how so many books can’t get their endings right! (As if I, someone who has never written a book before has any room to criticize...)).

The Tale of the Second Half is a reluctant 3 out of 5 stars.

If you liked the first two, you will like this one. I’ve had many of my high school students read and enjoy the first two books in the series, and I will be handing them this book when school starts up again. And I will now start waiting for book number four!