The Expanse is a series of nine novels by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck writing under the joint pen name James S. A. Corey.
Praised for its realism, characters, and themes. Made into a fan-favorite TV series. The Expanse is undoubtedly, something special.
THE ACTION
George Lucas asked, what if space combat is World War 2 dogfighting?
The Wrath of Khan asked, what if space combat is submarine warfare?
But The Expanse is it’s own thing, based, perhaps on modern naval warfare with point defense cannons, long range guided missiles, and rail guns, and most interesting of all, real physics!
THE PHYSICS
The Expanse makes two major exceptions to physics-as-we-know-it. The first is a hyper-efficient starship engine, the very unfortunately named Epstein Drive, which bypasses the rocket equation and the second exception is that the alien technology can do whatever the fuck it wants.
And that seems like two big exceptions because they are, but there’s at least two major benefits.
One: The rocket equation is a major wet blanket when it comes to gallivanting around outer space.
And two: After being constrained by so much realism, when the alien tech breaks literally every physical law except for the second law of thermodynamics, it is that much scarier.
And the rule breaking is earned, partly because every combat encounter turns on tactics and choices made within the system. That is what people are praising when they praise the realism. Realism isn’t necessarilly fun. It’s how you use it. The Expanse’s realism works because it is a statement of “the bullshit stops here.”
It’s a promise of no miraculous rescues, a promise that the characters have to get themselves out of whatever jam they’ve gotten into.
THE WORLDBUILDING
The physics and science – no artificial gravity, no faster than light travel – is extended to the problems of growing up and living in low gravity, of feeding a hungry solar system, of transporting reaction mass.
The worldbuilding is phenomenal. The reader is transported to Ceres, Ganymede, and many other locations throughout the solar system. It feels like a real possible future and I’m left with a childlike wonder that even though I may never visit these places, I can read about what it would be like to live there.
The early books in particular hooked me with this feeling of wonder at what is so close, in our very own solar system, and yet so far away.
That sense of wonder is, not so much, reduced in the later books, as supplanted by an almost Eldritch Horror vibe, which is gripping in an entirely different manner.
THE GOOD AND THE BAD
These books are remarkably consistent in their quality, especially for such a long series, but if you don’t personally gel with the prose, style, or plotting, don’t think you’ll enjoy it more later on.
Consistent quality is great, but the cost is repetition. Some tropes repeat themselves. It gets tedious that every new villain is a sociopath and that the main obstacle to peace in every book is human tribalism.
But those are minor quibbles. All these novels were page turners for me. For you? You’re gonna know early on whether or not you like what’s going on.
THE STAKES
Part of the endurance of the series stems from skillful escalation, raising of stakes within and between books.
It begins with squabbles between Earth, the Belt, and Mars over resources and oppression. And ends with the heroes taking on Eldritch gods, kind of. Don’t worry. It’s not really a spoiler.
What makes the escalation work is that the authors never lose sight of the impact of events on relatable human beings who are just trying to live their lives.
And from a writing standpoint, it’s not just about showing the impact on people, but centering every event around the actions and reactions of those people.
Whenever there is a catastrophe, multiple characters are shown reacting to it. How do they feel? What do they say about what happened? How do their behaviors change in response?
This is one of the many many ways in which the authors convince you that this universe is our universe. It’s real, populated by people like you and me, and that is what makes these books addictive. The reader needs to find out what happens to these people we have grown to know.
THE CHARACTERS
The secret hook, the alien super weapon that these authors are using to keep readers engaged, is always the characters.
The characters are phenomenally rendered. The books feature an ensemble cast and introduce one or two new characters in each novel, some of whom reappear, some die, and some go their separate ways, and EVERYONE has a backstory. The details are so carefully rendered that you can’t help but live in this universe with these people.
And in addition, the authors perform an incredible feat of a decades-spanning series showing their characters grow older and significantly change, even as they stay the same in other ways.
THE PROSE
Although much of the prose is straightforward, there are chocolate morsels sprinkled throughout:
And this is what most confuses me about The Expanse as an author. How do they decide to take a detour into a bit of prose poetry? Or for that matter, a detour into character rumination or backstory?
The majority of these books are written with function coming before form, getting the reader efficiently from point A to point B, but when the authors do digress, it’s lovely. It’s a novelty and it adds the perfect seasoning before returning to the main course.
THE ICK
Some readers will be surprised by the amount of body horror, especially in the first book as an alien nanomachine morphs humans into zombies. It can be quite gross and horrifying.
There’s a lot less of that as the books go onward, but it never completely disappears.
George R.R. Martin hilariously is on record as saying that it was “one of the best books about vomit zombies he’d ever read,” which sounds to me like what you say when you’re cornered and forced to give a compliment about something you didn’t actually like.
If you can’t get past the body horror early on, or you just don’t do multi-perspective novels, or you’re just not vibing with the style, then you should skip The Expanse. It’s not for everyone.
But personally I think The Expanse is worth it and it requires something special to get me to read a 9 book series. I steer clear of that shit – looking at you Brandon Sanderson.
I did take breaks to read many other things between these novels and it did not interfere with my enjoyment. In fact, taking little breathers made me enjoy The Expanse more.
IN CONCLUSION
If you’re at all in touch with modern scifi, you’ve already heard the hype. The hype is real and it is deserved. The Expanse kicks ass because it’s got great characters, high-stakes plots, and a skillfully crafted universe, and just a few big ideas thrown in.
I recommend The Expanse.
I recommend reading the novels before watching the show, but I also recommend watching the show. It’s some of the best scifi television ever made and the casting is so good you’d think they genetically engineered every single actor and grew them all in a vat for the sole purpose of starring in this goddamned gem of a show.
The Expanse. Hell yeah!
Haste Writing 