30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 2
Book 16/30
Again, liked this one more on the second read. Once again, my previous review is gobbledygook.
This review isn’t going to be anything special because I’m forcing myself to write it. I’m starting my re-read of book three tomorrow and I don’t want there to be any emotional cross-contamination. (Especially since I have a good feeling I’ll be five starring #3 on re-read.)
Like the first book, I enjoyed myself with this one a lot more than the first time around. The addition of Bobbie and Avasarala rounds out the core cast of characters nicely. Holden also gets himself a nice little crisis of conscience arc, and solidifies his relationship with Naomi and the rest of the crew of the Rocinante in the process. The futility and stupidity of war and tribalism is in full force here. And the specter of the Protomolecule and whatever it’s doing on Venus looms large in the background, only to take center stage in the last pages. In retrospect, this is actually the perfect second book in this series.
I thought seriously about five-starring this one, mostly because I threatened to five-star this whole series on re-read in a status update just because I can, and it made me feel happy inside to think about. But I just can’t, and it’s mostly because of our fourth POV character Praxiteke “Prax” Meng (the other three are Holden, Bobbie, and Avasarala). He’s just such a bummer. It’s not even that I don’t like him, I don’t know how to explain it. He’s The Expanse’s Eeyore.
I have, in fact, gone apeshit over this series many times now. So take that, Ashley from nine and a half years ago.
[4.5 stars]
