A recap of the saga of nine books and short stories that comprise the Expanse saga: The mankind has spread to our solar system. We have two major players: the weary but still powerful Earth/UN as the Empire that has a sizeable excess population and the Challenger, Mars, brimful of youthful energy (with Texan accent and country music), which it directs to terraforming and building a military society. In-between, in the asteroid belt, the Belters scrape by with their own patois and a Frontier way of life. They are the true underclass, constantly on the brink of death for lack of oxygen, food, water, heat and all the things we take granted in our current gravity well. Belters only have a growing sense of injustice – the force for upheaval, revolution, and majorly fucking things up. That very force is second to none, bar the raison d’être of Expanse: the protomolecule.
The protomolecule originates from some aliens – long since gone. It makes and breaks and remakes most everything. It is a deus ex machina, ex nihilo something cool and a Pandora’s box all combined into one.
After the protomolecule has created a portal to 1300+ new solar systems, the old order has been toppled. Nobody wants to terraform any more. Earth is not #1 anymore. Belters rise and fall and maybe rise again. The portal area is heavily contested. The haves and have nots want to explore the universe and emigrate to better pastures. There is fighting and more fighting – it’s ever the human way –, new technology, and, finally, a new fragile state of equilibrium. Quite quickly, however, we see a new threat emerging. And it wants to destroy humanity. Great.
In the centre of all this are four persons: Jim, Naomi, Alex and Amos. Conveniently, they represent all three factions. Throughout the series they get sucked into the vortex of the havoc in the protomolecule’s wake. They are the riders on the storm and they do deliver with Jim being the ultimate moral compass.
The 9-book saga fires on all cylinders when the posse is together, ie books 1-4 and 9. Understandably, there was a need to shake things up a bit and due to the expanding (sic) universe the story naturally spread out. Books 5-8 are still ace, but not as ace when Jim et al work together in their trusty and beloved Rocinante, the ex-Martian fighter ship.
Back to Leviathan Falls. Duarte, the dictator of the first human intergalactic empire of Laconia, was sort of in a frozen state after dabbling with protomolecule in order to become immortal and thus ensure the future prosperity of Laconia. (Kind of get that: the children are the future but admittedly, sometimes there are doubts.) Laconia’s technological superiority did win back in the day against all others, but just barely. After Duarte wakes up and flees, his next in command, Admiral Trejo orders a Colonel Tanaka to search and retrieve him. Meanwhile, a scientist named Elvi Okoye and her team is trying to decipher the minds of aliens from an artificial planet-sized diamond with the help of a couple children that were killed some years ago but brought back to life by some lifeforms on the Laconia. See, there are attacks going on against the humans that manifest themselves by sudden localized changes in the laws of physics. It has something to do with the way the rings and other alien artefacts seem to draw their power. Somebody somewhere else is pissed off.
The posse will save the day at the end of the day, with the help of friends and enemies. Not without sacrifices, though. The saga was the Big Bang after all. It depicts the ejaculation of humanity to the stars and back and all that is the best and the worst in us.
There is an epilogue that takes place 1000 years after the main events. You will meet a familiar character in it.
Make It Big was the second and final album of Wham! and they too, like James S.A. Corey (pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) knew what they were doing. Make it big, make it work on a grander scale.
Unte kowlting gut, to pochuye ke?
