2016 sort of began with a bang. I hope it did at least after all fireworks do make some big bangs. But if that wasn’t the case then obviously some malevolent spirit soaked all the worlds fireworks in water prior to the new world.
Fucking spirits.
But hey, no spirits are gonna drag my spirit down to the spirit world, cause its actually completely preoccupied with something else and its gonna put on a hell of a fight before you get it to move. No not sleep, though that certainly works too. Rather, I’m talking about this wonderful book (and now TV) series known as The Expanse.
So, I’ve been aware of the books for quite some time now, at least a few years. I was actually browsing Orbit Books’ website and saw Cibola Burn up in their little book showcase thing in their webpage’s banner.
I looked at it, thought it had a cool cover, tossed it and the rest of the series into my too read bookshelf on Goodreads, and more or less completely forgot about it after. This of course, is in classic me fashion. But alas there was hope yet when just before the winter break set in, I was looking through that very shelf and stumbled on that pretty cover again! So I browsed to the author profile and discovered that there was a TV show adapted to the books!
I immediately decided to watch the first episode, followed by the second, then the third, then the fourth, then… Nothing. Disappointment as I had to wait into the new year for episode five to be released. But that was no problem, after all there are some books… But before I get into those, let’s just talk about the show.
THE SHOW
There’s a lot of shows out there right now, and I have to earnestly say this is up among some of my favorites right now. The first season, for the first few episodes more or less accurately follows the books, to a degree larger then most adaptations do at least. Episode one begins with the prologue for the first book, and was done absolutely wonderfully the same way it was described in the book. The
Its actually eargasmic.
This visually stunning masterpiece however was taken out after the pilot. Why? Who knows. Its a shameful fact though. Game of Thrones never did anything like that! The acting in the TV shows is for the mos part, very good. It is by no means the most amazing acting that I’ve ever witnessed but its definitely a far cry from terrible. And the visuals themselves, the CGI in the series is unbelievably incredible for a TV show. Seriously. Guys. At the very least watch the first four episodes, it’s great.
THE BOOKS
I just realized I never exposed the story for any of you non-existent readers. Well let us begin. Better late then never after all! The world takes place in the twenty third century, and our species have essentially colonized the solar system. Luna (the moon), Mars, the Asteroid Belt, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn all have some form of human habitation. Venus, once the focus of a cloud city proposal, is uncolonized, and to the extant of my memory so is Mercury. And for the better, those places are hellish.
Earth, ruled by a now actually effective United Nations (I wonder how they did it), and Mars ruled by the Martian Congressional Republic, are at odds with each other but have a shay alliance nonetheless to patrol the solar system. Humanity beyond the orbit of Mars however, is much less functional. A separatist organization known as the Outer Planets Alliance seeks to gain political independence for the asteroid belt and worlds beyond.
This is the existence through which tens of billions of humans must live their lives. One of these is James Holden, a member of the crew of the Canterbury, or the Cant’ as it becomes more often known as. Holden here is pivotal to everything as slowly, the solar system blows up in his face. Well, it doesn’t actually blow up. But you know what I mean.
The series has five books out right now, Leviathan Wakes, Caliban’s War, Abaddon’s Gate, Cibola Burn, and Nemesis Games. A sixth book, as serendipitously shown above is coming out soon, Babylon’s Ashes.