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Five-Star Reads for December 2024
Note: Reviews are listed alphabetically by author’s last name. Livesuit James S.A. Corey (The Captive’s War novella) While the first full-length novel in this new series was well-written and had a fascinating premise, none of the point-of-view characters particularly grabbed me. In contrast, Karin fascinated me from the first scene as I followed his transition from…
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Book Review: Leviathan Falls (The Expanse #9) by James S. A. Corey
Read my reviews of the previous books in The Expanse series: “The Butcher of Anderson Station” (Expanse #0.5) Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) Caliban’s War (The Expanse #2) Gods of Risk (The Expanse #2.1) Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse #3) The Churn (The Expanse #3.5) Cibola Burn (The Expanse #4) Nemesis Games (The Expanse #5) The Vital Abyss (The Expanse #5.5) Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse #6)…
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Review: Strange Dogs (The Expanse #6.5) by James S.A. Corey
This novella is a beautiful vignette about early life on Laconia. It doesn’t answer many greater questions about the ecosystem of this world due to the limited point-of-view of the main character. But it answers quieter questions about how Duerte came to power and how he imposed his views on the burgeoning society. On the…
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Review: The Vital Abyss (The Expanse #5.5) by James S.A. Corey
This novella in the midst of the epic saga of The Expanse fills in some interesting blanks. It explains the missing years of a relevant character’s life and how he eventually ends up where Our Heroes encounter him again. It also shows the evolution of the character and his history on Earth, accomplishing some interesting…
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Review: Gods of Risk (The Expanse #2.1) by James S.A. Corey
This novella brings us back to the series roots of interstellar events occurring as a backdrop to regular people’s normal lives. But this normal person is the gifted sixteen-year-old nephew of Bobbie Draper, so how normal is he? Certainly normal enough for some health doses of adolescent angst while he gets mixed up in the…
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Review: The Expanse: Origins edited by James S.A. Corey
Favorite Story “Naomi Nagata” by Georgia Lee (illustrated by Huang Danlan): This isn’t Naomi’s “origin story,” which is covered very well in the books themselves. Instead, it shows us the first introduction between Naomi and Amos prior to the events of the books/television show. I loved the growth shown by both characters even in such…
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Review: The Churn (The Expanse #3.5) by James S.A. Corey
Despite it’s placement in the series order recommended by Goodreads, I’m glad that I read “The Churn” after book 8, Tiamat’s Wrath. Names are important in this book, and Amos hasn’t always been known as Amos Burton. In a way, this novella is as much about Earth as it is about Baltimore, and as much about…
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Review: “The Butcher of Anderson Station” (Expanse #0.5) by James S.A. Corey
I’m on a mission to read all the short fiction installments in The Expanse series before season 4 of the television show premieres in December 2019. This story was a good place to start, especially if you’re a fan of both the books and television version of this series. It does a lovely job of…
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Review: Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse #8) James S.A. Corey
After the rise of the Laconian Empire in the previous book, the crew of the Rocinante is spread across the universe once again. Naomi and Bobbie are both fighting an underground war in the ways they do best. These women continue to be my heroes and I adore them. This book especially shows the power…
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Review: Persepolis Rising (The Expanse #7) by James S.A. Corey
I put off reading this installment of the series for longer than I should have, because my husband mentioned in an offhand comment that a lot of time had passed since the previous book. I didn’t want to read about new characters and new situations. Instead, what I got was a Rocinante crew who are closer…
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Review: Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse #6) by James S.A. Corey
We’ve reached the point in this series where it’s okay for the authors to throw a bunch of points of view at the reader. By now, the world-building is solid and the political landscape is pretty clear. The downside to this is that the only POVs I really want are Holden, Naomi, and the others…
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Review: Nemesis Games (The Expanse #5) by James S.A. Corey
It’s a little crazy that this is the first book that gives us point-of-view scenes from all four members of the Rocinante crew: Holden, Naomi, Alex, and Amos. On the downside, this is because for much of the book none of them are together! While I hated to see the “family” broken up, it was awesome…
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Review: Cibola Burn (The Expanse #4) by James S.A. Corey
After the whirlwind of the previous book in this series, this book should have felt like a time to breath. Unfortunately, I think the authors took things a bit too far in the other direction. They teased us with a Bobbie-centered prologue, and then things started to drag. On top of it all, I wasn’t…
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Review: Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse #3) by James S.A. Corey
This series was perfect vacation reading, and I’m now caught up the first three seasons of the television show, which is all that has been released at the time of this writing. For a series that was supposed to be about “the little guys” who happen to get involved in solar system-spanning action, it seems…
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Review: Caliban’s War (The Expanse #2) by James S.A. Corey
Since I read this book after watching the first three seasons of the television show, The Expanse, my opinions of the book are colored by my experience with the adaptation. For example, my favorite thing about this book was finally meeting two of my favorite characters in print. Avasarala and Bobbie are amazing and I…
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Review: Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) by James S.A. Corey
I purchased this ebook when the first season of the television adaptation aired, but didn’t get around to reading it until a recent vacation. I’ve seen three seasons of the show so far, so that will obviously color my interpretation of the book (such as visualizing actors as their characters and such). My husband and I…
