Let's Read The Expanse! NOW READING: LEVIATHAN FALLS

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Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Chapter Fifty-Four - Miller

While Julie Mao mutters to herself, Miller is pillaging a medical bay for supplies - namely oxygen. He ends up with four more hours of air. It's his third time of doing this since talking to Holden, so, he's been here for about twelve hours. One thing I find notable about these early sections is how Miller is thinking of her as 'Juliette Mao.' Usually it's just Julie or Julie Mao. Sure, he's sometimes called her or thought of her as Juliette Mao before, but usually in an official capacity or, when finding her dead, for effect. I'm not sure what it reflects, unfortunately. I'd like to say it reflects Miller getting his poo poo together and being the professional cop he thought he was, but it doesn't really.

So Miller hasn't found Julie yet. He's hit up some hot spots but has found no trace of her. What's more, even his phantom Julie has vanished, which Miller attributes to being so close to the real one. There's a whole bunch of Miller walking around and finding things and reflecting on what he's done. It's okay but, like a lot of the more wordy parts of this novel, I wonder how necessary it is.

For example, what's the difference between 'Miller finds Julie in three hours, on his last bit of oxygen' versus 'Miller finds her in thirteen or however long?' Do we need what's a fairly exhaustive list of where Miller went and what he checked and where he maybe thought he could've gone?

Omi says: "Miller�s systematic search of the station as he drags a bomb around with him and tries not to go crazy is extremely exhausting to read, and I think decently well-executed for it. But even reading this the second time and knowing that Miller is right, I�m having a lot of trouble getting invested in his idea and mission - I wish this had been set up a bit more, a bit earlier."

Then, something interesting, that I'd forgotten entirely.

Miller hallucinates Holden.

Leviathan Wakes, Chapter Fifty-Four posted:

You can't stop here, Holden said. You have to stop running and get on the right road.

Miller looked over his shoulder. The captain stood, real and not, where his inner Julie would have been.

Well, that's interesting, Miller thought.

"I know," he said. "It's just... I don't know where she went. And... well, look around. Big place, you know?"

You can stop her or I will, his imaginary Holden said.

"If I just knew where she went," Miller said.

She didn't, Holden said. She never went.

Then Havelock, then Muss. Interesting thought that Miller reflects that her eyes are as dead as his own. Anyway, I'll just reiterate what I've said about Miller's Head Julie - I wish the story did a bit more with this. Whether it's Miller's habit of imagining people he knows and using them as a conscience or a sounding board, or whether he truly doesn't imagine so much as hallucinate when under stress. I know I missed Head Julie when I first watched the TV series, but seeing the novel again it makes it pretty clear why she was cut. She just doesn't really add anything to the story or Miller's character, and she doesn't really seem to represent anything textually.

Anyway, after a bunch of cop-thinking, Miller finally gets that Protogen would've recovered Julie's body and contained it somewhere. Miller does a bunch more thinking on it, figuring they put her near the ironic rad shelters. He deduces that they kept Julie's body in the backup environmental controls.

So, he heads that way, and the closer he gets the weirder Eros becomes.

Leviathan Wakes, Chapter Fifty-Four posted:

All the interior rooms had been remade. Transformed. He walked through the wastewater treatment control areas like a scuba diver in a grotto. The blue lights swirled around him as he passed, a few dozen adhering to his suit and glittering there. He almost didn't brush them off the helmet's faceplate, thinking they would smear like dead fireflies, but they only swirled back up into the air. The air recycling monitors still danced and glowed, the thousand alarms and incident reports silhouetting the latticework of protomolecule that covered the screens. Water was flowing somewhere close by.

And then he finds her.

Leviathan Wakes, Chapter Fifty-Four posted:

She was in a hazmat analysis node, lying on a bed of the dark thread that spilled out from her spine until it was indistinguishable from a massive fairy-tale cushion of her own flowing hair. Tiny points of blue light glittered on her face, her arms, her breasts. The bone spurs that had been pressing out of her skin had grown into sweeping, almost architectural connections with the lushness around her. Her legs were gone, lost in the tangle of dark alien webs; she reminded Miller of a mermaid who had traded her fins for a space station. Her eyes were closed, but he could see them shifting and dancing under the lids. And she was breathing.

Miller stood beside her. She didn't have quite the same face as his imagined Julie. The real woman was wider through the jaw, and her nose wasn't as straight as he remembered it. He didn't notice that he was weeping until he tried to wipe the tears away, batting his helmet with a gloved hand. He had to make do with blinking hard until his sight cleared.

All this time. All this way. And here was what he'd come for.

"Julie," he said, putting his free hand on her shoulder. "Hey. Julie. Wake up. I need you to wake up now."

Miller rocks her like Candace, his ex-wife. Omi and I both really like it as a weird, hosed-up character beat of Miller's. He introduces himself to her, explains the kidnap job. I won't post the whole sequence but it's good. It's telling that it's basically line-for-line as-is in the TV series. There are some differences, intriguing ones, but we'll talk about that when I do a big post talking about the TV series after these last few chapters.

Julie imagines that she's racing home. Miller gets her to hold the switch on the bomb, then pulls his helmet off. Miller knows the protomolecule is set on devouring him, too, but he doesn't care. He just keeps talking to Julie, who changes course for Venus. Miller kisses her hand, and the two of them go towards their, as Omi puts it, "viking funeral" on Venus.

Neither of us have much to say about this chapter. Once you get over Miller's scavenger hunt and shaky cop deduction stuff, his meeting with Julie hits well enough to feel like a climax. Honestly, it could probably be better and more detailed, borrowing some of the words from the first chunk of the chapter, and maybe hit some of those notes more cleanly and strongly, but it works. Miller has ventured into Hell and reunited with the woman he loves and comforts her as they both burn up and save the day.

While the TV series basically preserves this climactic moment as is, and gives it an incredible music track, I feel they put one particularly intriguing twist on it. But we'll discuss that later.

# ? May 25, 2020 11:32

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 00:04

Some of the Sheep: May 25, 2005; POSSIBLY IT WOULD BE SIMPLER IF I ASKED FOR A LIST OF THE HARMLESS CREATURES OF THE AFORESAID CONTINENT?

Milkfred E. Moore posted:

I know I missed Head Julie when I first watched the TV series, but seeing the novel again it makes it pretty clear why she was cut. She just doesn't really add anything to the story or Miller's character, and she doesn't really seem to represent anything textually.

Rather than truly cut her though, I thought they did a very wise thing by having Head Julie be a confessional story Miller tells to Naomi, fully self aware it's his cracked mind hallucinating. What she says to him in this hallucination is very interesting to me too, but I don't want to steal your thunder on that one so I'll wait for you to cover it.

# ? May 26, 2020 05:42

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Some of the Sheep posted:

Rather than truly cut her though, I thought they did a very wise thing by having Head Julie be a confessional story Miller tells to Naomi, fully self aware it's his cracked mind hallucinating. What she says to him in this hallucination is very interesting to me too, but I don't want to steal your thunder on that one so I'll wait for you to cover it.

I'm racking my brain to try and recall that scene and don't appear to be able to. If you want to leap into it, go ahead! I plan on running through the Leviathan Wakes episodes of Season 2 over the next few days, if not the weekend, so I'll get to it otherwise.

Chapter Fifty-Five - Holden

So, after Miller's big conclusion, Holden is dreaming.

I won't say there are no good dream sequences, but I'll gladly say I'm not predisposed to enjoying them. I feel they're a bit like flashbacks, where it's often a sign of a weak story - or, if not weak, one that could be told better. Dream sequences can be entertaining when they tell us something new about the character, or really lean into some weird and exciting imagery that's fun to read about. Unfortunately for Leviathan Wakes, Holden's dream does neither of these things. There's something strange about going into this chapter with a dream sequence, too. A problem dream sequences have is that there's no stakes. The character can just wake up!

Which is precisely what happens now. Holden dreams that him and Naomi are eating cookies in his family home in Montana, then everything turns red (ominous!) and Eros hits the planet and the protomolecule consumes Naomi and then him, and Holden wakes up in a panic.

So, not only does this not tell us anything new (Holden is scared of the protomolecule, wow, Holden is scared his family might die, wow^2) it's also not very dream-like beyond that it's telling us it's dream-like because it's a weird dream.

Holden wakes up and everyone is still sleeping. The red pulsating light that had heralded Eros' arrival in the dream is an alert message on his console. The Ravi is targeting them.

Leviathan Wakes, Chapter Fifty-Five posted:

He reached out to activate the comm and call the Ravi as his incoming-message light flickered on. He opened the connection, and a second later, McBride's voice said, "Rocinante, cease maneuvering, open your outer airlock door, and prepare to be boarded."

Holden frowned at his console. Was that a weird joke?

Hard not to wonder the same thing, really.

Omi says: "The fight between the Ravi and the Rocinante feels a little abrupt and forced. We�ve had plenty of fun spaceship fights so far, but right now I�m still interested in the alien space station thing - it feels like their disagreement could�ve been cut entirely."

And this is pretty much true. Think of it this way. The last chapter ended with Miller convincing Julie to drive Eros into Venus. So, you could pick up the next chapter with it having happened or about to happen. Like, it's all been pretty well established, right? The story is basically done. You could probably cut this chapter and leap right to the epilogue and not feel you lose much.

Instead, the novel needs to give Holden a bit of an exciting ending, too. So, it's time for the Ravi's superiors to order them to seize the Rocinante.

Leviathan Wakes, Chapter Fifty-Five posted:

"No," he said, not quite able to keep the annoyance out of his voice. "It's not understood. And I'm not going to let you board me. What the hell is going on?"

"I've been ordered by UNN Command to take control of your vessel. You're charged with interfering with UNN military operations, unlawfully commandeering UNN military assets, and a list of other crimes I'm not going to bother reading right now. If you do not surrender immediately, we will be forced to fire on you."

"Oh," said Holden. The UNN had discovered that their missiles were changing course, had attempted to reprogram them, and had discovered that the missiles weren't listening.

Earth is pissed that Holden handed - let me look at my notes - three-thousand five-hundred and seventy-three interplanetary ballistic missiles over to Fred Johnson. They call Fred a traitor, and Holden tries to quibble over it. Anyway, the Ravi tells Holden to get the missiles back on course, or they'll fire on his ship.

In ten minutes.

Well, okay. It doesn't do much for the excitement because, at best, it means the CO of the Ravi is trying to stall. At worse, it's a bizarre decision made by that same CO to give Holden ten minutes to get ready for battle. In most situations like this, the bad guy gives them something closer to ten seconds.

So, I suppose this is taking place before the Miller chapter previous?

Holden kicks off the red alert with a "shrug" and I think a bit of the issue this chapter has is that of tone. Holden trying to argue Fred's status, him shrugging as he goes to red alert, and so on. Even on my first read through, I thought this whole bit of drama was really forced and really boring and not even Holden himself seemed to be taking it seriously.

Anyway, Holden gets the crew ready to go defensive if the Ravi opens up. Holden and McBride, Captain of the Ravi, talks a whole bunch. There's a bunch of posturing and the Ravi starts shooting but Holden holds fire and thinks how he doesn't want to be forced to kill them, stuff like that. It's just not a very interesting fight.

Then Eros pops back onto radar, and goes right for Venus.

Leviathan Wakes, Chapter Fifty-Five posted:

Eros crashing into Venus was the most widely broadcast and recorded event in history. By the time the asteroid reached the sun's second planet, several hundred ships had taken up orbits there. Military vessels tried to keep the civilian ships away, but it was no use. They were just outnumbered. The video of Eros' descent was captured by military gun cameras, civilian ship telescopes, and the observatories on two planets and five moons.

The crew takes a slow journey back to Tycho and watch the footage, of which I think would be a truly incredible occurrence in human history. Amos drinks faux tequila. Holden and Naomi hold hands. Holden doesn't know what happened on Eros but Miller won't answer his hand terminal.

Leviathan Wakes, Chapter Fifty-Five posted:

When the end came, it was beautiful.

In orbit around Venus, Eros came apart like a puzzle box. The giant asteroid split into a dozen chunks, stringing out around the equator of the planet in a long necklace. Then those dozen pieces split into a dozen more, and then a dozen after that, a glittering fractal seed cloud spreading out across the entire surface of the planet, disappearing into the thick cloud layer that usually hid Venus from view.

Holden speculates on ominous sequeltastic possibilities.

Leviathan Wakes, Chapter Fifty-Five posted:

"They won't stay there forever," Holden said.

Alex tossed off the last of the tequila in his glass, then refilled it from the bottle.

"What d'ya mean, Cap?" he asked.

"Well, I'm just guessing. But I doubt the things that built the protomolecule just wanted to store it here. This was part of a bigger plan. We saved the Earth, Mars, the Belt. Question is, what happens now?"

Naomi and Alex exchanged glances. Amos pursed his lips. On-screen, Venus glittered as arcs of lightning danced all across the planet.

"Cap," Amos said. "You are seriously harshing my buzz."

And with that TV/IV-esque 'guess' from Holden, we close out on the final chapter of Leviathan Wakes. There's technically one more, the epilogue, but this is it for the main thrust of the story. After the epilogue, I'll do a bit of a summary of my thoughts of the first novel as a whole, then sum up how the TV series closed out the same story and talk about the differences. Then I'll take some time to gather some notes on Caliban's War, probably over the weekend, and we'll get stuck into that.

# ? May 26, 2020 11:02

Khizan: Jul 30, 2013

Milkfred E. Moore posted:

Well, okay. It doesn't do much for the excitement because, at best, it means the CO of the Ravi is trying to stall. At worse, it's a bizarre decision made by that same CO to give Holden ten minutes to get ready for battle. In most situations like this, the bad guy gives them something closer to ten seconds.

I think this is more that he's not giving them a ten second task and he has to give them an appropriate window to do the things that he's asking them to do. If the job's gonna take 10 minutes, you have to give him at least 10 minutes to do it.

# ? May 26, 2020 11:34

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Khizan posted:

I think this is more that he's not giving them a ten second task and he has to give them an appropriate window to do the things that he's asking them to do. If the job's gonna take 10 minutes, you have to give him at least 10 minutes to do it.

Oh, of course. I'm an idiot. :suicide:

# ? May 26, 2020 11:40

Some of the Sheep: May 25, 2005; POSSIBLY IT WOULD BE SIMPLER IF I ASKED FOR A LIST OF THE HARMLESS CREATURES OF THE AFORESAID CONTINENT?

Milkfred E. Moore posted:

I'm racking my brain to try and recall that scene and don't appear to be able to. If you want to leap into it, go ahead!

In "Safe" S02E01, just after miller squares up with Amos, he and Naomi have a conversation in his berth. It starts of with her trying to explain Amos to him but quickly veers to Julie and Millers connection to her.

He recounts how jaded he was: "Holden was shocked by Eros I was shocked it hadn't happened a long time ago."

But Julie (or his impression of her) had gotten to him so completely: "I wake up some nights and I see her standing right there. Now I know it's bullshit but, [sigh] she's right there. She takes my hand, she tells me, 'you belong with me'."

Spoiled what she actually says to him, because once you cover off the tv series part of this there's some tv-only shenanigans about the connection between Julie and Miller that can be explored in a bit more detail.

# ? May 27, 2020 01:56

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Some of the Sheep posted:

In "Safe" S02E01, just after miller squares up with Amos, he and Naomi have a conversation in his berth. It starts of with her trying to explain Amos to him but quickly veers to Julie and Millers connection to her.

He recounts how jaded he was: "Holden was shocked by Eros I was shocked it hadn't happened a long time ago."

But Julie (or his impression of her) had gotten to him so completely: "I wake up some nights and I see her standing right there. Now I know it's bullshit but, [sigh] she's right there. She takes my hand, she tells me, 'you belong with me'."

Spoiled what she actually says to him, because once you cover off the tv series part of this there's some tv-only shenanigans about the connection between Julie and Miller that can be explored in a bit more detail.

Wow, yeah, that'd completely skipped my mind. I still can't remember it even with that info.

Epilogue - Fred

Epilogues are a strange thing. They're sort of like prologues and dream sequences and flashbacks and other storytelling conventions in the sense that they're things I tend to be more critical of than feel they have a genuine place in a text. To me, an epilogue isn't strictly necessary reading. The main thrust of the story and the various questions therein should be solved in the main chapters. A good epilogue, in my opinion, is one that maybe answers one last question or solves one last riddle while also throwing up an interesting hook or final thought to think about. Thinking about cinema, for a moment, I see an epilogue as being like a good end-of-credits or mid-credits scene.

In the epilogue of Leviathan Wakes, the epilogue switches away from Holden and Miller and puts us in the shoes of Fred Johnson. "Because of course it's Fred," Omi notes.

Leviathan Wakes, Epilogue posted:

Frederick Lucius Johnson. Former colonel in Earth's armed forces, Butcher of Anderson Station. Thoth Station now too. Unelected prime minister of the OPA. He had faced his own mortality a dozen times, lost friends to violence and politics and betrayal. He'd lived through four assassination attempts, only two of which were on any record. He'd killed a pistol-wielding attacker using only a table knife. He'd given the orders that had ended hundreds of lives, and stood by his decisions.

And yet public speaking still made him nervous as hell. It didn't make sense, but there it was.

Wow, Fred, how come your mom lets you butcher TWO stations? Omi points out that 'unelected prime minister' is a funny way of saying bigshot terrorist guy. He also finds Fred's note that he finds public speaking nervous as hell a bit odd, but it reads to me like an interesting look at the man behind the mask. I know people who've been teaching for years and still have a burst of nerves before every class. It happens.

Leviathan Wakes, Epilogue posted:

"General Sebastian will be at the reception," his personal secretary said. "Remember not to ask after her husband."

"Why? I didn't kill him, did I?"

"No, sir. He's having a very public affair, and the general's a bit touchy about it."

"So she might want me to kill him."

"You can make the offer, sir."

That's a fun bit.

Basically, Fred's getting ready for the big peace talks he's been hoping for over the course of the whole novel. The war is over but people aren't happy, and Fred thinks that - unless there's a genuine achievement here - things will collapse back towards war. People fear Fred because he has the protomolecule, and I think that's an interesting thought to have hanging over the guy as he's like, hey, we need to build a real peace.

What, peace under the threat of a blue-glowy flesh gun? The story doesn't really address this, however, and Fred's thoughts seem to treat the protomolecule as an interesting science tidbit more than anything else.

Oh, Captain Shaddid is still head of Ceres security and is handling the security and been his personal bodyguard. She's done well for herself, hasn't she? Honestly, the brief mention that Shaddid is still kicking might be my favorite part of this chapter.

Mention is made that something is happening on Venus but no one knows what, just that the protomolecule isn't dead. Mention will be made of huge crystal towers growing on the surface. Ominous!

Then Fred has a visitor:

Leviathan Wakes, Epilogue posted:

His secretary's terminal chirped, and she consulted it briefly.

"It's Captain Holden, sir."

"Do I have to?"

"It would be best if he felt he was part of the effort, sir. He has a track record of amateur press releases."

Holden wonders if he's going to get sued over all of it. Mention is made of him giving away "all mineral and development rights to an entire planet" but I'm honestly having trouble recalling when that was. Fred says he'll do what he can. Holden says he won't give the Roci back to Mars either, due to rules of salvage. Fred will do what he can for that, as well.

There's a nice little bit about Miller then, too.

Leviathan Wakes, Epilogue posted:

"And you'll tell them about him, right?" Holden said. "Miller. He deserves the credit."

"The Belter who went back into Eros of his own free will in order to save Earth? You're drat right I'm going to tell them about him."

"Not 'the Belter.' Him. Josephus Aloisus Miller."

Holden had stopped eating the free strawberries. Fred crossed his arms.

"You've been reading up," Fred said.

"Yeah. Well. I didn't know him all that well."

"Neither did anybody else," Fred said, and then softened a little. "I know it's hard, but we don't need a real man with a complex life. We need a symbol of the Belt. An icon."

"Sir," the secretary said. "We really do need to go now."

"That's what got us here," Holden said. "Icons. Symbols. People without names. All of those Protogen scientists were thinking about biomass and populations. Not Mary who worked in supply and raised flowers in her spare time. None of them killed her."

"You think they wouldn't have?"

"I think if they were going to, they owed it to her to know her name. All their names. And you owe it to Miller not to make him into something he wasn't."

Fred says they can't just be like, hey, Miller was a suicidal ex-cop who happened to save us all. He says that Miller's sacrifice is a tool, and he's going to use it.

Leviathan Wakes, Epilogue posted:

"Even if it makes him faceless," Holden said. "Even if it makes him something he never was?"

"Especially if it makes him something he never was," Fred said. "Do you remember what he was like?"

Holden frowned and then something flickered in his eyes. Amusement. Memory.

"He was kind of a pain in the rear end, wasn't he?" Holden said.

"That man could take a visitation from God with thirty underdressed angels announcing that sex was okay after all and make it seem vaguely depressing."

"He was a good man," Holden said.

"He wasn't," Fred said. "But he did his job. And now I've got to go do mine."

It's entertaining and fun, but it doesn't do much to dispel the feeling that Leviathan Wakes was Miller's story through and through. Like I've said a few times, even you cut all the Holden chapters and did it all with Miller, this epilogue would still fit perfectly.

Fred goes off to give his speech. As he reaches the pulpit, he hesitates and wonders if he should "shed the patterns of history" and tell the truth about Joe Miller. He decides it'd be a noble way to fail, and begins his speech, and closes off Leviathan Wakes.

Leviathan Wakes, Epilogue posted:

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "We stand at a crossroads. On one hand, there is the very real threat of mutual annihilation. On the other.." He paused for effect. "On the other, the stars."

It's not the worst ending. It was more interesting to read than either of Holden's last chapters. But there's still something a little strange about it to me. I can't say I'm that interested to be in Fred's head, and I can't say this chapter leaves me wanting to spend more time in it. Fred feels very similar to the guy we've been seeing throughout the novel, which is probably why Omi brought up that initial comment about him being nervous about speaking. Omi also feels like the epilogue sets up a lot more narrative stuff than the past half a dozen chapters or so did combined, which gives it a rushed feeling.

Additionally, the epilogue doesn't really do much. There's no real sequel hook, no real fun twist, and it overall feels more like a denouement than an epilogue. As far as twists go, maybe if Fred had said he'd tell the 'true story' of Miller then, with a fit of imminent speech anxiety and desire for system-wide peace, decided not to, that'd do it. I feel like that'd be a fun twist of how history is made by people with really human frailties or something. I guess when I think of the phrase 'generic sci-fi space opera politics book ending' I think of something like this epilogue. It's not bad, but it doesn't really make me want to read the next one. Which I think is interesting because, in my opinion, a lot of the Expanse novels have really interesting epilogues!

# ? May 27, 2020 10:56

Omi no Kami: Feb 19, 2014

Since we're between books, this is as good a time as any to solicit other people's opinions on something I've thought about a lot: how do you guys feel about Holden and the Rocinante crew as recurring protagonists? Because I'm really split- I like them as characters, and I have fun every time they show up in the books, but I honestly feel like they could be removed from every single book without much trouble. Leviathan Wakes is very explicitly Miller's story, and I think the upcoming Caliban's War has it even worse: it's pretty much all Bobbie and Prax's story, with Avasarala providing a critical supporting role to fill in the gaps.

So yeah- this is a weird take when you consider that I actually like Holden and company but it kinda feels like they're in this universe because they're the PCs, and I wonder what the series would've been like if instead of formal main characters, it was just one long line of "Major space politics, as seen by random blue collar space workers."

# ? May 28, 2020 15:52

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

I feel like having Holden as a throughline helps the books some, and the crew are generally fun enough that spending time with them in each novel is enjoyable. However, I think it is fun to imagine a series of novels where we never see their perspective, they just happen to keep showing up and helping out and getting wrapped up in things. A Miller-only novel where Holden kicks off a war and then bumps into Miller in the hotel. A novel about Prax and Bobbie, etc. A story where Holden is this figure who we never see inside the head of, who keeps showing up at all this historical moments, could be fun.

Leviathan Wakes: Final

I feel like my final opinion on Leviathan Wakes is tainted by the fact that it was the second book in the series I read. I started with Abaddon's Gate and then jumped back, so, it's hard for me to eventuate it as my first contact with the universe and characters. However, even saying that, there are still certain things I felt about it during my first read that I recall clearly. And, for all my criticisms, there are good things I can say about it.

All in all, it's an okay book. It's not great but it's not bad - I've read way worse novels. Leviathan Wakes is the story of a noir detective going for one last case and an idealistic ship's captain who gets caught up in a huge conspiracy and it delivers on it pretty well. It's not deep but it's also not as shallow as a lot of airport fiction. However, while it's not one of the worst Expanse novels but it's also not one of the best. It's merely okay.

The world is interesting enough, and the 'hard-ish' science with all the rigors of space travel felt novel. The Earth/Mars/OPA situation is easy to understand. The worldbuilding does what it's supposed to do, but the story feels more weighted towards worldbuilding than plot or characterization.

Much like the world, the characters are simple enough and fun to be around. I criticize Amos for not feeling like the guy from later novels, but LW!Amos is still a fun presence. While none of the characters are particularly strong at this point, the two weakest are definitely Alex and Naomi. If I have a criticism for the cast as a whole, and the wider novel itself, really, is that Leviathan Wakes doesn't feel like it rewards a reread.

The plot is fine enough. Most of the big setpiece moments are fun or interesting. Miller's climax is fine but Holden's side of it is boring and uninteresting enough that I was skimming it in my very first read. I do wonder how much of it is tied to the play-by-post transcript, because I feel like it's a lot of it. Which is I think the big problem Leviathan Wakes has, being tied to a very different method of storytelling. What would the novel have been like had the authors broken more completely from the roleplaying outline?

Along those lines, I feel like there are little elements that we wouldn't see if the Coreys had more foresight or if they were writing the novel now. For example, I don't think Holden's brothel stuff or his weird ogling of Naomi and so on would be something we'd see. I don't think Amos would be so quick to call things queer or whatever. And had the story not been so tied to the RPG, maybe we'd have seen characters like Naomi - who really is the one who should be in command - take more of a role than 'Captain's love interest' or Alex be more than 'the pilot' and so on.

It's part of what makes Caliban's War such an interesting sequel, because it really is quite similar to Leviathan Wakes (a missing girl story, Earth and Mars at war, etc.) but the authors are more able to tell a story.

All in all, I think Leviathan Wakes is okay. My brain is saying it's about a 7/10 and I think that's a fair assessment. It does what it set out to do and does it competently enough, but there's nothing about it that'll make you say 'wow.' This is part of the reason why I don't think the first novel has much to offer over the TV adaptation. Ultimately, I consider the TV series as a revised, stronger second draft that tells the same story but does it much more effectively. This isn't necessarily the case with the later seasons, but the first one? Absolutely.

We'll get more into the particulars of the first season adaptation and how it differs over the weekend.

# ? May 29, 2020 08:51

Khizan: Jul 30, 2013

Milkfred E. Moore posted:

Additionally, the epilogue doesn't really do much. There's no real sequel hook, no real fun twist, and it overall feels more like a denouement than an epilogue. As far as twists go, maybe if Fred had said he'd tell the 'true story' of Miller then, with a fit of imminent speech anxiety and desire for system-wide peace, decided not to, that'd do it. I feel like that'd be a fun twist of how history is made by people with really human frailties or something. I guess when I think of the phrase 'generic sci-fi space opera politics book ending' I think of something like this epilogue. It's not bad, but it doesn't really make me want to read the next one. Which I think is interesting because, in my opinion, a lot of the Expanse novels have really interesting epilogues!

My guess is that it's because they weren't expecting to land a multi-book contract with Leviathan Wakes. It has a kind of "open enough to lead off a series, but functional as a stand-alone" quality to the ending. There's definitely room for sequels, but if it flops and stops here it's at a sort of stopping point and it's not obviously a failed series. It's got a very 'safe' feel. I'd guess that future books don't have this sort of ending because they sold books 2-6 off of the strength of Leviathan Wakes and didn't need to worry about that kind of thing.

Omi no Kami posted:

Since we're between books, this is as good a time as any to solicit other people's opinions on something I've thought about a lot: how do you guys feel about Holden and the Rocinante crew as recurring protagonists? Because I'm really split- I like them as characters, and I have fun every time they show up in the books, but I honestly feel like they could be removed from every single book without much trouble. Leviathan Wakes is very explicitly Miller's story, and I think the upcoming Caliban's War has it even worse: it's pretty much all Bobbie and Prax's story, with Avasarala providing a critical supporting role to fill in the gaps.

So yeah- this is a weird take when you consider that I actually like Holden and company but it kinda feels like they're in this universe because they're the PCs, and I wonder what the series would've been like if instead of formal main characters, it was just one long line of "Major space politics, as seen by random blue collar space workers."

I like all of them except Holden. I think he's easily the most boring character on his ship. Every other character is more interesting and more involved in the story and the world, to the point where it feels like Holden's real job in the plot is to be a loving idiot when the plot happens to be in need of one.

# ? May 29, 2020 11:02

FPyat: Jan 17, 2020

Leviathan Wakes was regrettably alienating enough that I lost interest in the series as a whole after finishing it. Still, there's the possibility that this thread's read of Caliban's War might change my mind.

# ? May 30, 2020 12:09

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

FPyat posted:

Leviathan Wakes was regrettably alienating enough that I lost interest in the series as a whole after finishing it. Still, there's the possibility that this thread's read of Caliban's War might change my mind.

Would you be interested in expanding on this? I always find it interesting to read why or how people don't get into something. Was there any particular reasons or was it more of a general thing?

# ? May 30, 2020 12:14

FPyat: Jan 17, 2020

Mainly it was the protagonists. They struck me as cliche archetypes - the idealistic space captain, the troubled detective - that I love when done with skill, but not as they were executed here. Their internal psychology seemed juvenile and confused.

The 'vomit zombies' line was so jarring that I became frustrated with the book after reading that page.

But I think mostly it was just comparison that soured my opinion. I had just come off from reading a lot of more epic, thrilling-scope space opera, stuff by Alastair Reynolds and Iain M Banks and Vernor Vinge and Dan Simmons, and after all that what the Coreys were doing just wasn't what would excite me. It's more down-to-earth, but not enough that it appeals to the part of me that wants realism and slow-burn literary storytelling. I was really interested in the Earth-Mars-Belt politics, but as revealed it wasn't as in-depth and complex as I'd hoped, not to mention that it was all put on the backburner for an alien plot I didn't want.

FPyat fucked around with this message at 13:20 on May 30, 2020

# ? May 30, 2020 13:17

Omi no Kami: Feb 19, 2014

In a lot of ways the Expanse series feels to me like the authors thought they were writing schlock action, but wrote really interesting slow-burn conversations instead. Like we already saw in Leviathan Wakes the story is at its best when people are talking or thinking, and (usually) at its worst during the action scenes, but it's still plotted and paced like a popcorn action thingie. So you end up with this really weird hybrid where (at least for me) you tolerate the action and stay for the conversations and background stuff.

If you're at all on the fence I'd recommend giving Caliban's War a try- it's probably my favorite of the first four, and (if I remember correctly) it's much less Holden-centric, and a lot more "Three really interesting characters do things, Holden was there too." That having been said it's very definitely a book by the same guys who wrote LW, and in my writeups for the prologue and first chapter I'm already finding correlates to patterns we already discussed in LW. So I dunno! I think CW is the best-executed of the bunch, but there's definitely less space opera, and more like what you'd get if Michael Bay wrote All The President's Men.

# ? May 31, 2020 00:55

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

FPyat posted:

Mainly it was the protagonists. They struck me as cliche archetypes - the idealistic space captain, the troubled detective - that I love when done with skill, but not as they were executed here. Their internal psychology seemed juvenile and confused.

The 'vomit zombies' line was so jarring that I became frustrated with the book after reading that page.

But I think mostly it was just comparison that soured my opinion. I had just come off from reading a lot of more epic, thrilling-scope space opera, stuff by Alastair Reynolds and Iain M Banks and Vernor Vinge and Dan Simmons, and after all that what the Coreys were doing just wasn't what would excite me. It's more down-to-earth, but not enough that it appeals to the part of me that wants realism and slow-burn literary storytelling. I was really interested in the Earth-Mars-Belt politics, but as revealed it wasn't as in-depth and complex as I'd hoped, not to mention that it was all put on the backburner for an alien plot I didn't want.

Interesting. I think the Coreys have mentioned that their next collaborative work is a space opera along those lines, funnily enough. It'll be interesting to see what they can do with it.

The TV Adaptation (2x01)

So, I underestimated how many differences there were. I'll be splitting this up. Before we get into the particulars of the differences, the first thing is the most obvious change. Much like how the first season introduced Avasarala and the Earth political intrigue plot line early, the second season introduces Bobbie before we get into Caliban's War proper. Bobbie's stuff generally follows Mars' investigation into Phoebe Station as well as providing a peek into the Martian war machine. Honestly, I like it a lot. We even get to see Phoebe get blown up just as she's preparing to deploy to it.

Otherwise, the second season of The Expanse opens with the crew having just escaped Eros. It picks up pretty much where you imagine, with Holden in the medical bay. Something I like is how Holden's repeated internal wonderings whether he'll get superpowers, is turned into a line from Naomi to him. "Maybe you'll develop superpowers, that'd be perfect for you." Funnily enough, the dream sequence from the climax - where Holden is scared of the protomolecule devouring him and Naomi - is also brought forwards. It works much better as an 'opening shock' on screen than it does in text.

Without the big expository diary entries from the Anubis, Amos and Naomi have to bust open the safe to figure out what's in it. However, some of it does come in the form of Dresden's science logs. The ramblings of a scientist feel a bit more natural than Big Evil Guy's implicatory monologue. When the crew figures out they're holding onto a sample of the protomolecule, they hide it in a debris field. They don't know what to do with it, and they don't want to give it to someone, but Naomi argues that they can maybe use it to create a vaccine.

A significant change is that Sematimba got onboard the Rocinante, but was killed by Amos. This leads to a pretty great scene where the two of them get into a brawl - well, more of a stomp, really. Amos effortlessly takes down Miller. Amos is set to kill him, in fact, but Naomi intervenes and manages to basically drag Amos off him. "I told him to stay down," Amos says, almost like a child (Miller calls him a 200-pound homicidal kid even), as if it's okay for him to kill Miller because he didn't stay down. And, of course, Miller's upset at Amos because he shot someone is echoed by Holden's upset at Miller for doing the same.

The scene between Naomi and Miller (mentioned by Some of the Sheep) is good, too. It was briefly covered already and I don't have much to add.

Speaking of Naomi, her relationship with Holden builds a bit quicker and more naturally. However, we do lose the 'Miller listens to Holden pour his heart out' scene which is one of my favorites from the novel. In exchange, we get a nice moment where they're outside the ship and have this whole intimate moment and then get it on in the airlock as they're stripping out of their spacesuits. Also, Holden says 'Sorry' after he spontaneously kisses Naomi and that feels exactly like something he'd do.

The 'cheese mafia' talk happens when the Rocinante crew sit down for a meal, at Alex's behest. Remember, the Roci crew isn't as buddy-buddy as they were in the novel, so, it's a nice moment. Miller comes in and is like, hey, I busted that cartel. It's also a nice moment because Amos lets Miller sit down and the whole group bonds.

A small new subplot concerns the people the Rocinante crew rescued from Eros. Alex has to test them for protomolecule. It's okay, all in all.

Something else I noted is that Eros is much less populated in the TV adaptation. It has a population of 100,000 whereas the novel specifies that Eros has a population of about a million and a half.

# ? May 31, 2020 06:17

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

2x02 - Doors & Corners

A big thing the political intrigue plotline does is help break the story away from scenes where someone, usually Miller, gets their update on the political tensions by watching the news - aka telling over showing. The scenes with Avasarala and Errinwright are a lot of fun, but it might not have been possible to fit them into a novel - at least, not without significant changes. Still, I think Holden/Miller/Avasarala being protagonists would've made the novel better. Anyway, one of the things we find out is that Deimos was destroyed as a response to the destruction of Phoebe, which was a Earth-Mars joint installation.

The Rocinante returns to Tycho Station. Here is where we meet fan-favorite Drummer who doesn't really exist in the books (until the most recent ones, obviously written in response to her popularity.) There's a funny bit where Miller is trying to grab his boot in zero-gee where they get clamped and he hits the deck due to the rotational gravity, which is one of those things that helps establish Miller as a 'city belter' a bit more clearly.

They all go see Fred and Big Man OPA is pissed. They sent the Rocinante to find Lionel Polanski and the place exploded. Then they vanished off-the-grid and ditched their gas tanker disguise and weird poo poo's happening at Eros, and they didn't tell him a drat thing! So, they tensely fill Fred in and tell him they tracked the data from Eros to a location - a station. The whole exchange is different, really. Quicker, snappier, and Fred feels more like a guy who doesn't want to risk his political goodwill by getting caught repeating an Anderson Station. Especially when no one has any idea what's there, but he eventually gives in once Holden and co. tell him about the protomolecule. Notably, they do NOT mention giving him the sample as part of the deal.

There's a scene I like between Naomi and Holden where they talk about the logistics of keeping the Rocinante armed and we get some insight into Naomi's past and why she isn't a big fan of the OPA - it hints at her past without, y'know, spelling it out. We find out she used to run with some bad sorts and something bad happened.

I also like the scene where Alex is running sims against the stealth ship defending Thoth Station and keeps getting killed. There's another little Alex plotline where the guys they rescue from Eros, he wants to take care of them and help them but one of them ends up getting on the mission to Thoth Station and killed.

Miller meeting Diogo again is fun because he's just shouting 'STAY AWAY FROM T'AQUA' at him and Miller is like, poo poo, I'm about to storm a station with this rear end in a top hat? Their whole scene is great. "My uncle had a ship!" "I don't care!" One of the things the TV adaptation does is take the Miller and Diogo bits - which were already a lot of fun in the novel - and give you more of them. It helps a lot that the two actors are pretty much perfect in their roles, but I think the series as a whole has perfect casting.

The big combat between at Thoth is great. It's pretty much what we get in the novel. Amos gets out to fix a thruster, etc. There's an additional complication in the form of a big gun on the station itself. I especially love there's three things going on:

1. We have to evade/kill the stealth ship,
2. We have to protect the breaching pods from the cannon,
3. We have to keep Amos alive

And they all kind of complicate achieving any one of them.

Of course, they take out the cannon, pop the stealth ship, and keep Amos alive. Then, Miller and co. break into Thoth and it's pretty much as is, but with a bit less combat. Diego gets shot in the head and you think he's dead but it's just a stun round. Diogo of course starts calling himself invincible. Miller gets to play a bit of a leadership role which is neat. Thoth is a pretty dingy, grimey place which plays into what I said about Dresden going from smooth Mad Men kinda guy to a frumpy middle manager sort.

Miller comes face to face with Dresden and pistol whips him. The Dresden scene plays very differently, so, I'll just reproduce the transcript.

The Expanse 2x02 Doors & Corners posted:

DRESDEN: What would it take to make you guys go away, Colonel Johnson? Weapons? Money? Political favors? My benefactors are powerful...

FRED: Get his rear end out of here.

MILLER: Let's go.

DRESDEN: Idiots. Every scrap of data in this facility has been encrypted.

HOLDEN: We know what you were doing on Eros.

DRESDEN: Nobody knows what we're doing on Eros. And every minute I have to spend playing games with you, takes me away from that work. You're in an excellent bargaining position. Tell me what you want and we'll negotiate.

HOLDEN: You're going to help us make a vaccine.

DRESDEN: No. That goes against everything we're trying to accomplish.

MILLER: You infected a station full of Belters...

DRESDEN: They were infected to save us all!

FRED: You're gonna have to be a hell of a lot more specific than that.

DRESDEN: We made a discovery on Phoebe.

HOLDEN: An extra-solar lifeform. We found your lab notes on the Anubis.

DRESDEN: Maybe you can appreciate what it is. An organism that can repurpose other life forms and use them to evolve.

FRED: Into what?

DRESDEN: That's what we're trying to find out. In a controlled, isolated environment that can be sterilized if it gets out of hand.

MILLER: You could've fed it a vat of bacteria.

DRESDEN: I'm not interested in the cosmic fate of bacteria! The protomolecule is proof that we're not alone in the universe. And our ticket out of the limitations that bind us to these pathetic little bubbles of rock and air. If we master it, we can apply it.

HOLDEN: Apply it to what?

DRESDEN: To everything. We become our own gods. Imagine human beings able to live in hard vacuum without a suit, or under the crushing atmosphere of a gas giant. Or able to hibernate long enough to travel to the stars.

FRED: That's why you were willing to start a war?

DRESDEN: Have you heard of Genghis Khan? He built one of the greatest empires in human history. Killed or displaced a quarter of the entire population on Earth during his conquests. Today, that's the equivalent of 10 billion people. Eros is hardly a rounding error by comparison.

HOLDEN: And that justifies all of this?

DRESDEN: Of course it does! The protomolecule wasn't sent here by accident! Earth was its target! It was sent to hijack life on our planet for its own ends. You can't save Eros! All you can do now is waste the data and ensure that every man, woman and child on that rock died for nothing. The data will erase itself if anyone other than me tries to decrypt it. Without this work, humanity will be left unarmed, ignorant, vulnerable, to an enemy who's already fired the first shot! I don't care who controls the project. So long as I can get back to my work, with no restrictions. So we have an understanding?

FRED: We're going to need complete access to the data. As well as the names of everyone responsible for setting this in motion.

DRESDEN: Done.

Miller immediately shoots Dresden in the head, then walks over and shoots him twice more. Then, he wanders away, leaving Holden and Fred in varying states of shock.

One thing I think about the Dresden change is that having Dresden be Yet Another Slick Sociopath man would be redundant. This is because of how the TV series is already working Julie's father and Errinwright into the story, who both fill that role by do so in a way that feels more natural. They're the bosses, Dresden is just the guy they've got running the project. Whereas in the novel, Dresden feels strangely out of place on the station.

2x03 - Static

When the Rocinante gets back to Tycho, there's a difference - they have a passenger with them. The passenger is one of the scientists from Thoth Station whom they took as a prisoner. I love the confrontation between Holden and Miller. Holden is pissed and thinks Miller is going to kill more prisoners. Miller is a smug little poo poo. Naomi basically drags Holden away. Fred tells Miller to, basically, get the gently caress off his station.

Miller's hanging around in a club when Amos shows up to give him Miller's things - an empty bag and some anti-cancer meds. Otherwise, the conversation is basically the one they have in the novel. The exception is that one line about Naomi, which is shifted to a later episode (and makes more sense there.) We see Diogo bump into Miller in the bar and drag him back to his home. We get to hear the remixed music out of Eros and it's pretty slick. We actually get an appearance of Head Julie here, which I actually forgot about. Here, Head Julie appears to be related to the events that happened on Eros, and we'll talk about that when I sum up the differences between Miller meeting her in Episode 5.

Holden and Naomi have their 'Miller was wrong/right' speech and I appreciate how much more fired up Naomi gets about it, specifically saying that Dresden killed so many Belters, and flat out says to Holden 'but you do?' when he gripes about how Miller thinks he can just execute people. They leave on frosty terms and this sort of replaces Holden moping about how Naomi doesn't like him anymore and he wants to be her friend etc.

Speaking of friends, Drummer gets to be Naomi's friend instead of Sam. "Come on, we should hydrate... with some beers!" I assume Sam was a casualty of Drummer becoming a character. Maybe they couldn't get the actress back.

The scientist - Cortazar, who goes on to be a pretty big character in the books - is how they figure out Protogen is involved and how the scientists are all nerve-stapled sociopaths. It's fun to watch Holden try and negotiate with him and run straight into the dude's mindset. It also links him to Amos a bit who wants to know if they can undo it (and therefore help him.) Amos comparing him to a pedophile and asking Holden if he's ever talked to one is a great bit that tells you heaps about Amos' past. So, we find out Cortazar was on Pheobe and the Protogen dudes there turned all the Martians into a science experiment. They get him to listen to the Eros music and it's more interesting than the two or three times Miller listens to it and thinks about it.

Alex gets a nice little subplot where he's disturbed by how much the Rocinante got beat up, and how twenty-five people died, and obsesses over running tactical simulations against stealth ships. I do like the montage of Alex obsessing, Naomi partying, Holden staring down at Cortazar, while Miller is trapped listening to Diogo blast Eros music.

Miller thinks about signing on with the Nauvoo. We get a lot of information on the Nauvoo and the Mormon dream and its capabilities and onboard systems and whatever. It does a lot to make using the Nauvoo against Eros a bit more of a tragedy, whereas in the novel it feels almost comic. But that scene is what leads him to heading to Fred at the end of the episode and saying, hey, let's use the ship to smash Eros.

2x04 - Godspeed

When the group meets to discuss Eros, Holden comes off as a little bit more 'idealistic cudgel' and Miller gets to be a little bit more firm in his actions, which is nice. I also like how Mars set up a blockade around Eros, but the destruction of Deimos led them to removing it. And it adds a wonderful ticking time bomb situation to it - someone might get to Eros, quick, we have to go now! Otherwise, the plan is basically as the novel. Bombs, cook the surface, shoot it to the sun. I think giving Naomi the 'let's blow it up' line is kind of a bad choice because I feel like she'd know that it'd just risk turning one Eros into a thousand little Eroses.

When they go to Eros, they go with the Roci (carrying the bombs) and the Guy Mollinari (carrying Miller and the demo team.) Miller namedrops being a 'city belter' to the others. They reach Eros and set up the bombs - but there's complications! Miller botches his first spacewalk landing and loses a detonator for the bombs... And there's a ship docked at Eros!

The ship is the Marasmus, a rental ship out of Pallas Station. Amos figures it might be a pirate ship... but the ship is packed full of high-tech, state of the art hospital and life support gear. The crew claim to be on a humanitarian mission to help survivors of Eros. They claim they haven't been inside... but Miller finds an airlock door that someone has broken open! And there's a body in there, infected with protomolecule!

And, of course, his vac suit reads Marasmus!

Furious, Holden hails them. The Captain of the Marasmus says they told the crew member (a Doctor) not to do it but he did anyway. But, while the Rocinante is jamming the Marasmus, the rental ship attempts to use Eros to break the jamming. The Captain is adamant that he must broadcast the truth of what happened, but Holden angrily begs him not to broadcast, to come back, but the Marasmus maintains course.

And, so, Holden presses the big red button and blasts the Marasmus into scrap. It's a wonderful bit! Holden gets put in the position of basically killing someone who wanted to do the same thing he did. Of killing one to save the many. It's the sort thing I think Holden needed in the novel, things to really challenge his perspective, to make him make tough choices.

Anyway, Miller gets winged by debris from the Marasmus, and goes down to about ten minutes of air. And the bomb got hit, too - if someone isn't touching the bomb's trigger, it'll blow up in sixty seconds. I like how Miller's developed relationship with Diogo has him taking the bomb from Diogo and saving him. Then, much like the novel, we see the Nauvoo approach Eros... and sweep right on past.

"What the gently caress?" Amos says.

"The Nauvoo didn't move," Holden says. "Eros did."

Which puts us in place to discuss the fifth and final episode of what constitutes Leviathan Wakes' TV adaptation - Home. Then, on to Caliban's War, where it may no longer be necessary to compare to the TV adaptation due to how different they've become. Maybe a few mentions here and there. We'll see!

# ? Jun 1, 2020 09:53

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

2x05 - Home

Ultimately, Home is pretty similar to the climactic chapters of the book. Eros suddenly moves, everything freaks out, the Rocinante chases it down, etc. I found it interesting to note that Naomi and Amos both do the 'head math' thing that happens in the novel, so, that's cool.

A big difference is that, in the TV series, Miller's journey to Eros wasn't a one-way trip from the start. So, the Rocinante is chasing down Eros to try and rescue Miller. It's a much neater way of getting the chase going on instead of 'needing to keep Eros in line of sight'. The drama of just how they're going to dock with an object like that which could jump about at any moment is nice and simple, too.

A little difference is that the big hot spot from Eros moving is directly linked to the 'seed crystal' idea initially. So, there's no need for Miller to have so much time wandering through Eros.

But that still consists of the bulk of the episode. Of course, the TV adaptation's take on the protomolecule is less organic and freaky than we get in the novel, and while that makes Eros much less grotesque, the 'blue fireflies' take on it adds a certain transcendental aspect that I think plays into the climax of the episode.

Speaking of climaxes, Holden doesn't really have much of one. There's the neat bit where Avasarala talks to Holden and he gets them to agree to Fred's plan with the missile codes and so on. But I'd also say that Holden's personal climax came last episode, where he was forced to kill someone who may have been doing exactly what he did in the aftermath of the destruction of the Canterbury. There's no awkward fight with the Earth ship. In a sense, the Marasmus replaced that, and the story is better for it.

Miller's climax plays a bit more into things. Instead of the Roci stopping because Holden isn't willing to sacrifice his crew, the Roci stops because Miller says Eros will defend itself if they keep chasing.

Anyway, that's all secondary. Let's talk about the big difference in my mind - Miller meeting Julie. The first difference is that the 'hot spot' of Eros is in Julie's apartment instead of some environmental subsystem or whatever. That just feels neater.

Here's the scene, but I've also grabbed a transcript.

quote:

MILLER: Julie? You need to wake up now, kid. Hey, can you hear me? You need to come back to me now.

JULIE: ...Where am I?

MILLER: You're on Eros, kid. Eros Station. It's not what it used to be. It's a step up, actually.

JULIE: What happened to me? I don't like it.

MILLER: Hey, we never really officially met. I'm Miller. I used to be a cop on Ceres. I was supposed to... find you... bring you home.

JULIE: Kidnap job.

MILLER: Yeah... I kinda cocked that up, though.

JULIE: They left me here all alone. They never came for me.

MILLER: Listen, Julie, right now, this station, this rock is headed for Earth real fast.

JULIE: I dreamed that I was... racing.

MILLER: Yeah...

JULIE: I was going home.

MILLER: Yeah, we're gonna need to stop that, Jules.

JULIE: No. You can't take the Razorback.

MILLER: Mm, you never took poo poo from anyone, did ya? ...but, you're driving this bus, Julie. Do you know that?

JULIE: I miss Earth.

MILLER: I know, kid. But, we can't go to Earth. A lot of good people are gonna die if we go there. They're the same people you're fighting for.

JULIE: I can't make it stop. It won't stop.

MILLER: Okay, Julie, but you gotta try.

JULIE: Can't stop the work!

MILLER: All right. We won't stop the work but, eh, we don't have to go to Earth, right? Why don't we go to Venus? We're headed that way anyway. Go to Venus. Work continues...

JULIE: I don't think I can.

The bomb prepares to detonate. Miller looks over Julie and makes a decision - he disarms it again.

MILLER: Look, kid, I came an awful long way to find you because I believe in you. Would you believe a guy like me would believe in something? I know you're a fighter. I know you can steer this ship.

JULIE: I'm done fighting. I just want to go home.

MILLER: You can't go home, Julie. I'm sorry. We can go anywhere else in the whole universe but, we can't go home, honey. Okay? ...but, hey, I need you to know, whatever happens, wherever you go, you're not gonna do it alone.

MILLER: I need you to hold something for me, okay?

JULIE: I can't feel my hands.

MILLER: It's all right. Right here. Your beautiful hands, I've got 'em. Here. Just hold this for a minute. Don't let go.

Miller takes Julie's hand and sets it on the bomb - it shorts out.

JULIE: What is it?

MILLER: It won't hurt you.

Miller pops open his helmet visor, then removes his helmet, and begins stripping out of his space suit.

MILLER: Hey.

JULIE: What happens to us now?

MILLER: I don't know. We die maybe but, if we don't die, that'll be interesting. Whatever happens, happens to both of us. It's going to be okay.

Miller kisses Julie's hand and reaches up to take Miller's cheek in her hand.

JULIE: You belong with me.

They kiss.

The kiss was actually improvised by the actors, which is pretty interesting.

So, I'll leap right into this. This Julie isn't Julie. Rather, this is a sort of 'hybrid consciousness.' The book makes mention of the protomolecule using Julie's mind as a blueprint, but then doesn't really commit to it. The Julie that Miller encounters is pretty much just her resurrected and what it says about blueprints is just a way to have that happen. The Julie that Miller encounters in the TV series feels like a hybrid of whatever intelligence the protomolecule has built around a template of Julie Mao's mind. A lot of the lines Julie says can easily stand-in for things the protomolecule might think or feel - if it can do such a thing.

So, instead of Miller coming face to face with the dead girl of his dreams and finding solace before the end, Miller finds that same solace in the embrace of a non-human intelligence that's just as afraid as he is. Like Some of the Sheep mentioned, there's the indication that the two have something of a connection. Head Julie only starts showing up to Miller after Eros and the 'you belong with me' line is mentioned by her and then is the last thing we see her say to him. I think this take on the meeting of the two also foreshadows Miller's turn into The Investigator in its own way. You could really consider Julie as The Pilot or something like that.

Once that scene is over, there's a brief montage of the various characters across the Solar system, and Eros slams into Venus.

# ? Jun 2, 2020 11:44

Some of the Sheep: May 25, 2005; POSSIBLY IT WOULD BE SIMPLER IF I ASKED FOR A LIST OF THE HARMLESS CREATURES OF THE AFORESAID CONTINENT?

There's some more protomolecule fuckery going on too that further underscores both 1) the connection between Miller and Julie and 2) how humans re-purpose the protomolecule as much as it re-purposes humans. In "Critical Mass" (S01E09), a head-Miller appears to Julie at the moment of her death, holding her beads and juggling a low-g tweetie bird (can be seen here - I could only find to show in one of those embarrassing tribute music videos).

To me it kind of casts a bit of a new light on Miller's hallucinations in the tv adaptation vs. the book portrayal, giving a hint that they may not be pure manifestations of mental illness, but the protomolecule itself (which breaks all the rules) reaching out across time itself to touch the minds of these characters. Why it does this is also an interesting speculation: is it merely a side effect (like how the Eros "music" is the echoes of minds consumed) or is it a subtle hand guiding two characters ensuring their fated meeting takes place.

# ? Jun 3, 2020 02:12

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Book 2: Caliban's War

Caliban's War is a pretty neat book. Until Nemesis Games, it was easily the best in the series. As it is, I think it's still definitely a top three contender. The most interesting thing about it to me is that, even on my initial readthrough, I was struck by how it is essentially a do-over of the story in Leviathan Wakes. There's a missing girl, an interstellar war, a science experiment gone right/wrong, and so on.

However, it's a better version of that story, essentially. The plot moves more evenly and the character work is much improved. It felt, to me, like they had learned the lessons from Leviathan Wakes and gone for a do-over of a lot of the same plot points. Now, it just seems to be a sign of the work the pair of writers can do when they weren't beholden to a pre-existing outline.

While I came out of Leviathan Wakes with issues, such as the weak climax, I don't recall having any such problems coming out of Caliban's War.

It'll be interesting to see how it holds up.

Prologue: Mei

Caliban's War, Prologue posted:

"Mei?� Miss Carrie said. �Please put your painting work away now. Your mother is here.�

It took her a few seconds to understand what the teacher was saying, not because Mei didn�t know the words�she was four now, and not a toddler anymore�but because they didn�t fit with the world as she knew it. Her mother couldn�t come get her. Mommy had left Ganymede and gone to live on Ceres Station, because, as her daddy put it, she needed some mommy-alone-time. Then, her heart starting to race, Mei thought, She came back.

Much like Leviathan Wakes, our prologue character is a young woman. Or, to be more accurate, a girl. Mei is four-years old in a daycare on Ganymede. Much like Leviathan Wakes, our prologue character is the missing girl that a lot of the plot will revolve around. Unlike, the first novel, she's not in any immediate danger... or is she?

Either way, Mei gets excited about the prospect of her mom coming to get her, and she gets Miss Carrie's pants dirty with paint in the process.

Caliban's War, Prologue posted:

Mei looked at the smear of paint on Miss Carrie�s pants and the controlled anger on the woman�s broad, dark face.

�I�m sorry, Miss Carrie.�

�It�s okay,� the teacher said in a tight voice that meant it wasn�t, really, but Mei wasn�t going to be punished. �Please go wash your hands and then come put away your painting work. I�ll get this down and you can give it to your mother. It is a doggie?�

�It�s a space monster.�

�It�s a very nice space monster. Now go wash your hands, please, sweetheart.�

Mei nodded, turned, and ran for the bathroom, her smock flapping around her like a rag caught in an air duct.

�And don�t touch the wall!�

�I�m sorry, Miss Carrie.�

�It�s okay. Just clean it off after you�ve washed your hands.�

Honestly, I love the energy the chapter has. Mei is a fun character to inhabit and I feel we get a very good picture of the kind of kid she is - bright, exuberant. However, I question Miss Carrie's suitability as an early childhood educator if she gets that upset over something like that. As Omi puts it: "if a four-year old accidentally smearing paint on your work clothes is enough to make you angry at said four-year old, you should not be in a career that requires you to deal with four-year olds on a regular basis." That's why I went secondary education and not early childhood, hey!

One thing Omi points out is that the beginning of Caliban's War is not as immediately grabbing as the beginning of Leviathan Wakes is. "Strictly-speaking, the first paragraph is a serviceable intro. It tells us who we are and where we are. Where I think it fails relative to LW is that it doesn�t really give us a reason to care. Julie Mao floating in a stinky, pee-filled spaceship for eight days is immediately interesting, a four-year old in space daycare is decidedly less so."

I think they do enough to put me in Mei's head that it's okay, however. In that sense, it's a prologue that works more on the basis of the character work than the plot hook. For example:

Caliban's War, Prologue posted:

The other children watched, excited because she was excited, as Mei scrubbed the finger marks mostly off the wall and slammed the paint pots back into their box and the box onto its shelf. She pulled the smock up over her head rather than wait for Miss Carrie to help her, and stuffed it into the recycling bin.

I love it!

So, Mei gets a look at who Miss Carrie is speaking to. One of them is a woman she doesn't know, and the other is Doctor Strickland.

Caliban's War, Prologue posted:

�No, she�s been very good about getting to the toilet,� Miss Carrie was saying. �There are accidents now and then, of course.�

Omi wonders: "...why are they talking about toilet stuff? This is starting to feel like a Thing in Expanse prologues, and it�s honestly weirding me out a bit."

Doctor Strickland picks Mei up and tickles her. Miss Carrie lets Strickland and the other woman take her out of the daycare. When Mei asks where Mommy is, Strickland says they're taking her to see her. From memory, the unknown woman is pretending to be Mei's mother, and that is why Strickland tickles her to prevent her from asking the obvious question that'd give their kidnapping away. Because that's what is happening here.

Caliban's War, Prologue posted:

Doctor Strickland kept tickling Mei until the door to the Montessori cycled closed behind them.

Well, now! That's not something I expected to see. I've done time in the education system. Montessori refers to a specific type of school and it basically refers to a sort of child-driven 'discovery' model of learning. I won't get too much into it, but it was a fun thing to see there. It's pretty suitable for the science-driven moon that Ganymede basically is. One of those little details that most people probably don't get the significance of but shows the authors did a bit of research.

Strickland takes Mei through the halls of Ganymede. There's a fun bit where Mei tries to imagine what Earth is like.

Caliban's War, Prologue posted:

Daddy said it was just what sunlight looked like on Earth, and Mei pictured that planet as a huge complicated network of plants and hallways with the sun running in lines above them in a bright blue ceiling-sky, and you could climb over the walls and end up anywhere.

Mei also names a bunch of scientific names for plants as they pass. She's a bright kid. Some might say that it's strange for her to know things like that, but some four-year olds can have really detailed knowledge of certain topics. I was really into World War 1 fighter planes, for example.

Omi says: "Maybe this is pedantic, but kids are weird and stupid and I assumed she would be focused on the doctor and/or her fake mom, be confused or overstimulated, and generally just kind of get stuck in her own universe. Looking around and thinking about the air filtration is what bored adults in a space noir story do."

I think it might be fair to say that Mei does share that 'space noir' feel, but it's really hard for adults to get into the mindset of a child with any degree of accuracy without having it come off as weird and, often, writing the kid as younger than they are.

As they walk, Mei gets ready for the "other questions", ones that Strickland always asks her, but they never come. They seem to be sciency or medical questions.

Eventually, they head through an unmarked door.

Caliban's War, Prologue posted:

"This isn�t the hospital," Mei said.

"This is a special hospital," Doctor Strickland said. "I don�t think you�ve ever been here, have you?"

It didn�t look like a hospital to Mei. It looked like one of the abandoned tubes that Daddy talked about sometimes. Leftover spaces from when Ganymede had first been built that no one used anymore except as storage. This one had a kind of airlock at the end, though, and when they passed through it, things looked a little more like a hospital. They were cleaner, anyway, and there was the smell of ozone, like in the decontamination cells.

Dun dun dun.

Mei is reassured by the presence of an older boy named Sandro, however. She asks Strickland again where her mommy is and he says she'll see her in a few minutes.

Caliban's War, Prologue posted:

He carried her into a room that looked a little like an examination room, only there weren�t any cartoon lions on the walls, and the tables weren�t shaped like grinning hippos. Doctor Strickland put her onto a steel examination table and rubbed her head. Mei crossed her arms and scowled.

"I want Mommy," Mei said, and made the same impatient grunt that Daddy would.

Mei gets left alone with the unknown woman, and I love how Mei snatches her painting back.

Caliban's War, Prologue posted:

"I want my painting," Mei said. "That�s not for you. That�s for Mommy."

The woman looked at the painting in her hand as if she�d forgotten it was there. She unrolled it.

"It�s Mommy�s space monster," Mei said. This time, the woman smiled. She held out the painting, and Mei snatched it away. She made some wrinkles in the paper when she did, but she didn�t care. She crossed her arms again and scowled and grunted.

"You like space monsters, kid?" the woman asked.

Oh no.
So, the woman takes Mei to another room, where there's a big glass box (like an aquarium, Mei thinks) with something inside of it. Something that isn't a fish.

Caliban's War, Prologue posted:

The thing inside looked up at the sound. It was a man, but he was naked and his skin didn�t look like skin. His eyes glowed blue like there was a fire in his head. And something was wrong with his hands.

He reached toward the glass, and Mei started screaming.

Omi says: "The dumb science guys going 'Hey kid, you wanna see a real monster?' and then showing her a naked protomolecule super-soldier is funny and a decent way to introduce the stakes, but I have trouble believing that even someone who wasn�t good with kids would think that was a good idea."

Meanwhile, I took it to mean that this woman just isn't very nice at all. Mei took back her painting and so she did this to scare the poor kid because she's mean. But there's our prologue: a young child has been kidnapped by mystery science people doing work on something that might be protomolecule related, oh no!

Omi thinks it "drags" more than Julie's prologue did. I'm not so sure. I feel like Julie's prologue had a lot less happening and had to do a lot more dry worldbuilding which always drags for me. With this prologue, I really like the energy of it and I think the Coreys capture the mindset of a four-year old well enough to hook me: Mei's a good kid and I don't want to see anything bad happening to her.

And, I mean, 'Mei draws a space monster and then meets a real space monster' is just the right kind of melodrama to make me smile.

TV Adaptation

The TV adaptation of Caliban's War does not begin with these events, but with the events of the first chapter proper (although we've already met the characters featured due to new content.) This makes sense because a sudden cut to a daycare on Ganymede might not have been the best idea.

Leah Jung as Mei Meng

Ted Atherton as Doctor Strickland

# ? Jun 3, 2020 11:25

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Sorry about the delay! There was a nasty combination of work, a long weekend, and getting distracted by my own writing. On to Caliban's War!

Chapter One: Bobbie

Caliban's War, Chapter One posted:

"Snoopy�s out again," Private Hillman said. "I think his CO must be pissed at him."

Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper of the Martian Marine Corps upped the magnification on her armor�s heads-up display and looked in the direction Hillman was pointing. Twenty-five hundred meters away, a squad of four United Nations Marines were tromping around their outpost, backlit by the giant greenhouse dome they were guarding. A greenhouse dome identical in nearly all respects to the dome her own squad was currently guarding.

One of the four UN Marines had black smudges on the sides of his helmet that looked like beagle ears.

And here is how the second novel begins. Omi and I agree immediately right off the bat: this chapter opens pretty well. It's not amazing per se but it very efficiently sets the scene. As Omi puts it: "Space marines bantering while guarding space greenhouses." One thing I'll add to that is that the space marines are bored. They're used to this. They pass time by coming up with nicknames for the opposite numbers.

Of course, the chapter then gives us a big chunk of exposition, which is something the Coreys just like doing. It's not bad, and I'd say it's necessary to establish what's going on and where we are, but Omi wonders if there wouldn't be a way to do it more efficiently - such as with dialogue between Bobbie and her squadmates.

Anyway, the basics. Eros happened eighteen months ago and Earth and Mars are carving up the Solar system. Neither of them are willing to give up Ganymede, which is the "breadbasket of the Jovian system" and so they've both got outposts only a few kilometers from each other and I'm sure the Reds and Blues are wondering why they're there. Ganymede's the only Jovian moon with a magnetosphere, so, it's the only one who can grow food so close to Jupiter. I don't know how true that is, but I feel like it is.

More stuff. The greenhouse domes depend on orbital mirrors to capture enough sunlight to grow the food. Not exactly a nitpick, and this may be due to my lack of knowledge when it comes to farming, but couldn't you grow plants under artificial light? Given this is a society with Epstein drives and stuff, I feel like that would be a better solution than big mirrors.

Anyway! Space marines! Ganymede! Boredom! It feels weird to say that it's an interesting opening, but it is. Omi thinks the exposition hampers it some, and I think I've said earlier that I'm more willing to let exposition ride in the first few chapters.

Caliban's War, Chapter One posted:

Ganymede didn�t erode or weather. It changed when rocks fell on it from space, or when warm water from the liquid core forced itself onto the surface and created short-lived lakes. Neither thing happened all that often. At home on Mars, wind and dust changed the landscape hourly. Here, she was walking through the footsteps of the day before and the day before and the day before. And if she never came back, those footprints would outlive her. Privately, she thought it was sort of creepy.

I like that thought of Bobbie's. I think it is very strange to a terrestrial mind that, like, those footprints from the first man on the Moon are still there all this time later.

There's a bit where Bobbie's suit has an issue in its knee joint. Which brings us to something Omi brings up - Bobbie is a big lady.

Caliban's War, Chapter One posted:

Bobbie was not the right shape to fit into one of the standard suits, and the Marines made her jump through a series of flaming hoops every time she requisitioned a new custom one. At a bit over two meters tall, she was only slightly above average height for a Martian male, but thanks in part to her Polynesian ancestry, she weighed in at over a hundred kilos at one g. None of it was fat, but her muscles seemed to get bigger every time she even walked through a weight room. As a marine, she trained all the time.

Now, I think we get some mention of Bobbie's size and build in every single book she appears. This is one of the more mild ones, because I think later ones stress that while she's a tank of a woman, she's also curvy and hot. I feel like she's flat out called a 'beach bunny' in one of the later books, or maybe later in this book.

Omi: "So okay, this is a beat that�s going to come up again and again, and honestly I don�t know why. Bobbie�s body and physicality will be constantly mentioned throughout this book, often in a distinctly male gaze-y way - so do one of the Coreys just have a fetish for huge athletic women? I have no idea, but it�s especially weird because I remember it most frequently coming up in Bobbie�s POV sections, but she herself doesn�t seem to have body issues - she�s just a big tough soldier lady who likes her job."

I'm going to hypothesize wildly here. From what I dug up when talking about The Expanse's origin as a roleplaying game, I believe someone -- Naomi's player, I think -- said that Bobbie also originated as character that was conceived of by one of the players in the game (in a separate playing of the game to the one that featured Holden and Miller and such.) In that sense, I can see the mention of Bobbie's muscular-but-hot physique as being almost a nod to that.

But then!

Caliban's War, Chapter One posted:

Hillman was starting to put his tools away when Bobbie�s radio crackled to life.

�Outpost four to stickman. Come in, stickman.�

�Roger four,� Bobbie replied. �This is stickman one. Go ahead.�

�Stickman one, where are you guys? You�re half an hour late and some poo poo is going down over here.�

�Sorry, four, equipment trouble,� Bobbie said, wondering what sort of poo poo might be going down, but not enough to ask about it over an open frequency.

�Return to the outpost immediately. We have shots fired at the UN outpost. We�re going into lockdown.�

Turns out the UN outpost is shooting. Not at Mars, but someone else. So, Bobbie and her people double time it back to the outpost.

They're five hundred meters out from the outpost when everything goes to hell. UN Marines are charging at the Martian outpost! And now they're being jammed! Even so, the Martians try to sign to the UN troops to turn around and go home but they just keep charging.

With only seven marines.

And not even that, because when Bobbie examines the incoming marines...

Caliban's War, Chapter One posted:

The figure chasing the six UN Marines wasn�t wearing an environment suit. Nor was it, properly speaking, human. Its skin was covered in chitinous plates, like large black scales. Its head was a massive horror, easily twice as large as it should have been and covered in strange protruding growths.

But most disturbing of all were its hands. Far too large for its body, and too long for their width, they were a childhood nightmare version of hands. The hands of the troll under the bed or the witch sneaking in through the window. They flexed and grasped at nothing with a constant manic energy.

Oh poo poo!

Omi: "Please look forward to Neil Gaiman�s next children�s book, entitled You�ll Never Sleep Peacefully Again."

I like how the "childhood nightmare version of hands" links back to Mei, in a way. Is Mei the monster?

Bobbie orders her marines to shoot the thing chasing the UN guys, but it's busy eviscerating the Earthers and ripping them in half and otherwise loving them up like a Christmas ham. Bobbie opens up on it with her power armor minigun.

Caliban's War, Chapter One posted:

The rounds went through it, probably not slowing appreciably before they exited. Each exit wound sprouted a spray of black filaments that fell onto the snow instead of blood. It was like shooting water. The wounds closed almost faster than they were created; the only sign the thing had even been hit was the trail of black fibers in its wake.

Black fibers! Protomolecule! Probably related to Mei's Real Space Monster! Maybe even Mei!

Basically, the monster man kills everyone. He rips the Earth marines apart, then takes out the Martian combat mech (and the other Martians) and then, as it goes to kill Bobbie, it abruptly explodes.

And then Earth and Mars start a shooting war in orbit.

Caliban's War, Chapter One posted:

She lay on her back, fading toward unconsciousness. The night sky above her began to flash with light. The ships in orbit, shooting each other.

Cease fire, she thought, pressing it out into the blackness. They were retreating. Cease fire. Her radio was still out, her suit dead. She couldn�t tell anyone that the UN Marines hadn�t been attacking.

Or that something else had.

Omi had a very interesting point about this chapter, and it kind of matches to what I've said with how Caliban's War is Leviathan Wakes: Wake Harder.

Omi: "Chapter One feels a lot like the Canterbury story on fast-forward: here�s a group of guys, get to know them, here�s a weird and unexplained threat, whoops they�re all dead Jim, double-whoops Earth thinks it was Mars, Mars thinks it was Earth, everyone hates the Belt, let�s get ready to rumble!"

TV Adaptation

Not much to mention here. In the TV series, we've already met Bobbie and her crew, so, them dying has a bit of a different feel but also doesn't really change anything dramatically. Another change is to the timeline where this happens virtually immediately after Eros hits Venus. Oh, and there's no big combat mech.

Frankie Adams as Roberta 'Bobbie' Draper

# ? Jun 10, 2020 10:17

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Spacewoman told me about Corey's predilection for "large Polynesian women" before I started the book and it was impossible to unsee.

Omi no Kami posted:

Since we're between books, this is as good a time as any to solicit other people's opinions on something I've thought about a lot: how do you guys feel about Holden and the Rocinante crew as recurring protagonists? Because I'm really split- I like them as characters, and I have fun every time they show up in the books, but I honestly feel like they could be removed from every single book without much trouble. Leviathan Wakes is very explicitly Miller's story, and I think the upcoming Caliban's War has it even worse: it's pretty much all Bobbie and Prax's story, with Avasarala providing a critical supporting role to fill in the gaps.

Nemesis Games and Babylon's Ashes feel like stories about Naomi and Holden too much to be easily changed, though I really don't like the coincidence of Naomi dating two of the most important men in the solar system. Amos' time on Earth is more than just providing eyes and ears on that part of the story and while you could replace it I'm not sure that you'd want to.

# ? Jun 10, 2020 11:28

Omi no Kami: Feb 19, 2014

Doctor Spaceman posted:

Spacewoman told me about Corey's predilection for "large Polynesian women" before I started the book and it was impossible to unsee.

Nemesis Games and Babylon's Ashes feel like stories about Naomi and Holden too much to be easily changed, though I really don't like the coincidence of Naomi dating two of the most important men in the solar system. Amos' time on Earth is more than just providing eyes and ears on that part of the story and while you could replace it I'm not sure that you'd want to.

Amos' time on earth is such a radtastic bit of character detail that I'm honestly kinda miffed it took so long for us to get it- it makes the character so much more interesting than the Greasy McCrimer guy he presents himself as in the first 3-4.

# ? Jun 10, 2020 11:40

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

I could not get into The Churn the first time I read it, because the picture it painted of Amos was so different to what I'd seen in the first few books - but when I read it a second time, knowing more of Amos as a whole, I feel it's one of the best works.4 Nemesis Games is my pick for best of the series.

# ? Jun 10, 2020 12:24

Some of the Sheep: May 25, 2005; POSSIBLY IT WOULD BE SIMPLER IF I ASKED FOR A LIST OF THE HARMLESS CREATURES OF THE AFORESAID CONTINENT?

Milkfred E. Moore posted:

More stuff. The greenhouse domes depend on orbital mirrors to capture enough sunlight to grow the food. Not exactly a nitpick, and this may be due to my lack of knowledge when it comes to farming, but couldn't you grow plants under artificial light? Given this is a society with Epstein drives and stuff, I feel like that would be a better solution than big mirrors.

You dream up humanity's biggest mirror in order to smash the poo poo out of it and I thank them for it. :dance:

I don't think it needs another reason.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 01:27

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Artificial light works just fine as long as it's the right kind of light. So it should be pretty trivial.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 01:54

Omi no Kami: Feb 19, 2014

I assumed the giant mirrors were cheaper because the cost of making and positioning the mirrors was lower than the electricity bill you'd run up lighting industrial-sized greenhouse domes, but I suppose a civilization that can build giant farming operations on Ganymede could conceivably have a cheap, plentiful way to generate electricity.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 04:03

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Omi no Kami posted:

I assumed the giant mirrors were cheaper because the cost of making and positioning the mirrors was lower than the electricity bill you'd run up lighting industrial-sized greenhouse domes, but I suppose a civilization that can build giant farming operations on Ganymede could conceivably have a cheap, plentiful way to generate electricity.

Depending on the plant you could do it with just a regular if bright light-bulb.

Giant mirrors are likely more expensive to maintain.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 05:26

T-man: Aug 22, 2010; Talk shit, get bzzzt.

Kchama posted:

Depending on the plant you could do it with just a regular if bright light-bulb.

Giant mirrors are likely more expensive to maintain.

??? how so? big and reflective is all you really need in a mirror, a few correctional thrusts for drift or repositioning. lights on the other hand require precision manufacturing, maintenance, power generation, and all the manufacturing and maintenance that comes along with that.

plus lights don't look so cool when you smash them, the real reason for the mirrors. real space you're probably gonna be dining on GM yeast grown in a big vat

# ? Jun 11, 2020 05:44

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

T-man posted:

??? how so? big and reflective is all you really need in a mirror, a few correctional thrusts for drift or repositioning. lights on the other hand require precision manufacturing, maintenance, power generation, and all the manufacturing and maintenance that comes along with that.

plus lights don't look so cool when you smash them, the real reason for the mirrors. real space you're probably gonna be dining on GM yeast grown in a big vat

Er, you do realize that those mirrors aren't invincible right? And 'big and reflective' isn't a cheap thing to get in mirrors. Like, you have to actively work to make sure they aren't damaged and cleaned. Today they are incredibly expensive, more-so than big lights. I mean, mirrors have their own host of maintenance and are very expensive to replace too. It's not a simple and cheap endeavor to keep them about.

You don't need particularly special lights for a greenhouse, just ones that emit the kind of light your plants need.

Also, lights look cooler when you smash them.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 05:54

tokenbrownguy: Apr 1, 2010

You actually do need very special, expensive, and energy intensive lights for efficient ~~indoor~~ space growing. Context: I work for indoor farming corp.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 18:43

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

tokenbrownguy posted:

You actually do need very special, expensive, and energy intensive lights for efficient ~~indoor~~ space growing. Context: I work for indoor farming corp.

Yeah I should have editted to say 'depending on the plants' as the kind I use to have experience with didn't, because it was plants that didn't require much sunlight.

Space mirrors are drat expensive though. Like, from my poking around, ten thousand dollars per pound of mirror to get your space mirrors.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 19:54

CainsDescendant: Dec 6, 2007; Human nature

Was Tycho involved in getting Ganymede up and running? I could see Tycho going for an expensive and flashy Feat of Engineering/boondogle like bigass orbital mirrors instead of a more straightforward solution like artificial lighting. Company gets paid more, and it's one more weird yet impressive thing in their portfolio.

# ? Jun 11, 2020 19:59

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Kchama posted:

Space mirrors are drat expensive though. Like, from my poking around, ten thousand dollars per pound of mirror to get your space mirrors.

A lot of that cost has to come from getting the thing into space, which isn't a problem when you have sci-fi engines, lower gravity than Earth, and easy access to asteroid mining.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 06:17

Khizan: Jul 30, 2013

The thing about mirrors as opposed to lamps is that mirrors are largely a one-time cost. You'll have to replace mirror panels occasionally, but once in place it's pretty much done as long as nothing absolutely catastrophic happens. A bit of fuel for orbital corrections and you should be good for a long time. Grow lights continually require power, maintenance, replacement of bulbs, etc. While mirrors are also going to require maintenance and fuel and such, I imagine that it would pretty easily end up being less expenditure overall.

This is because the vast majority of that cost you mentioned is just getting the stuff out of the gravity well and up to orbit. Really, the cost to get anything into space is about $10000/lb because rocket launches are expensive. In the Expanse, those costs are trivialized. Space travel and infrastructure are cheap. That's why you can have brokeass Belters cruising around in space jalopies. Mirrors are going to be way more affordable for them than they are for us.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 23:33

T-man: Aug 22, 2010; Talk shit, get bzzzt.

I believe we're meant to understand that there's a fair amount of manufacturing in space, since that's where all the asteroid materials are. In which case transit would be trivial. In conclusion mirrors rule bulbs drool.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 23:44

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Khizan posted:

The thing about mirrors as opposed to lamps is that mirrors are largely a one-time cost. You'll have to replace mirror panels occasionally, but once in place it's pretty much done as long as nothing absolutely catastrophic happens. A bit of fuel for orbital corrections and you should be good for a long time. Grow lights continually require power, maintenance, replacement of bulbs, etc. While mirrors are also going to require maintenance and fuel and such, I imagine that it would pretty easily end up being less expenditure overall.

This is because the vast majority of that cost you mentioned is just getting the stuff out of the gravity well and up to orbit. Really, the cost to get anything into space is about $10000/lb because rocket launches are expensive. In the Expanse, those costs are trivialized. Space travel and infrastructure are cheap. That's why you can have brokeass Belters cruising around in space jalopies. Mirrors are going to be way more affordable for them than they are for us.

Yeah. I mean I actually looked and it turned out the 10k/lb was JUST the rocket cost and couldn't find a drat thing about how much proper mirrors for this kind of thing might cost to work in space.

T-man posted:

I believe we're meant to understand that there's a fair amount of manufacturing in space, since that's where all the asteroid materials are. In which case transit would be trivial. In conclusion mirrors rule bulbs drool.

Bulbs are still cooler to break.

# ? Jun 14, 2020 03:31

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

I missed this earlier:

Milkfred E. Moore posted:

A monstrous whale could be considered a leviathan. In fact, I believe Leviathan was the whale that swallowed Jonah. So, in case you didn't get it already, Leviathan Wakes refers to Eros. Eros is the leviathan that woke up. I don't think it's a perfect analogy but, hey, it works well enough.

There are some fun bits to dig into here.

The biblical Leviathan is often linked to sea serpents (including Tiamat, a important figure in Babylonian creation mythology), and part of the reason Hobbes chose is as the title of his book on political theory because some translations of the bible suggest that the leviathan was actually many creatures acting together as one.

It's a good title.

# ? Jun 14, 2020 22:15

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Doctor Spaceman posted:

I missed this earlier:

There are some fun bits to dig into here.

The biblical Leviathan is often linked to sea serpents (including Tiamat, a important figure in Babylonian creation mythology), and part of the reason Hobbes chose is as the title of his book on political theory because some translations of the bible suggest that the leviathan was actually many creatures acting together as one.

It's a good title.

Yeah, it's a good title. I think I said I was going to talk about the story of Jonah and such, then I never did. Problem is, I've also forgotten my thoughts on it.

Apologies for the delay on the next part, I've been sick with gastro. Here's hoping I'll have energy to get into it tomorrow!

# ? Jun 15, 2020 11:50

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Alright! Now that eating doesn't make me want to die, we can get back to this.

Chapter Two: Holden

As mentioned in our coverage of Leviathan Wakes, Jim Holden features as something of The Expanse series' recurring/central protagonist. He's a viewpoint character in every book bar the eighth, Tiamat's Wrath, but even then gets an 'interlude' chapter and plays a pivotal role in the proceedings. So, a year or so on from the first novel, what's he up to?

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

The coffeemaker was broken again.

Again.

Jim Holden clicked the red brew button in and out several more times, knowing it wouldn�t matter, but helpless to stop himself. The massive and gleaming coffeemaker, designed to brew enough to keep a Martian naval crew happy, refused to make a single cup. Or even a noise. It wasn�t just refusing to brew; it was refusing to try.

I think this is one of my favorite openings in the whole series. Here's Jim Holden - he's working on a ship, likes coffee, and is frustrated that it doesn't work. It's a nice little mystery to open with him: why isn't his coffee machine working? However, I also understand Omi's point, that after how Leviathan Wakes... Well, I'll let Omi explain:

"It feels weird to me how Holden basically only has two character traits: Idealistic and Coffee. By this point every single reference to coffee feels to me like the authors holding up a gag prop in place of actually deepening his character in some way."

I get that. I think a lot of this opening is predicated on you knowing how much Holden likes coffee. 'Haha, Holden can't get his coffee, how unfortunate!' It's not bad per se, and I don't think there's anything wrong with immediately establishing those two traits of Holden's in his first chapter, but I can see why it can feel a bit strange. However, I also think it's a factor of basically shotgunning these books. What can feel like a comfortable in-joke to set the scene when it's been a year or so since you last read about the guy can feel very different when you're going straight from the first novel to the next.

So, what does Holden do when the coffee machine isn't working? Well, he calls Amos. But...

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

The comm wasn�t working.

Feeling increasingly ridiculous, he pushed the button for the 1MC channel several more times. Nothing. He opened his eyes and saw that all the lights on the panel were out. Then he turned around and saw that the lights on the refrigerator and the ovens were out. It wasn�t just the coffeemaker; the entire galley was in open revolt.

Omi has an interesting note on some terminology there. He also has something to say that I thought was very interesting, but we'll save that for later. I wonder if anyone else picked up on it.

"I�m not a big military guy, but I�m pointing this out because it�s kind of interesting: if this were an earthbound sailing ship, you wouldn�t call it a 1MC channel - 1MC stands for �One Main Circuit,� e.g. the public address/general PA system onboard a ship. It�s literally a circuit, if I recall correctly each comm circuit is basically a self-contained amplifier-oscillator group that is physically wired through the entire ship.

The reason I�m bringing it up is because there are two possibilities, and both are interesting: one is that spaceships in the Expanse still use that technology and Holden and/or the authors got their terminology wrong, which is neat because I like the idea of super-advanced spaceships that still use clunky, centuries-old designs because they�re simple and work great.

The other possibility is that they aren�t actually circuits, but some kind of space-age futuretech, and the naval tradition has continued to call the general address system the 1MC, even when it�s a wireless comm channel. That�s really interesting worldbuilding."

What I wonder is if it's a Star Trek sort of thing where the Rocinante will only inform Amos, or whether Holden is prepared to shout for him across the general PA system. Either one is cool, really.

So, after trying to call Amos, Holden calls Naomi on his hand terminal and we get a nice exchange.

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

After several moments, she finally answered, �Uh, hello?�

�The galley doesn�t work, where�s Amos?�

A pause. �You called me from the galley? While we are on the same ship? The wall panel just one step too far away?�

�The wall panel in the galley doesn�t work either. When I said, �The galley doesn�t work,� it wasn�t clever hyperbole. It literally means that not one thing in the galley works. I called you because you carry your terminal and Amos almost never does. And also because he never tells me what he�s working on, but he always tells you. So, where is Amos?�

So, here is what Omi pointed out: "When Holden calls Naomi and is all �Nothing in the galley works,� does that include the lights? Because if Holden was standing there in a pitch black room trying to make coffee, I feel like that should�ve been mentioned." I found that interesting to think about. The lights aren't mentioned at all. Are they on a separate circuit to the galley appliances and comms? Is that a normal part of warship wiring? Or was the galley dim and let only from the hallway? It's not important, but once it was pointed out to me...

Anyway, Naomi says Amos is doing some rewiring work and the only place affected is the galley. She also says they're "an hour from fighting space pirates" which sticks out to me and Omi as being a bit jarring. Not quite 'vomit zombies' level of weird, but shambling in that direction. I mean, you figure Naomi would just call them pirates, right? I assume oceangoing pirates haven't been a thing in the world of the Expanse for centuries. It's a minor thing, and I imagine the audience loves this line (Omi says it's obviously supposed to be funny on purpose) but it's just a little off. Given what we learn about space pirates, I feel like Naomi being jokey-joke about them is a bit strange.

But Holden...

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

�I can�t fight pirates without coffee. I�m going to find Amos,� Holden said, then hung up and put his terminal back in his pocket.

Omi: "I like how this is ambiguous and could either mean 'I�m gonna find Amos to fix my coffee,' or 'I�m gonna find Amos so he can go fight the pirates for me.'"

So, Holden goes to find Amos. He's in the machine shop, working on things.

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

Amos Burton was in the machine shop, one deck above engineering. He had a complex-looking device half disassembled on the workbench in front of him and was working on it with a solder gun. He wore a gray jumpsuit several sizes too small for him, which strained to contain his broad shoulders when he moved, the old ship name Tachi still embroidered on the back.

Omi wonders about Amos' wearing of old clothes: "...how come Amos�s clothes don�t fit him? That�s a really weird touch. They�re gainfully-employed space pirate hunters right now, can�t he afford his own clothes? Has he been bogarting jumpsuits from Naomi this whole time?" It's not a character trait of Amos' in particular because, very soon, we'll find out that the crew as a whole is still wearing Tachi uniforms. Did they just not want to get uniforms with their actual ship name?

Basically, the galley doesn't work because Amos pulled something out of the wall. Holden would've liked some warning because he wants his pre-battle coffee. I like this bit:

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

While he didn�t miss much about his days in the Earth Navy, he did find that he occasionally got nostalgic for the absolute respect for the chain of command. On the Rocinante the title �captain� was much more nebulously defined. Rewiring things was Amos� job, and he would resist the idea that he had to inform Holden anytime he was doing it.

Then this happens:

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

Amos grinned at him and pushed his cap back on his mostly bald head.

�poo poo, Cap, I can cover you on that,� he said, then reached back and grabbed a massive metal thermos off the bench. �I made some emergency supplies before I shut the galley down.�

�Amos, I apologize for all the mean things I was thinking about you just now.�

Amos waved it off and turned back to his work. �Take it. I already had a cup.�

Omi attributes his mental image of Amos to Wes Chatham but, yes, Book Amos is balding. Compared to the series, I think Book Amos is a bit older and, for lack of a better term, uglier. Anyway, what I like about the stuff between Holden and Amos is how quickly it establishes their characters without much of a need for exposition. Holden is the Captain, Amos is the mechanic. I also think Amos' characterization is way, way closer to Amos as a whole than the first book's take on him was.

Holden heads up to the operations deck. There's a bit between him and Naomi that feels straight outta Firefly.

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

�Pirate ship has slowed down quite a bit from its initial one g acceleration. They dropped to half a g for a couple minutes, then stopped accelerating altogether a minute ago. The computer tracked some fluctuations in drive output just before they slowed, so I think we chased them too hard.�

�They broke their ship?�

�They broke their ship.�

There's a bit of stuff about Alex then. It's the usual thing we tend to hear about him first up, the stuff about Mars being settled by Indians and Texans and that's why he has a weird... accents?

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

Coming as he did from Earth, Holden always found it strangely disconcerting when an exaggerated Texas drawl came from someone his brain said should be speaking with Punjabi accents.

Omi: "First of all, Punjabi accents? As in, plural? So what, he expects him to speak Majhi and Shahpuri at the same time or something? Also, maybe it�s just because I have a ton of Indian friends, but I find the idea that Holden sees an east indian dude and expects one specific accent to be weird and bordering on racist."

So, they're chasing a pirate ship and it's broken down which means the Roci is gaining on it. Holden says he'll paint them with a targeting laser and open the torpedo tubes to look threatening. Naomi and Holden flirt some.

It's about here where we learn that she too is wearing a jumpsuit that doesn't fit, because she's a tall, lanky Belter.

Omi: "...wait, Naomi�s clothes don�t fit either? Are they all still wearing the Mars default jumpsuits, in spite of having owned the Rocinante for months and paid for multiple overhauls and resupplies? What the gently caress is going on?"

I feel like it's an easy way to establish, like, that Amos is big, Naomi is lanky and tall, and the Rocinante used to be called the Tachi. But it's still weird, isn't it? I mean, OPA Big Shot Fred Johnson has been bankrolling these guys, right?

Then we get five or six short paragraphs summing up the events of Leviathan Wakes. Holden knew a cop named Miller, who he sums up as a "thin, gray, broken man." They stopped the human race from being wiped out by "a corporation's self-induced sociopathy and a recovered alien weapon that everyone in human history had mistaken for a moon of Saturn." Holden got dosed with rads, the alien weapon crashed into Venus, and so on.

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

No one had so far been able to offer any scientific conclusions more compelling than Hmm. Weird.

Omi: "Obviously Holden isn�t a scientist, because in the context of applied research the two most exciting phrases are 'You have tenure' and 'Huh, that�s weird.'"

Anyway, now Holden's hunting pirates for the OPA. He opens up communications to the pirate ship. Five days ago, they attacked the food freighter Somnambulist, stole all their food and all of their air. Holden says he gives them sixty seconds to surrender or he'll blow them up. The pirate tries to argue that because the OPA isn't a real government, it can't do anything legally. I think there's a missed opportunity to have someone go, hey Holden, it's like seeing you as a kid!

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

�Seriously? That�s the best you�ve got?� Holden replied. �Look, forget the debate about legality and what constitutes actual governmental authority for a minute."

Omi: "Holden should carry around a tape recorder with that phrase, it�d save him a lot of time."

Holden basically says that authority doesn't mean anything if he can blow him up with a torpedo whenever he wants. The pirates surrender, they take remote control of the pirate ship and begin flying it back to Tycho Station. Fred calls Holden. Holden says:

Caliban's War, Chapter Two posted:

�Yo, Fred, caught our naughty pirates. Bringing them back for trial."

Omi: "I cannot imagine Holden feeling comfortable using the phrase 'naughty pirates' outside of the bedroom, and I can�t imagine anyone ever feeling comfortable using the phrase 'Yo, Fred' somewhere that Fred Johnson might hear them."

And then Fred says he's not concerned about the pirates. He needs them back at Tycho on the double, because something's happening on... ~~Babylon 5~~Ganymede!

All in all, I think it's a good opening chapter. The most awkward bits are where we get a Leviathan Wakes recap just before the pirate showdown, but they're not bad and it helps the reader understand what's gone before without much issue. It immediately establishes our 'core cast', their situation, and links them to the main plot. This is something I think the Corey guys were pretty good at in the first book, and I think they do it much better in the second. Honestly, if I wanted to put together a series about a zany cast of characters going on an adventure, I'd come looking at chapters like this.

TV Adaptation

This section is absent from the TV series.

# ? Jun 17, 2020 11:40

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 00:04

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Chapter Three: Prax

One of the more interesting things about Caliban's War is that it doubles the viewpoint characters from two to four. In Leviathan Wakes, we had Holden and Miller. In Caliban's War, we've got Holden, Bobbie, Prax, and Avasarala. I feel like having four characters running around means the Corey pair don't need to worry about having so many empty words, which is probably one of the issues of Wakes. One thing I also think War does better is that it gives us a character who feels like he's the audience surrogate, and that's Prax. I feel both Holden and Miller had issues preventing them from really fulfilling that role. Holden kind of did, but in an awkward way.

Caliban's War, Chapter Three posted:

Praxidike Meng stood in the doorway of the staging barn, looking out at the fields of softly waving leaves so utterly green they were almost black, and panicked. The dome arched above him, darker than it should have been. Power to the grow lights had been cut, and the mirrors ... He couldn�t think about the mirrors.

Prax is a botanist on Ganymede, and this is presumably a short time after the fighting started in orbit. As the fighting kicks off, Prax tries to figure out some way to save his plants but his friend, Doris, is adamant they have to leave.

Omi: "Praxidike Meng is a hell of a mouthful, no wonder everyone calls him Prax."

Omi also wonders about seperating it Prologue-Bobbie-Holden-Prax. "I think Prax�s panic when he sees the greenhouse equipment not functioning is a little bit diluted because of how much time has passed between Bobbie�s chapter and now. If 'Ganymede makes food yo, don�t blow that poo poo up' were fresh in my mind his reaction would be self-explanatory, but by this point I�ve basically forgotten it."

Caliban's War, Chapter Three posted:

The cutting edge of low-resource agricultural botany, the Glycine kenon, a type of soybean so heavily modified it was an entirely new species, represented the last eight years of his life. They were the reason his parents still hadn�t seen their only granddaughter in the flesh. They, and a few other things, had ended his marriage. He could see the eight subtly different strains of engineered chloroplasts in the fields, each one trying to spin out the most protein per photon. His hands were trembling. He was going to vomit.

So, Prax is a workaholic. He saves one of the plants and bails out with Doris. The mirror is coming down and in five minutes the dome is going to be smashed to pieces, either by the mirror or the shockwave. Prax boggles at the stupidity of Mars and Earth as he and Doris escape on a cart.

Caliban's War, Chapter Three posted:

Even if things got bad and there was a shooting war, it wouldn�t be here. Ganymede was where the food came from. With its magnetosphere, it was the safest place for pregnant women to gestate, claiming the lowest incidence of birth defects and stillbirth in the outer planets. It was the center of everything that made human expansion into the solar system possible. Their work was as precious as it was fragile, and the people in charge would never let the war come here.

Then, boom, the shockwave hits and his dome is gone. Doris and Prax shake hands over the loss of their work. Then Prax thinks about someone named Mei. Oh, Prax is Mei's dad! He heads to the tube station to get to her day care. But the whole Ganymede installation is in lockdown now. Interestingly, with the guards with big guns talking about the lockdown, I started thinking about Eros.

Omi: "I like that the reference to Mei being his kid is moderately subtle and not, like, 'I need to get to daycare, in order to pick up Mei, the child who is my, Praxidike Meng�s, child.'"

Prax walks away from the tube station and we get his backstory exposition. He's been on Ganymede since he was eight and got into botany to grow marijuana.

Caliban's War, Chapter Three posted:

Rapidly evolving apparently meant fighting in the tunnels. The image of Mei�s classroom stippled with bullet holes and soaked in children�s blood popped into his mind, as vivid as something he was remembering instead of imagining. The panic he�d felt in the dome came down on him again, but a hundred times worse.

�She�s fine,� he told the plant beside him. �They wouldn�t have a firefight in a day care. There�re kids there.�

The green-black leaves were already starting to wilt. They wouldn�t have a war around children. Or food supplies. Or fragile agricultural domes. His hands were trembling again, but not so badly he couldn�t steer.

After almost dying in a gunfight crossfire, Prax makes it to the school. There he meets with Miss Carrie. All the kids seem to be fine but, surprise, Mei isn't there.

Omi: "I like Prax talking to his plant, I wish it had been more of a thing. Maybe the plant could�ve been Julie 2.0."

Caliban's War, Chapter Three posted:

�Mei�s not here, sir,� Miss Carrie said, her voice tight and breathy at the same time. �Her mother got her this morning.�

�This morning?� Prax said, but his mind fastened on her mother. What was Nicola doing on Ganymede? He�d had a message from her two days earlier about the child support judgment; she couldn�t have gotten from Ceres to Ganymede in two days...

Prax figures someone came and evacuated Mei. Prax shows Miss Carrie a picture of Nicola and, of course, she doesn't match. But she was in the computer and the system said that was her.

Caliban's War, Chapter Three posted:

�Did they take her medicine?� he asked. �Did they take her medicine?�

�No. I don�t know. I don�t think so.�

Without meaning to, Prax shook the woman. Only once, but hard. If Mei didn�t have her medicine, she�d already missed her midday dose. She might make it as long as morning before her immune system started shutting down.

Omi: "I like how panicked and hysterical Prax gets when he founds out that his kid has been kidnapped, it feels realistic without seeming too over-the-top."

Prax wants to know who took Mei but Miss Carrie can't show him anything due to the systems being down. So, Prax decides to go find Mei himself.

I don't have much to say about this chapter, really, and I think that might be because it's my favorite. Definitely of the ones we've had in Caliban's War and maybe across the two novels as a whole. We get a good idea of who Prax is and the peril he and Mei are in. And like Omi pointed out, his fear and stress when he finds out his kid has been taken feels appropriate without feeling like it's melodramatic.

TV Adaptation:

We meet Prax on a refugee ship heading from Ganymede to the Belt. A difference is that he knows his daughter was at a clinic on Ganymede when the attack happened. Doris is with him and the pair are implied to be lovers. After a bunch of stuff, Doris gets spaced. Meng then ends up on Tycho Station, which is how he gets- Well, more on that later.

Terry Chen as Praxidike Meng

Grace Lynn Kung as Doris Bourne

# ? Jun 22, 2020 10:12

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Let's Read The Expanse! NOW READING: LEVIATHAN FALLS

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