A Crew Divided

As I’ve noted before, each book in The Expanse does a solid job of being different enough from the previous novels that you never feel like you’re getting the same story twice. The closest the book series ever got to repeating itself was in the first two novels, Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War, which were both about the crew of the Rocinante having to deal with evil corporations attempting to exploit the protomolecule to create weapons of mass destruction and turn the tide in the war between Mars and Earth. But even then, the two novels are different enough that it never feels like the series repeated itself.

From that point forward the scope and perspectives of the novels have shifted and grown, leading to adventures that feel more and more evolved from a series that started as simply the adventures of a few different people across the vast solar system. By the eighth book we have a galactic empire built from the bones of the Mars military, spanning over 1300 colony systems using the ring gates built by the ancient protomolecule engineers (aka, the Romans, using this book’s contemporary parlance). To think about how we got here across eight books, the planning and work involved to grow the story like this, makes you appreciate the big swings and deft writing of the whole series.

And with book eight we are again presented with a new story different from what came before. In fact, I would even argue that it’s two stories split down the middle, with a massive, plot-defining moment that shifts the whole game for all the characters involved. Like with the books before, The Expanse sets up a new normal in this book only to then reveal a new plan halfway in, keeping the readers on their toes and forcing them to continue reading because putting the novel down after that twist feels impossible.

Book seven, Persepolis Rising, ended with the crew of the Rocinante spread among the stars. Bobbie had the stolen Laconian ship, the Gathering Storm, and at the start of this novel she’s got a crew of old OPA fighters and new trainees working with her, along with Alex as he trusted confidant and pilot. James Holden had been taken prisoner by the Laconians and shipped off to the homeworld where, since then, he’s been a “dancing bear” (his words) meant to entertain the court while he also discusses the protomolecule with Laconian leader, Winston Duarte. He also strikes up a tentative acquaintanceship with Duarte’s young daughter, Teresa, who wants to do right by her father but also hates the functions of court. Naomi is in self-imposed isolation, traveling via shipping crate among the connected systems, helping to run the resistance from a non-central location. And Amos has gone missing, sent on a mission to save Holden before vanishing for two years.

It seems like the Laconians have consolidated their power, their weapons too powerful to be defeated. Not that the underground resistance doesn’t try. With their one good weapon, the Storm, Naomi sends Bobbie on raids to try and poke for weakness and gather intel. One such mission provides Bobbie with a possible weapon to use against the massive Laconian gunship patrolling the Sol system. If that ship could be defeated, it could strike a massive blow for the resistance and prove that Laconia isn’t invincible. But it’s Laconia’s own actions, trying to pick a fight with the strange creatures living beyond the ring space, that might just shift the tide of the battle for good…

In some ways, Tiamat's Wrath works as a parallel to the sixth book, Babylon’s Ashes. That novel showed the war between the Free Navy of the Belt and the remaining forces of Earth, Mars, and the OPA. It showed the power of the Sol system when they worked together, and it detailed how an empire (in the making) could be brought down by the hubris of its leader. I think that parallel exists specifically to show that despite the seeming strength of Laconia, there is still always a weakness. Time is a circle destined to repeat itself, as the saying goes.

Interestingly (and not to spoil anything for those reading along) it is hubris surrounding the ring gates themselves and the need to show power that eventually leads to a shift in power for Laconia. One action leads to a series of dominoes falling, one by one, until the once mighty empire is shown to have some weaknesses. And then, as with the Free Navy before it, that gives an opportunity for the crew of the Rocinante to try and take a swing at the big bad enemy and take them down a peg or two.

That’s actually an interesting point to be made about this crew. It’s four main characters – Holden, Naomi, Alex, and Amos – who, through eight books (and counting) have taken on threats aboard their ship that should seem way outside their weight class. Four people. Aboard a salvaged gunship fighting evil corporations, ancient civilizations, and massive empires. The fact is that the Rocinante, across all that time, becomes a symbol and her crew become stars. They’re the little guy who constantly takes on massive goliaths and wins. One day (maybe in the next book) they might finally lose, but as the main protagonists of these novels, it’s interesting to see just how well they’re able to take on these massive threats, but also how realistic it is that they could survive.

They aren’t Mary Sue (or Marty Stu) characters because they are all flawed people. Yes, they are usually in the right place at the right time, but that’s part of people being the main point of view for a series: you will be the ones seeing the action because someone has to view it for the readers. And yet it never feels like the books are cheating to keep the characters alive. Some die, some don’t, and the rest have to carry on as their world shifts and changes. Life and war are each unpredictable, but survival is something characters can become good at and the Rocinante and her crew are quite good at it (usually).

I say that the crew of the Rocinante are our protagonists because, for the first time in the series, James Holden isn’t our main point of view character for much of the action. Usually the books have devoted a good chunk of time to Holden, making him one of two, or one of four, lead characters lending their perspective to events. But here, aside from a prologue, interlude, and epilogue, Holden is a side character. His role in the novel is filled by Naomi who, de facto, becomes the leader of the crew and a co-head of the underground revolution. She has to be Holden (as she puts it herself) because he’s not around to do it. The book is colored by his absence, the negative space of his role still defining the series.

And it works. This book works as well as the novels that came before because the series is more than any one character. This story proves that the strength of The Expanse isn’t just one character but the whole collection, all of them pushing forward and exploring their ever changing world as new threats come up (both from without and within). Humans will always fight, and new threats will always rise, but for now the crew of the Rocinante is out there, fighting, and their stories are as compelling as ever.