Real to Reel: The Expanse

Finally after 8 months of “research”. The article that was the inspiration for this entire series. The Expanse. It consists of 6* books, and 6 seasons of glorious TV. The show did a great job adapting the books. There are certainly some changes, but the overall story and main plot points are the same. And no, I didn’t just decide to write this article because I wanted an excuse to reread and rewatch the story. (Hint: I totally did.)

*Yes. I know there are 9 books, and a bunch of short stories, but the last three books weren’t adapted. Read the entire series. It’s really good. The last book is batshit insane. Note, there will be lots of spoilers in here.

Let’s start at the beginning. For the sake of not driving myself insane, I’m going to break this down by book/season. The Expanse takes place a couple of hundred years from now. Humans have begun colonizing space. When the story begins, there are three main factions. Earth and Luna (the moon) are controlled by the UN. There are so few jobs, that a large portion of the population lives on “basic”, basic income. They got bored with what they had. They took it for granted. Mars seceded and became a military power. They are all united behind a single goal: terraforming Mars. Everyone contributes to this goal, even if their children, or their children’s children might not live to see the project to it’s completion. Lastly, you have the Belters. They live in the… expanse… of space. Mostly on asteroids, or on ships. There are a bunch of factions, but for the most part, they unify under the Outer Planets Alliance. The OPA is viewed by some as freedom fighters, and as terrorists by others. Then some researchers find some mysterious technology (goo) and everyone fights to control and understand it.

This is a story about humanity. Ignoring the space stuff, the story would still work if set in most eras of human history. That’s the great tragedy of our species. But, let’s talk about the space stuff. This is a grounded story. There isn’t a replicator for food. There aren’t transporters. There isn’t any warpdrive or faster than light travel. They use nuclear rockets for the most part, albeit “highly efficient” to get around some physics issues. When they fly at high speeds, they have to take drugs to keep their hearts from exploding. They sit in chairs with gel to absorb the pressure. They fly half way, pick up momentum, then flip around, and use the rocket to slow down. This was actually mentioned in the Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss as a likely requirement to space travel. They have to use gas powered thrusters to move the ships when close to other objects, because the nuclear rockets would melt anything in it’s wake. It takes months to get places. Communication takes hours to reach it’s destination, and hours for a reply. This is all grounded in reality.

One of the things I love most about this story is the world building. Particularly that of the Belters. Think about the wild west of the 1800s. Who actually went west? It wasn’t the rich people. It was the people who had nothing to lose. The same thing happened here. It was the lower classes of people who ventured into space. They didn’t have a lot of money, and getting new supplies took forever. So they had to work with what they had. When the radios in their space suits died, they switched to using hand signals that other people could see. This became a part of their culture. The Belter language became an amalgamation of hundreds of different accents and languages. A true melting pot of the poor. Protecting the air and the water was a hallmark of their lives. Often they’d do what they needed to do, because they needed to do it to survive.

Unfortunately, like the rest of human history, those with power wanted more power. The Belters became slaves in all but name. They did the work. They risked their lives to mine or whatever, and then big corporations made all the money off of it. Then the Earth or Mars governments taxed them into oblivion, treated them like animals, and assumed they were criminals. Which is totally unlike anything that’s ever happened in the real world. I’m sure.

Over time, even their bodies changed. Living outside of a gravity well caused their bodies to lengthen. Their heads stayed the same size, but their bodies were longer. Their bones weaker. Martians had similar changes, but not nearly as much. They became more stout. Speaking of Mars, like the Belters, the first to move to Mars were either really really smart people, or really really wild people. Indians and Texans. So you’d have characters with dark skin, and a southern drawl.

Ok. 800 words and we haven’t gotten to the comparisons yet.

Leviathan Wakes – Season 1 / Season 2

“There were two sides fighting—that was true enough—but they weren’t the inner planets versus the Belters. They were the people who thought it was a good idea to kill people who looked or acted differently against the people who didn’t.”

Book 1 is told from Holden’s and Miller’s perspectives, bouncing back and forth. For the most part, both versions work the same way. Holden is already the XO in the book. He doesn’t “secretly” log the distress call. He and the captain basically do a good cop, bad cop, and go help. This is a strange case where the show actually ADDs a bunch of stuff. For instance in the show, after the Canterbury is cooked, there’s a lot of drama on the Knight. There’s a part about the radio breaking, and the oxygen running out and stuff. That’s all added. In the book, the owners of the Cant order Holden and crew to go to the Donnager. There’s no worry about being sent to prison or anything like that. Once aboard the Donnager, there’s no big reveal about Alex being from Mars, or Naomi being OPA. Everyone knew Alex was in the Martian navy, and Naomi’s backstory isn’t revealed until a few books later. Holden doesn’t go to the bridge and watch the fight. He’s left in the holding cell with everyone else. They get on the Tachi and escape the battle, roughly the same way in both. Oh. In the book, Fred Johnson reached out to them while still on the Knight. That’s why they head to Tycho station after the Donnager dies. In both, he sends them to Eros to look for Lionel Polanski.

Meanwhile, on Ceres, Miller is still sent to locate Julie. His interactions with Anderson Dawes are mostly the same. There’s no abduction. His partner, Havelock, isn’t shot. There’s no “hooker teaching his partner to words good” subplot. No data broker plot. Muss is his next partner, but they don’t have a love history. Though he does sometimes imagine he’s talking to his ex wife some times in the books. Riots still happen on Ceres, and then he’s fired by Star Helix which is now working for the OPA. He still follows Julie’s trail. No one knows about the Anubis. He doesn’t get a hint from his cop buddy on Eros. But he does locate a ship named the Rocinante, and investigates well and realizes that it must be Holden. So he follows them to Eros.

Eros plays out mostly the same. In the show, there’s a subplot about a spy who gets onto the Roci and then they investigate the Anubis, before they go to Eros. In the books, there’s no spy.  They go to Eros first, then go to the “stealth ship” with Miller. The books don’t mention Naomi knowing the tunnels because OPA or anything. Eros falls. They get out. They make it to Tycho.

Avasarala doesn’t show up until book 2, so her entire story in the show is added. Everything on Earth, is added actually. Errinwright still works with Mao, but that isn’t revealed until later.

The first half of Season 2 follows the second half of the first book. It kind of overlaps with book 2, though.

They find Thoth station, and it plays out almost exactly the same. Miller kills the Protogen dude and is kicked off the Roci. He comes up with the idea to use the Nauvoo to hit Eros. Eros moves. Miller goes inside, finds Julie, and gets her to divert to Venus. They die in each other’s arms. There are some changes. In the show, they place bombs on Eros. In the book, they just leave nuclear powered ships and plan to use those. In the show, one of the bombs’ detonators breaks which is why Miller has to keep pushing the button. In the book, he decides to stay on Eros because he’s done with life. Naomi gives him a deadman switch in case the goo takes him, which is why he has to push the button every 5 seconds.

Caliban’s War – Season 2 / Season 3

“Only, so far, it was like a bunch of lizards watching the World Cup. Politely put, they weren’t sure what they were looking at.”

Book 2 expands the cast. Avasarala, Prax, and Draper are now point of view characters. Draper isn’t introduced until she’s already on Ganymede. Her recording of the monster is recovered. This is a pretty big change. In the second book, everyone knows that there was a monster on Ganymede. They just assume the other side made it. There’s no drama about Bobby defecting. She just starts working for Avasarala, while still being in the MCRN.

In the books, Avasarala is tasked with studying what Eros is doing on Venus, as a way to sideline her while Errinwright does his thing. In the show, Errinwright doesn’t want her looking at Venus. Instead he has her working with the Martian delegation. The whole part where Avasarala has a spy on the Arboghast is added. In the books, Eros is doing different things on Venus. It’s made a sort of grid like thing all over the planet. Huge towers. Though the scene where the protomolocule “disassembles” the Arboghast is straight out of the book. It’s amazing.

The murder of the main Martian guy is added for the show. In the show, Mao is implicated a lot sooner, and is therefore “on the run” so to speak. In the books, Errinwright sends Avasarala to Ganymede to calm things down. He sends her on Mao’s luxury yacht, and Avasarala brings Bobby and her head of security. In the show, Cotyar has a huge role. In the books, he’s casually mentioned a few times. In the show, Mao confronts Avasarala, and Errinwright interrupts and shooting and excitement. In the books, it’s a lot calmer. Avasarala figures out what’s going on, but can’t do much about it. She has to play the game. Finally, when the luxury ship refuses her comm access, she asks Bobby to take over the ship. This is a little tricky, but nothing Bobby can’t handle. They escape on the Razorback. Similar, but not quite the same as the show.

Meanwhile, after Ganymede falls, we meet Prax. Prax is a botonist and his daughter, Mei, is missing. He spends months looking for her. Through his chapters, we see a more analytical viewpoint of what’s going on. Even if he starts to lose himself. Fred sends the Rocinante crew to Ganymede to investigate. In the show, they steal the Weeping Somnambulist. In the books, it’s one of the OPA’s ships. They get there, and things are deteriorating quickly. Riots. Thefts. Humanity falling apart without resources. Through chance, Prax sees Holden and in his sleep deprived mind goes up and asks for help. In the show, Prax makes it off Ganymede and meets the crew on Tycho. The whole thing about his friend being spaced? Added drama for the show. The rest plays out mostly the same. They find the hidden Protogen base, they fight. The monster escapes. They just barely get off the ground and fly away. The show adds the scene where Holden goes hunting the monster. But in the end in both versions, the monster gets onto the Rocinante. In both versions, Prax is the one who realizes they can lure it out with a bomb. In the books, it’s actually Prax who realizes they took his daughter to Io, not Holden. Again, a few changes, but mostly the same. Prax also notices that the protomolocule is a hive mind, which is something that the show skips entirely. They do mention that there are energy spikes when one protomolocule “segment?” gets damaged, but that’s it.

In the books, Avasarala knows she’s going to meet up with Holden. Again, the show adds a lot more drama. Speaking of drama, for some reason, the show spends most of the second season sticking a wedge between Naomi and Holden. Sure, in the books, she doesn’t always approve of his choices, but the show really really makes it look like they are miserable together. Anyway, they make it to Io, and during the trip, there’s a neat section where Bobby is watching and rewatching the various videos of the monster, and figures out how to fight it. It’s too bad the show didn’t include that part. It really showed how good a tactician she is.

Io plays out mostly the same. There’s the one part where the monster pins Bobby down and tries to spew the goo on her, but can’t get through her armor. That’s not in the show, but it shows the monster’s want to spread the infection, just like the rest of the protomolocule zombies.

Let’s talk about Anna. In the books, Anna doesn’t show up until book 3. She’s introduced a lot sooner in the show, and has quite the different backstory. She’s still a preacher. She and her family live on Titan, not Earth. She has red hair, not blonde. Also she has never met the Secretary General. They weren’t activists together. He didn’t ask her to help write a speech. All of that is added for the show. Sorento Gillis’ and Errinwright’s downfall all occur off page.

Prax rescues his daughter. Avasarala talks him into rebuilding Ganymede. Everything is going great… until something happens. The protomolecule infected Eros rises out of Venus. Transformed. Into some sort of squid looking thing. Part metal. Part blue. It goes out past Uranus. Then it transforms again. Into a giant ring.

Abaddon’s Gate – Season 3

“I keep warning you. Doors and corners, kid. That’s where they get you.”

Both Mars and Earth send their fleets to the Ring. The OPA decides to join them, to show that they are equals. They recover the Nauvoo and rechristen it the Behemoth. It’s by far the biggest ship humanity has ever made, and it was made by Belters. It was originally supposed to be a generational ship for the Mormons to find life on another planet. Until Miller and Fred Johnson stole it. Fred sends a team to start adding weapons to it. But it’s not nearly ready. It wasn’t designed for that.

Here’s where the show and book change considerably. The main plot points are all there, but they make some massive changes to characters. Maybe it’s because only the last half of the season are dedicated to this book. Maybe it’s because there’s a lot that needs to happen. I don’t know. Let’s start on the Behemoth. In the book, most of the story occurs here. Ashford is the captain. Michio Pa is the first officer. Bull is the chief of security. In the show, Michio Pa and Bull are blended into Drummer, a character that doesn’t really show up in the story until later. Ashford is the second in command. Naomi is on the Behemoth for some reason. I think it’s because they added so much drama between her and Holden, and they just didn’t know how to solve it.

A slingshotter (someone using a small ship held together with duct tape and hope speeds around different celestial bodies to pick up momentum using the rockets as little as possible, while going as fast as possible) tries to impress a girl, and heads through the ring. And is instantly splattered. At the same time, Miller shows up to talk to Holden. Holden is shocked. Miller died on Eros. This Miller doesn’t make sense. It’s a lot of old police stories that don’t have anything to do with anything. Or do they? It seems that Miller wants to go to the Ring. So Holden tries to take jobs as far away from it as possible.

While on Ceres, the Rocinante crew are about to take a big job, when all of the sudden, they find out that there ship is on lockdown while Mars tries to get their ship back. Just in time, a film crew led by Monica offer to pay the legal fees, if they take her to the Ring. Holden can’t catch a break.

Meanwhile, we meet Melba. Melba has some implants, but not the fun kind. She can become incredibly fast and strong for a short time, before it makes her sick. She has decided to destroy Holden. She gets on a UN ship as a maintenance tech, that is going to the Ring. A supply ship goes boom. Then a video starts broadcasting from the Roci of Holden taking responsibility for the explosion, and claiming the Ring for the OPA. This plays out pretty much the same in both the book and the show.

Oh shit. Now everyone wants to shoot the Roci. The UN in retaliation for him blowing up their ship. Mars because they want the Tachi back. The OPA because he’s acting on their behalf when he shouldn’t. He doesn’t know what to do. Then Miller appears and convinces Holden to head into the Ring. But slowly. See, the reason the slingshotter died was because he was going too fast. The ship was fine. It was slowed down instantly. But whatever is INSIDE the ship… well momentum acts like normal in the ring space if you’re in a ship.

Now that the fleets know it’s safe, they decide to go in after him. They try sending torpedoes. They get caught in the speed limit. The ring space is a giant sphere. There are 1300 similar ring gates throughout it, with a smaller sphere in the middle. In the books, the ring gates are all there, but are inactive. In the show, they don’t show up until later. Minor change. Stuff happens. Miller convinces Holden to go to the sphere. It’s here we learn that Miller isn’t really Miller. It’s the Investigator. The Investigator finds things. The next clue to the case. The protomolecule created him (or creates him, then kills him, then creates him, then kills him. I’m not quite clear on that). When the monster got on the Roci, it left behind a little goo, and that enabled the protomolecule to project the Investigator into Holden’s mind. Whaaaaaatttt?

The Roci crew learn that Monica’s camera guy was the one who planted the back door so that someone could hack into their systems to display the message.  The camera guy shows them a model of his contact’s face. It was Julie Mao, who died on Eros. In the show, Tilly dies. In the book she doesn’t. This is important because she is the one who realizes that it isn’t Julie. It’s her sister Clarissa. Who Anna met as Melba. She planted the bomb. She tipped Mars off that the Rocinante was in Ceres. It was all her. Again. Plays out mostly the same in both the show and book.

Holden gets to the sphere and shortly after, some Martian marines arrive to arrest him. In the show, they insert Bobbie into that team, but she’s not in the book. Holden gets to The Thing. The Marines try to stop him. The ring station stops the bullets. So the marine tries a grenade. The ring station fucking rips the marine apart. Holden sticks his hand in The Thing and he has a vision. In the books, it’s far more… ethereal. Kind of incoherent. Stream of consciousness. The show shows it a little better, but it’s still pretty vague. Basically the ring builders were a vast civilization using the ring gates to travel all over the galaxy. They sent the protomolecule to our solar system to hijack primitive life (like amoebas) on Earth to create the Ring. Except that it got caught in Saturn’s gravity and stayed there dormant for billions of years until humans found it. Meanwhile, something killed the ring builders. Something angry. Something powerful. It destroyed entire solar systems. Killed suns. Vaporized planets. Holden passes out.

In the book, the marine kind of fucked things up. He showed the ring station that even slow projectiles were a threat, so it changed the speed limit again. In the show, they say that the nuclear engines triggered the ring station’s security system. Either way, all the ships in the ring space that were going below the old limit but above the new limit met the same fate as the slingshotter. A third of the people are dead. More wounded. Their ships all being grabbed by the station.

In the show, Drummer gets paralyzed instead of Bull. Ashford takes over, as the first officer is supposed to do. Ashford is played by David Strathairn, and I really like him as an actor. He was great in Alphas (RIP), he played Edward R Murrow, he was hilarious in Sneakers. He’s so good. Because he’s so good, he comes across as almost a decent person in the show. He kind of gets obsessed later, but you can almost understand where he’s coming from. In the books, he’s a moron. Doesn’t take risks. Isn’t very good at making decisions, and if he does, they are usually dumb. He’s also power hungry. Michio is smarter, but respects the chain of command. Bull is a hothead, but he makes consistently good decisions. He saves the day in this book. He saves countless lives. He comes up with the idea of spinning up the drum. Without thrust gravity, wounds can’t heal properly. But the drum creates its own gravity. He comes up with the idea of using the Behemoth as a safe place for everyone. But then Ashford doesn’t like that Bull does it without his permission, so tries to arrest him. That’s the push that Michio needs to mutiny against him.

There’s a huge section of the book where Ashford and Melba and a bunch of people take power back. Then Bull and the Roci crew and some others fight to shut down the reactor, because Holden thinks that if all of the ships in the ring space power down, it will show the station that they aren’t a threat. This is all super duper condensed in the show. The show spends like an episode and a half on it, while it covers a third of the book. But a lot of the scenes are the same. Including Naomi fucking Nagata killing dudes with an elevator. An elevator.

But it works. The ships power down. The ring station goes off alert. The Investigator turns the security system off. Now humanity has access to the furthest stretches of space.

Cibola Burn – Season 4

“it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out…”

Book and season 4 is kind of an oddity in the story. It takes place completely (other than a chapter or two in the beginning) on one of the new worlds. Ilus. Or New Terra. Depending on who you talk to. It’s purpose is primarily to show the audience and reader two things. One, alien planets are… alien. Two, the protomolecule can activate ancient protomolecule tech. The rest of it? Standard human drama.

Some Ganymede refugees land and start building a colony. They find the planet has a high concentration of pure lithium. They can mine it and build a life for themselves. Only the UN has arbitrarily given the rights to the planet to an Earth based energy company. I don’t know if it’s because I’m reading this in 2023, but it’s basically how England just decided to give Palestine to Israel, even though there were other people there already. And just like Israel and Palestine, fighting starts.

Avasarala and Fred decide to send Holden there as a mediator to delay long enough for the UN and OPA to hammer out a deal. We are introduced to some new characters. Mainly Elvi. She fills the same role Prax did; the scientist to explain stuff to the reader. Though, while Prax was very pragmatic, Elvi is pure wonder at all the new information she has. Also, and this has nothing to do with anything, but the actor, Lyndie Greenwood is really cute. We also catch up with some old side characters. Basia, one of Prax’ friends, and Katoa’s father (I skipped this part, but Katoa was kidnapped with Mei, but didn’t make it) is one of the refugees. The book also makes Havelock (Miller’s partner on Ceres) a main point of view character.

While most of the the events are the same, they do make one weird change. In the books, Basia is part of the settlers who destroy the landing pad. In the show, that’s switched to his wife, Lucia. Basia is also changed to a different character named Jacob for some reason. Their daughter, Felcia, wants to be a doctor in the books, and an engineer in the show, but she still wants to go to college.

A major departure in the show, is that Havelock is completely written out. Half of the book is from his perspective, so that’s a huge change. He’s trying to keep the peace, but he works for Murtry. Murtry is an asshole. Naomi gets captured by Havelock’s people. There’s a bit of bonding there. Havelock ends up switching sides and saving the day.

Meanwhile, back on the planet, things get worse and worse. The protomolecule on the Roci has started activating things. Machines on and in and around the planet start powering on after millions of years. The Investigator is trying to call home, but can’t, because his creators are dead. So he keeps trying. But there’s this one place he can’t go. Every time he tries, he dies.

A moon melts. A volcano explodes. A hurricane. Toxic slugs. The water blinds people. The nuclear reactions for the ships in orbit stop working, and the ships are slowly falling towards the planet. Mondays, amirite? Meanwhile, all they can do is fight over who gets to stay on the planet. Oh. Speaking of the water, in the books, the parasite in the water just refracts light, blinding the people, but in the show, the parasite eats the eyes. Good times.

Everyone takes shelter in an abandoned alien structure. Fighting. But kind of working together, but still not trusting each other. You know. Humanity. It all comes to a head when the Investigator convinces Holden to go to the place where he keeps dying, so he can try to turn everything off. Murtry follows, and their final confrontation is pretty much word for word from the books. The ending is basically the same. Elvi pulls the Millerbot into the Bullet, turning off all of the protomolecule tech. In the process, she experiences being ripped apart, molecule by molecule, before being reassembled. The settlers are allowed to stay. Once the planet has been turned off, the ships work again. Hooray.

In the show, there’s a huge section that follows Bobby as she struggles to adapt to life after the military on Mars. That’s based on a novella, so I’m not going to cover it, but it’s very similar.

Nemesis Games – Season 5

“This is Naomi Nagata… Tell James Holden… I’m in… control.”

This is my favorite book of the series, because of Naomi fucking Nagata. I read a lot, and she is one of the best written female characters I’ve seen. She’s strong, smart, caring, and a badass. Did I mention she killed some dudes with an elevator? Because she did.

Season and book 5 see the crew of the Rocinante go their separate ways, temporarily. Each has their own adventure. I’ll start off with Amos. Amos’ story is almost completely the same in both the book and the show. He goes to Earth because a woman from his past died. We get a glimpse of his mysterious life back in Baltimore. We learn his real name is Timmy. He decides to visit “Peaches” aka Melba aka Clarissa Mao in prison.

Alex decides to go back to Mars to try to patch things up with his ex wife. It fails miserably. Also, and I hadn’t noticed this before, but he doesn’t have a son, like he does in the show. Anyway, after he fails at that, he catches up with Bobby. She’s investigating a bunch of military equipment being sold on the black market. Something has gone very wrong with Mars.

Naomi gets a message from her ex, Marco Inaros, telling her that their son, Filip, is in trouble and she needs to go to Ceres to help. What? She has a son? She used to date Marco? Here’s a big problem I have with the show. It revealed some stuff WAY too early. Marco makes an appearance in the previous season where Drummer and Ashford are hunting pirates and blah blah blah. At the end it’s revealed that Filip is Naomi’s son. All of that was added for the show. The show also teased what’s about to happen a fucking season too early. It ruined the “oh my god” moment when everything is revealed. Anyway. Naomi is a huge part of this book, so I’ll get back to her in a bit.

Holden is left on Tycho with nothing to do but wait for repairs on the Roci. He bumps into the reporter, Monica. In the show, she’s chasing a story about the protomolecule. In the book, she’s chasing a story about ships going missing after going through the ring. Although they are vary different stories, she still gets kidnapped and rescued. Bull from book 3 makes his on screen debut, but he has been turned into a racist asshole. Holden works with Fred Johnson and Monica investigating the missing ships. He asks Alex and Bobby to take a look because one of the ships might be near Mars.

And then the penny drops. Well. Something drops. A few somethings. I almost don’t want to spoil it. Let’s just say that there’s an organized attack on Tycho, Mars, and Earth. A huge HUGE attack. Earth is devastated. Tycho station puts down an attempted mutiny (in the books. In the show, Fred is killed), but Fred’s sample of the protomolecule is stolen. In the show, the Martian parliament is blown up. In the books, the fleet of Martian ships carrying the Martian Prime Minister is attacked. We are introduced to the Free Navy.

Let’s take a step back. Fuck I love this book. Naomi goes to Ceres (Palas in the show) and catches up with Filip and her old OPA friends. This is where we learn her backstory. 4 seasons after it’s revealed in the show. Filip is hurt that she abandoned him, but he kidnaps her, and takes her to Marco… on a Martian ship. In the books, it was always the plan to take Naomi, but he wanted the Roci also. In the show, Filip did it on his own so Marco can continue to belittle him. The parts where Filip tries to get to know Naomi are all added for the show. The parts where Marco insists on humiliating Filip are all added drama.

Oh. Second thing I don’t like about the show. They skipped this amazing scene. I think it’s because it would have been way too expensive to film, but it would have been SOOOOO cool to see. In the show, Naomi bonks Cin with a wrench and sends a warning to Holden that the Roci has been sabotaged. In the books, she has to run (float?) through the Pella while it’s in a battle. The book described it as “dice in a cup”. Imagine the scene in Inception, where they fight in the hallway. Man, it would have been so amazing on screen.

Naomi finds out that Inaros is going to use a ship to lure the Roci into a trap. She realizes she can’t save Filip, but maybe she can save the Roci. I won’t spoil all of it, but she’s a fucking badass. She JUMPS FROM THE PELLA TO THE OTHER SHIP WITHOUT A VAC SUIT. Just full on jumps out of the ship. No protection from the radiation. No thrusters. Just her. Goosebumps. Every single time.

A lot of the Martian part of the book is skipped. Alex and Bobby take the Razorback to investigate a missing ship for Holden. It turns out that a rogue element of Martian military command is selling supplies and warships to Inaros. They get spotted, and high tail it out of there. They get to the Martian Prime Minister’s fleet. Inaros’ Free Navy attacks and wins. Alex, Bobby, and the PM escape in the Razorback and head towards the UN.

Holden takes Fred to a meeting on Luna. In the show, they add this part about searching for the ship that stole the protomolecule, but then it ‘splodes. Then in both versions, he gets “the message” and diverts to rescue Naomi. Alex and Bobby are closer, so they head there too. Turns out Bobby is a badass as well. She RIDES A MISSILE LIKE A SURFBOARD! Keanu, I love this book. Anyway, they rescue Naomi, and now everyone meets up on Luna. In the show, there’s this sub story about this new guy becoming the Secretary General, but he is in over his head and is a bit war hungry, so they replace him with Avasarala. In the books, she’s been in charge the entire time.

The Martian PM is clueless. Some of his navy has been sold to the Belt. Some headed through the ring. Earth has been crippled and billions are going to die. The entire system is in disarray. The last sample of the promolecule has been stolen by the Free Navy. A Martian ship heads toward the Laconia gate. Cortazar (the scientist who worked on the protomlecule project) is happy to announce that the sample arrived and the platforms are starting to work. The ship heads through the gate… and is ripped apart at the molecular level.

Babylon’s Ashes – Season 6

“We’re not people,” he said. “We’re the stories that people tell each other about us. Belters are crazy terrorists. Earthers are lazy gluttons. Martians are cogs in a great big machine.”

Book 6 adds so many point of view characters. So so so many. Often with a character only getting one chapter in the book. At the same time, the final season of the show was shortened to 6 episodes instead of the usual 10. So a lot of things were cut. But they still managed to add stuff. Mostly call backs and cameos. It also makes Naomi just… angry. She’s angry at Holden. She’s angry at Peaches. She’s burned out. All of that is added drama for the show.

With Earth crippled and Mars a ghost town with no clear leader, it’s time for Inaros to consolidate power. Sure, he acts like the Belt is behind him, but the Belters have always been tribal. He has decreed that any ships going towards the gate will be confiscated and their goods given to the Belt. He has chosen Michio as his lead pirate. In the show, Michio is still replaced by Drummer. Though, one of her crew is named Michio. She’s called to Ceres for a council meeting with the rest of Inaros’ leaders. He has all sorts of plans. Typical megalomaniac. Dawes makes a brief appearance as the Governor of Ceres in the book. In the show Marco kills him off screen. Probably because the actor, Jared Harris, was filming HBO’s Chernobyl.

Earth sets up a coalition with what remains of the loyal Martian Navy and the Rocinante to take out a spy ship that Marco has been using to organize stuff. They succeed, with a bit of trouble. Marco hears about it, and decides to abandon Ceres. After stripping it down, of course. Now it’s the Inner’s responsibility to take care of Ceres. There’s also this scene added for the show, where Inaros sets a bomb to go off on Ceres, after they leave, which ends up killing a bunch of his own people.

The show doesn’t do a good job of explaining Inaros’ mind. He’s a planner, sure, but more than that, he’s a manipulator. No matter what happens, it’s always “part of the plan” because he “knew it would happen”. Even stuff he couldn’t control. If things go according to plan, great. He’s brilliant. If the plan goes sideways, great. It was always a possibility that he had already anticipated.

With Ceres now one big refugee camp, Earth now has to manage it. Which it can’t, because Earth has no resources left to give. In the book, Holden is the one who comes up with the idea of using Monica to humanize the Belters. In the show, Avasarala wants Monica to humanize the Earthers, and then Monica decides to humanize humanity. Fred is still alive in the book, so he takes over as temporary governor on Ceres, trying to get everyone to come together to fight the Free Navy.

Meanwhile, back in the Ring Space, Medina Station, now under Inaros’ control, is making modifications to the sphere.

Michio, disappointed in Marco abandoning Ceres, decides to do what Marco said she was going to do the entire time. Get the supplies to the Belt. In the process, Inaros labels her an enemy of the Belt. A few groups join her rebellion.

It’s time to go on the offensive. Fred organizes a meeting of all the Belter leaders who don’t trust or agree with Inaros. They head to Tycho. On the way, the Roci gets ambushed by Marco and two of his ships. One ship gets disabled early. The second ship goes to help. That leaves just the Pella vs. the Rocinante. Bobby is the gunner and through some badass tactics, takes out it’s engine. It’s a really cool scene. Anyway, she launches some missiles to finish them off, but Holden disables it because he can’t be the one to kill Filip. This plays out slightly different on the show. In the books, Amos figures it out. In the show, Peaches does. The end result is the same, though Amos comes of as really angry at Holden. Fred dies in the battle.

With Fred dead, Holden is forced to take over. He meets with the leaders, and gets Michio’s help. Dawes even shows up. Dawes has an entire chapter where he talks everyone in to helping Holden. It’s too bad it was cut from the show.

It’s time for the final battle. Earth and Mars and the Belter coalition are going to attack the Free Navy in one large coordinated blitz throughout the solar system. Except that’s all a distraction. The Roci and a huge Belter freighter are going after the main target: Medina Station. The plan is kind of crazy. The freighter is full of tiny ships. They are going to race past Medina and head for The Thing in the center. Inaros with Laconia’s help have added railguns to it. Bobby and Amos are on the tiny ships. They need to get control of the railguns.

Through sheer luck, Inaros finds out and heads after then. In the show, everyone is heading for the ring to fight there. In the books, the fighting is spread out, trying to keep the Free Navy AWAY from the ring.

Remember when something was eating ships? In the book Naomi figures it out, but in the show, Elvi does. Anyway, when too much mass enters the ring within a certain amount of time, something destroys the next thing that goes though. Naomi uses that to her advantage so when the Pella goes through… they are ripped apart at the molecular level. The show adds a very powerful scene where Naomi just breaks. As far as she knows, she just came up with the plan that killed her son. It’s heartbreaking. We, as the audience, know that Filip deliberately skipped rejoining the Pella when they were docked (book) or left on a random shuttle before the battle (show) and is still alive. From Naomi’s perspective, she never learns that he is still out there.

The book ends with the creation of the Transport Union. A belter run organization that will manage everything in beyond Mars, including the transit through the rings, and the colonies beyond. Finally, the Belt has earned it’s place. At first, they nominate Holden to run it and he insists on Michio (Drummer in the show) as his second in command. Then as soon as he’s sworn in, he resigns, leaving Michio (Drummer in the show) in charge.

Here’s where the show ends. It’s a solid ending for the story. I wish they had made more, but I understand why they decided to end it here. That said, I’m going to continue breaking down the rest of the story, so be forewarned, if you’ve only seen the show, spoilers ahead.

Persepolis Rising

“Tribalism was an irrational position, and it was impossible to defeat an irrational position with a rational argument.”

30 years have passed since the last book. Earth is starting to return to it’s former glory. Well, not really, but it’s trying. Mars isn’t mentioned. The Transport Union is the power in the universe. Drummer (the book version) is now the president of the Transport Union. A ship makes an unscheduled run through the ring space, potentially causing other ships to be eaten. Drummer needs to address it. She decides to send the Rocinante to the colony to announce that they are now quarantined for 3 years. No transit through the rings. But their colony isn’t self sufficient, so it’s a death sentence. Holden and crew decide that it’s wrong, so they make an offer to take the Governor as a prisoner. The colony agrees, and Drummer is piiiiiiisssssseeeeedddd. The Transport Union isn’t a police force. They are a shipping company.

They get to Medina Station and James and Naomi decide to retire. They are going to sell their shares of the Roci to Bobby. She’ll be the new captain. Alex will stay with the Roci. Peaches will stay, too. And Amos will stay with Peaches. Peaches, by the way, is in bad shape. Her body modifications have been leaking toxins into her body for decades, leaving her weak and fragile. So everything’s set. Holden and Nagata can retire. The rest of the crew can continue doing their thing.

And then Laconia returns. Don’t remember Laconia? Cool. During the war with the Free Navy, Duarte was a mid level military person. He sold a bunch of Martian tech and ships to Inaros in exchange for the protomolecule sample, then snuck through the gates and into the Laconia system. He then announced that no one was allowed to enter the Laconia system. Any probes sent through were destroyed. Thirty years have gone by, so we get to see what they’ve been up to. And holy shit.

You see, Duarte chose Laconia for a reason. It has orbital platforms that made ships. Really, really, really advanced ships. Ships that the protomolecule builders used. So super duper advanced. They enter the ring space, and fire a magnetic pulse that destroys Medina’s defenses. They quickly board Medina and in a matter of hours have taken over. Singh is placed as the Laconian Governor of Medina. He’s young and green, and doesn’t understand why the rest of civilization doesn’t want to be run by Laconia.

Our heroes soon find themselves as part of the resistance. The old OPA finds it’s way back, only instead of fighting the Inners, they’re fighting the Laconians. Admiral Trejo takes one of the Laconian battle ships (The Tempest) through the Sol gate to conquer Earth, Mars, and the Belt. He leaves another ship (The Storm) protecting Medina.

Now we get to the Ocean’s 11 part of the story. Every attack against the Laconians causes Singh to overreact. He wants to convince his new subjects that the Laconian way is the right way, but he gets frustrated and more brutal. Meanwhile, Drummer and the rest of everyone in the Sol system throw everything they have at the Tempest. It heals itself. It has no known weaknesses. It can destroy entire space stations. Though, when they fire it, a weird side effect occurs where everyone in the system can see the molecules of everything. Three minutes is lost. On the Tempest, a weird non space object appears, that is just like the one found on Ilus. Drummer surrenders.

The Laconians now control humanity. Our heroes come up with a plan. Bobby and Amos steal the Storm. Naomi and Peaches disable the sensors, though Peaches dies protecting Naomi. As many civilians as possible flee Medina. Only Holden is caught and sent back to Laconia. Singh is furious. He decides to cleanse Medina. So his own head of security executes him. Duarte doesn’t want to be a conqueror. He wants to be a leader. A savior. Singh made him, and Laconia, look bad.

Tiamat’s Wrath

“The universe was always stranger than you expected. Sometimes it was full of wonders. Sometimes full of horrors.”

Another few years have passed. Holden is still a prisoner on Laconia. Naomi is hiding in shipping containers helping the underground. Alex and Bobby are flying the Storm. Amos has disappeared. Avasarala has died. Duarte holds a memorial for her on Laconia. We meet Teresa, Duarte’s daughter. Cortazar, one of the Protojen mad scientists is now the lead scientist in Laconia. He’s using protomolecule tech to make Duarte immortal. He’s experimenting on prisoners, and Cara and Xan (two children who were brought back to life by “repair drones”). Their story is in one of the novellas, so I’ll skip most of it. Basically they are seemingly immortal, but are stuck looking like children. Elvi and Fayez have been conscripted into the Laconian Navy and are exploring the dead systems (systems where rings go, but there’s no living thing in them).

Holden is a different person now. He can’t be his outgoing self. He is now a detective. Trying to figure out what’s going on, and how to take Laconia down. Teresa meets a stranger in a cave named Timmy, and they become friends. Duarte wants to make Teresa immortal, too, but Cortazar is up to something.

Elvi finds a diamond bigger than Jupiter. They think it’s a history of the protomolecule builders, but are ordered to the next system. The next system just has a star that’s about to go supernova. The Admiral in charge of the expedition reveals he has other orders, and sends a ship through the ring with a bomb. He wants to hurt the entities that have been eating ships. Only it goes badly. Very, very badly. The star goes supernova, and burns through the ring, destroying the ring on the other side of the ring space. Everyone in every system loses more time, as they can see the molecules of everything. Some see tentacles pushing the molecules away. Back in reality, anything those tentacles touched is just… gone. Elvi loses a chunk of her leg. The Admiral loses half of his face. Fayes loses a foot. All that remains of another crew member is his arm. Except this happened EVERYWHERE. Every ship inside the ring space is gone. Medina Station? Gone. The Typhoon? Gone.

Back in Sol, Bobby’s team try to commandeer a freighter with Laconian supplies. The main Laconian officer they wanted to capture dies, but they do manage to get some more ammo and stuff, including these weird balls. Bobby asks a scientist what the balls are, and finds out they are antimatter devices. The thing that powers the Laconian magnetic weapon. With Medina Station gone, Naomi is the new leader of the underground.

With Naomi’s blessing, Bobby decides to use the antimatter on the Tempest. There are only three Laconian battlecruisers. The Whirlwind is back in Laconia still under construction. The Typhoon just disappeared, and the Tempest. The plan goes almost perfectly, until the shuttle Bobby is in takes damage. Her only option is to deploy the antimatter personally, and sacrifices herself.

The massive attack by the ring entities had another side effect. Duarte is now in a coma. Trejo returns to Laconia to assume unofficial command. Teresa is fast tracked to be in charge. They find Timmy, and kill him. We then find out that Timmy was Amos. Holden is beaten. Elvi returns and is tasked with helping Cortazar bring Duarte back. In the process, Holden subtly lets her know that Cortazar wants to kill Teresa.

Naomi, Alex, the rest of the Storm crew head back to Freehold and get the Roci out of mothballs.

With Laconia down to only one battlecrusier that’s not fully operational, it’s time for the Battle of Laconia. While this takes months, it’s all told in one chapter, and it’s one of my favorite chapters of the series. It follows Naomi fucking Nagata as a general, and her tactics and reasoning through everything. It shows how much she learned from Bobby. In the end, the Laconian ship building platforms are destroyed. Teresa frees Holden, and they rush to get picked up by the Roci. Just as Timmy emerges from the forest. The repair drones fixed him. Sort of. He’s now… changed.

Oh. And Duarte wakes from his coma just long enough to wave Cortazar into dust with his mind. Then he walks out and disappears.

Leviathan Falls

“No options. We go on because we go on.”

Ooooohhhhh boooooyyy. No matter how you think this story is going to end, you’re wrong. It’s a lot weirder than that. Also, I’m going to explain everything, so if you don’t want massive spoilers, stop here.

The book starts by explaining what happened to Duarte while in a coma. Basically, there was this war between the protomolecule builders and the entities that live in the ring space. The protomolecule builders were a hive mind, so the ring space entities used a weapon that turned off their conciousness. When part of the hive mind went dark, the protomolecule builders simply stopped the infection by isolating that part of it. Then humans came in and reactivated the rings. Now the ring space aliens are trying to stop it again, only their attacks don’t work the same way on humanity. Because we have bodies. For most, the attacks simply make time stand still where people can see the space between molecules. While in this state, the ring space aliens in the form of dark tentacles scatter those molecules, destroying everything. Except Duarte is both human, and also protomolecule tech. So it puts him in a coma. Now he’s got a new mission. He needs to win the war the protomolecule builders lost.

He appears as a vision to Trejo, who had just reconquered Sol. Trejo is freaked the fuck out, and commands Tanaka to find Duarte by any means necessary. He gives her an absolute blank check. It doesn’t matter who she kills, or what she has to do. Find. Duarte. Now.

Elvi tells Trejo that the most important thing is to stop the ring entities, so she is going to focus on that, and takes Cara and Xan off to the abandoned system with the big diamond in it. Cara is able to interact with the diamond and begins to get a history of the protomolecule builders’ society. Only, it’s super duper stream of conciousness. Elvi kind of makes sense of it.

The Roci crew decide to bring Teresa to a school in another system where she should be safe. Only Tanaka figured it out too, and wants to use Teresa as bait to find Duarte. Tanaka tries to be reasonable, and it falls apart quickly. She shoots Amos and kills him. Again. Holden shoots half of Tanaka’s face off. The Roci flees, and runs to Freehold to meet up with the Storm.

Trejo makes an offer to Nagata to end hostilities. One of the rebel leaders decides to turn Nagata and Teresa over, if the Laconians stop bombing her planet. Tanaka goes over to retrieve Teresa, then just starts shooting the fuck out of everyone. The rebel leader realizes her mistake, and delays long enough for the Roci to escape. Then she takes the Storm and destroys one of the Laconian ships, and damages the other. By the time Tanaka catches up, the Roci has already gone through the rings, and she doesn’t know where.

While waiting in the ring space, something happens. For a moment, each mind of every person in the ring space is able to experience memories of other people. Their emotions. Their worst day. Their best. Many with a strange man in their memories that wasn’t there. And also a ship gets eaten, only it doesn’t get eaten.

Tanaka heads to another system, thinking she was chasing the Roci. It takes a while to realize the trail has gone cold. She keeps having these memories that aren’t hers, and she’s loosing her cool. She beats a doctor senseless over nothing. A therapist gives her some meds that should keep the intrusive thoughts out of the way.

The Rocinante meets up with Elvi on the Falcon. Amos joins Cara in a talk with the diamond. But there’s another mind in there. Suddenly Duarte appears before Elvi and everyone on the Falcon. He tells them that the only way to stop the ring space entities is for humanity to become a hive mind, just like the protomolecule builders.

Nagata accepts Trejo’s offer, though does it in a humiliating kind of way. The Falcon, Rocinante, and Tanaka’s ships (as well as tons of others) converge on the ring space station, where Duarte is.

Duarte’s hive mind begins to spread. Now it’s affecting people in other systems, even if they weren’t in the ring space. The clock is ticking. They can’t get into the ring station. Holden decides to inject himself with protomolecule, so we get the return of Miller. Hooray! They get into the station, and finally find Duarte tied to the station with these strings of protomolecule tech. Teresa tries to reason with him, but he won’t be moved. She tries to cut him free, which causes him pain, and he lashes out and attacks Teresa. Tanaka realizes that the only option now is to kill Duarte and beats him to death. The hive mind is dissolved.

Only, now there’s nothing to hold the ring space aliens at bay. Holden tries to help by taking Duarte’s place, and for a moment it works. But the only way it works is if he connects to every mind in the ring space. He doesn’t want to be Duarte. So he sends a telepathic message to Amos. “Get everyone out”. Once everyone is out of the ring space, he destroys the rings. Humanity is spread across 1300 systems, and no way to contact each other. Some still rely on trade that no longer exists. Many will die. But most will live.

There’s a prologue, and it’s really really exciting. So I’m not going to talk about it. I want you to read the books.

There’s my review of The Expanse. I think the TV show did a great job adapting the book. Neither feels better or worse than the other. The show adds some things, but it all feels right. Characters make decisions with consequences, and the decisions fit their personalities. In the books, each chapter is from a character’s point of view, and you can tell the authors put work into it. They sound different. Tanaka went to school for art, so she notices things and associates them with art. Prax is a scientist, so he breaks everything down objectively.

It’s one of my favorite series’s (serieses?), and I really really encourage you to read and watch it. The show casting was absolutely perfect. The world building is so well thought out and logical. Everything is earned. The hive mind thing? First mentioned in book 2. I just love this story.

In case you were curious, the total word count of this was… just under 9500 words. And I said “protomolecule” 25 times.