![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Still reading The Expanse
Mar. 5th, 2025 12:24 pmI was called for jury duty last week, which meant I had a lot of time to sit around and read. I was not put on a jury, but it took them about 3 days to do jury selection for the trial I was assigned to, during which time I had nothing to do but listen to the judge and lawyers question potential jurors. It was very interesting for a while.
So I am now reading Persepolis Rising; this means that I am in new, uncharted, terrifying territory, because the show ended with Babylon's Ashes. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and things are not looking good for our heroes. Things are not looking great for the Laconians, either, on account of the big ball of nothing that they have attracted, but the Laconians don't understand that yet and I don't expect them to understand that for at least another book.
On the one hand, it is great to be with all the old familiar characters I came to know and love during the first six books, but it also feels a bit weird that they are still driving the plot. It feels as though thirty years have passed but nothing has really changed in the Sol system -- like no new perspectives have arisen. Holden clearly needs to be there, because he is the protomolecule guy and the Laconians are about to have a protomolecule-related problem, and I suppose that means that the whole Roci crew comes along as well, but in a way I wish that they weren't taking the lead on Medina Station, even though as a reader I find it satisfying. (I realize that I am complaining about something I actually like but it fiddles with my suspension of disbelief, a little.)
Things I like without reservation: Captain Draper! And I also like the relationship between Bobbie and Amos. This is a series that does complicated friendships really well, and I appreciate that it sets friendship rather than romance at the center of the narrative. I also appreciate the way the books do culture clashes: all the little moments where one person just doesn't get where the other one is coming from. And I find Singh (and to some extent the other Laconians) interesting as antagonists; Singh in particular of course because he is so carefully humanized but he is also basically talking himself into genocide, one step at a time.
So I am now reading Persepolis Rising; this means that I am in new, uncharted, terrifying territory, because the show ended with Babylon's Ashes. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and things are not looking good for our heroes. Things are not looking great for the Laconians, either, on account of the big ball of nothing that they have attracted, but the Laconians don't understand that yet and I don't expect them to understand that for at least another book.
On the one hand, it is great to be with all the old familiar characters I came to know and love during the first six books, but it also feels a bit weird that they are still driving the plot. It feels as though thirty years have passed but nothing has really changed in the Sol system -- like no new perspectives have arisen. Holden clearly needs to be there, because he is the protomolecule guy and the Laconians are about to have a protomolecule-related problem, and I suppose that means that the whole Roci crew comes along as well, but in a way I wish that they weren't taking the lead on Medina Station, even though as a reader I find it satisfying. (I realize that I am complaining about something I actually like but it fiddles with my suspension of disbelief, a little.)
Things I like without reservation: Captain Draper! And I also like the relationship between Bobbie and Amos. This is a series that does complicated friendships really well, and I appreciate that it sets friendship rather than romance at the center of the narrative. I also appreciate the way the books do culture clashes: all the little moments where one person just doesn't get where the other one is coming from. And I find Singh (and to some extent the other Laconians) interesting as antagonists; Singh in particular of course because he is so carefully humanized but he is also basically talking himself into genocide, one step at a time.
