560 pages
English language
Published July 15, 2021 by Little, Brown Book Group Limited.
The Laconian Empire has fallen, setting the thirteen hundred solar systems free from the rule of Winston Duarte. But the ancient enemy that killed the gate builders is awake, and the war against our universe has begun again.
In the dead system of Adro, Elvi Okoye leads a desperate scientific mission to understand what the gate builders were and what destroyed them, even if it means compromising herself and the half-alien children who bear the weight of her investigation. Through the wide-flung systems of humanity, Colonel Aliana Tanaka hunts for Duarte’s missing daughter. . . and the shattered emperor himself. And on the Rocinante, James Holden and his crew struggle to build a future for humanity out of the shards and ruins of all that has come before.
As nearly unimaginable forces prepare to annihilate all human life, Holden and a group of unlikely allies discover a last, desperate chance …
The Laconian Empire has fallen, setting the thirteen hundred solar systems free from the rule of Winston Duarte. But the ancient enemy that killed the gate builders is awake, and the war against our universe has begun again.
In the dead system of Adro, Elvi Okoye leads a desperate scientific mission to understand what the gate builders were and what destroyed them, even if it means compromising herself and the half-alien children who bear the weight of her investigation. Through the wide-flung systems of humanity, Colonel Aliana Tanaka hunts for Duarte’s missing daughter. . . and the shattered emperor himself. And on the Rocinante, James Holden and his crew struggle to build a future for humanity out of the shards and ruins of all that has come before.
As nearly unimaginable forces prepare to annihilate all human life, Holden and a group of unlikely allies discover a last, desperate chance to unite all of humanity, with the promise of a vast galactic civilization free from wars, factions, lies, and secrets if they win.
But the price of victory may be worse than the cost of defeat.
The resolution is satisfying, and I felt that the parallels with Leviathan Wakes were a good send off for the whole series. I felt it was denser than volumes 7 and 8, but it might just be because it wrapped up the series
Epic and satisfying conclusion to an epic series.
"I'll be here," Alex said, and it felt more like a prayer than it usually did.
There it is, The Expanse has come to an end. It will be difficult to review this book without considering how it concluded the series and wrapped up loose ends. The final book in a series has a significant amount of pressure to stick the landing and I'm content with how it went.
"He hasn't changed," Alex said. "Not really."
"He has," she said. "We all have."
Looking back over my reviews of the previous books I found more comments about family and connection than science, space battles and protomolocule. The latter is excellent and there have been some doozies, but the books have always been about the crew of the Rocinante and the authors didn't deviate from that recipe this time around. Thankfully there was a bit more focus on the big …
"I'll be here," Alex said, and it felt more like a prayer than it usually did.
There it is, The Expanse has come to an end. It will be difficult to review this book without considering how it concluded the series and wrapped up loose ends. The final book in a series has a significant amount of pressure to stick the landing and I'm content with how it went.
"He hasn't changed," Alex said. "Not really."
"He has," she said. "We all have."
Looking back over my reviews of the previous books I found more comments about family and connection than science, space battles and protomolocule. The latter is excellent and there have been some doozies, but the books have always been about the crew of the Rocinante and the authors didn't deviate from that recipe this time around. Thankfully there was a bit more focus on the big bad because it was time to wrap things up.
All the places you visit start charging into new ones the second you leave.
Regarding the big bad; I feel a little underwhelmed. Holden's sacrifice at the end was typical James Holden, and Miller commenting on Holden making a decision for billions of people shows how flawed Holden is/was...but the bad guys are still out there.
The Ring Gate was destroyed and there should be no recurrence of protomolecule attempting to recreate it, but will that be the case? How do we know that Elvi's science crew can keep their catalyst under wraps and in control?
What Holden did is a more long term solution than what the builders did before but the monster race that can change physics and eliminate humanity in a blink of an eye is still out there. Will they be satisfied that humanity isn't poking their ships where it doesn't belong and with technology it doesn't understand?
"You're right," Holden said. "Let's solve the extinction-level threat first. Then we can all go back to killing each other at a more civilized pace."
I'm satisfied with the conclusion but can't help shake the questions that remain and wonder if the end is as air tight and in line with the quality of the books before it.
Plain sight was their best hope, because their plan B was violence.
I will need more time to process the book and ending as a whole but my initial thoughts were positive and applaud the writing duo on pulling off this incredible series in the manner they did.
The Expanse as a series was as I believe always about change and change in scale humanity has to face. After all this time it was impossible to keep escalating and it ended in the only way it could, really... A fitting end.
Hard to believe that this series followed me through my uni years.
