adastra reviewed Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #3)
Review of "Abaddon's Gate" on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
{mild spoilers ahead}
After the great first two novels, this was a pretty big disappointment to me. While the overall story arch (Holden) is interesting, the other three narratives ranged from boring to aggravating, at least in my opinion. The whole revenge plot seemed at times really ridiculous, like a desperately bad plot device turned deus ex machina. The whole priest plot aggravated me because it is so utterly Christian, which I am just not a fan of - at least not in my sci-fi novels. Even the Bull plot was full of mentions of God, giving me the feeling that this whole series might turn into a ridiculous search for God or something. It's the future and we've colonized space, do we really need religion?! And WHY does it have to be Christianity, when it's foreseeably not even the biggest religion on the planet in 200 year's time? Why …
{mild spoilers ahead}
After the great first two novels, this was a pretty big disappointment to me. While the overall story arch (Holden) is interesting, the other three narratives ranged from boring to aggravating, at least in my opinion. The whole revenge plot seemed at times really ridiculous, like a desperately bad plot device turned deus ex machina. The whole priest plot aggravated me because it is so utterly Christian, which I am just not a fan of - at least not in my sci-fi novels. Even the Bull plot was full of mentions of God, giving me the feeling that this whole series might turn into a ridiculous search for God or something. It's the future and we've colonized space, do we really need religion?! And WHY does it have to be Christianity, when it's foreseeably not even the biggest religion on the planet in 200 year's time? Why not Hinduism or Buddhism, if the authors so desperately want religion? Well, they're American, of course, what else do they know. That's pretty apparent in Anna's plot as well. First of all why is she a Methodist from Russia, when the largest religious group in Russia is orthodox and protestants make up 1% in Russia? Second of all, why does she have a "college fund" for her daughter, which is like the most American thing ever? Feels a bit poorly researched this book, on top of all the annoying "God" content.
Other than that, I think the whole plot was dragged out way too much. I think it could have been told much better in just half the time. Anyway, I'll start book 4 soon, but if it's full of God again, I might just throw these out the window.
