Nemesis Games (The Expanse)

This one was one of the more interesting entries in the series and it does something a little different: every character sort of goes off to do their own thing, and they all have to deal with what's happening in the solar system at the time. Every character gets POV chapters throughout the book dedicated to them, allowing some insight into characters from the Roci who aren't James Holden, which is nice. Not to say James Holden hasn't grown on me as a character, but his chapters can be a little too "boy scout" for me.

This is another book where the politics of the solar system are a main factor, and in a huge way. Everything revolves around the diaspora of the Roci's crew and how they weather the consequences of what's going on around them, and eventually get back to where they're supposed to be.

This book also sets up another villain in a great way, one I'm familiar with from the show, but you get a better depth of the character and how manipulative he is from Naomi's viewpoint, based on her past. It was a great way to show who the threat was and why, rather than just having information relayed to Holden by other characters through the book.

This book almost reads like the setup for the "next big part" of the series, with a war looming and mysteries yet to be solved. Time to move on to book six and see how it turns out.

At this point, this is one of the better sci-fi series I've ever read. I still haven't found a disappointing entry.

Earlier today I finished reading Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey. Nemesis Games is book five of the Expanse series. It is a space opera set in our solar system a couple hundred years in the future. The Expanse focuses on the adventures of the crew of the Rocinante as they deal with events that change the balance of power between Earth, Mars, and the Outer Planets. The fifth entry mixes up the formula a bit by splitting the party and having them each handle their own affairs dealing with their pasts and what led them together against a backdrop of events that put the past firmly and irretrievably in the past.

Going forward, I will be discussing the events of the book in discussing why I liked it, so be forewarned that there will be spoilers.

Moments I Particularly Enjoyed
Honestly, the first thing that came to mind in thinking about memorable pieces to this story was the entire arc for Naomi Nagata. Naomi has spent the series as the Rocinante's chief engineer with a mysterious past before joining up with the crew. Nemesis Games brings that past right to the forefront, having the hardline Outer Planets separatist father of Naomi's son pull her back into the struggle between the Belt and the Inner Planets. She struggles with the ways in which she has helped Marco to harm people in the past and the ways he continues to use what she did to hurt people in the present. She struggles with the act her son makes dropping meteorites on Earth causing immense ecological damage. Naomi has to use her own wits to escape from becoming trapped by her past, culminating in a leap of faith in herself through the vacuum of space to ensure she protects the crew of the Rocinante from being pulled into a trap by Marco Inarros. Naomi's story is a tense one, waiting to see when the next shoe will drop.

Elsewhere, the stories following Pilot Alex and Engineer Amos give us our first real looks in the series at life on Mars and Earth respectively. Alex travels to check in on family and his ex-wife which eventually leads to him meeting back up with gunnery sergeant Bobbie Draper and finding himself dragged into a mystery she's been looking into involving missing military supplies. Amos travels to Baltimore because an old friend has died and he wants to see what has happened.

Amos's trip has him on Earth when the rocks fall. He must find a way off the planet, travelling across a post-apocalyptic DC metro area on a search for a ride to Luna.

As the book comes to its climax, the stories begin to have moments which cross from one story to the next and bring the crew back together. Honestly, each crew member really does get an interesting story showing off their own way to handle the adversities thrown their way.

Things I Didn't Like
As much as each story was interesting and I did very much enjoy them, one thing I've liked about The Expanse is the ensemble cast. These characters are a found family, each playing off the others, the relationships adding up to more than the sum of their parts. Those relationships were missing here as each character wished they were with the others but the number of chapters where the characters were on the same planet let alone in the same room could be nearly counted on one hand.

But honestly, that was a minor thing. Most of the time so much was going on in each of the stories that there wasn't enough time to worry about when the team would be back together.

Final Thoughts
Overall, this was one I really enjoyed. Of course, I'd enjoyed the other Expanse books, so I went in essentially knowing I would. If you're someone who enjoys science fiction that's mostly grounded in real science, even if there are a few liberties taken. This is a series you'll enjoy. I've heard the political drama between the factions referred to as "Game of Thrones in Space" and I suppose that's not a terrible way to think of the series. So much goes on in these books and so much of the situation changes from book to book.

And honestly, Nemesis Games definitely delivers on the promise of throwing a wrench into things. Rocks falling and causing a near-extinction event is the king of all wrenches, and that's before considering that alien biological weapons go missing. While the major threads are pretty neatly tied up, there are definitely quite a few left to drag you straight into the next book. I'm looking forward to continuing with this series.

"The odds of -"
"Don't think about the odds," Bobbie said. "Think about the stakes. think about how much we lose if we take the risk and it goes wrong."

I exceeded my typical reading pace on this book because it was real good. Any misgivings I had about previous books was swept away with Nemesis Games. This book was everything I needed but also realize it couldn't exist without multiple books before it to support and build characters.

No, it wasn't. It was the scariest fucking answer to Fermi's paradox I can think of.

The variety of the POV chapters was excellent. I would see who the next chapter was about and push through to read more and in record time the book was over. Each POV offered needed backstory on characters and a very riveting story to move it along.

Learning about Amos, Alex or Naomi wouldn't have been possible in the first few books and I'm grateful that the reader was given an opportunity to learn who those characters are now and then get insight to their past through the individual chapters.

"There aren't any new starts," Bobbie said. "All the new ones pack the old ones along with them. If we ever really started fresh, it'd mean not having a history anymore. I don't know how to do that."

I am a sucker for an Ender's Game style "war to end all war" and Nemesis Games delivered a devastating blow to humanity. There are billions of lives impacted, a planet that receives a total reset like Ilus (from Cibola Burn) and yet the story of humanity and family was the shining light in all the madness.

It wasn't something about himself he'd ever had to face before, but Holden was coming to realize how much he needed family.

This was what family looked like, sounded like, how they acted. Even the new crew who he'd been trying not to resent felt more like distant cousins who'd come for a long visit than interlopers.

Between the destruction and chaos this is a story about family and growth. Families that existed in their past and the family they have now. This was the reason why I gave the book five stars because it played against the carnage and violence in a beautiful juxtaposition.

The crew of the Rocinante struggles with their past, their choices and being away from each other. The realization that they are stronger together than apart is reinforced and somehow, someway, across the vast emptiness of space, they rejoin each other.

They'd given humans the opportunity to destroy themselves, and as a species, they'd leaped on it.

He couldn't help but feel like humanity kept learning the wrong lessons from its traumas.

And yet the biggest thread to humanity is itself. There was a bit of reference to the big bad hiding beyond the ring but for now humanity has all the tools it needs to destroy each other and it will do so merrily.

Expanse is showing that humanity is set on destroying itself but also that people can change. The growth of characters like Amos or Clarissa (and how others perceive them) is some of the most enjoyable aspects of this series. How is ones past transgressions different from another? Can they be forgiven simply because you like that person more?

It's a fine line the story walks and Nemesis Games fires on all cylinders as it raises ethical questions in the face of an apocalypse.

Nemesis Games est le cinquième volume de la saga de science-fiction The Expanse signée James S.A. Corey, le nom de plume du duo composé des auteurs Daniel Abraham et Ty Franck.

Après un quatrième tome qui m’a semblé un peu en-deca, j’espérais retrouver avec celui-ci toutes les qualités démontrées dans les trois premiers volumes du cycle.

Contrairement aux romans précédents qui donnaient la parole à de nouveaux personnages, celui-ci revient aux bases : les quatre points de vue présentés sont en effet ceux des quatre membres d’équipage du Roccinante, qui prennent des chemins différents pendant les longs mois nécessaires pour que leur vaisseau soit réparé après leur périlleuse expédition dans Cibola Burn :

- Naomi part sur Ceres après avoir été recontactée par une vieille connaissance de l’époque où il menait des actions clandestines pour l’OPA

- Amos retourne sur Terre, vingt ans après son départ, après avoir appris la mort d’une femme qui a semble-t-il compté pour lui à l’époque

- Alex se rend sur Mars en espérant renouer ou en tout cas s’expliquer avec son ex-femme, qu’il avait abandonné pour suivre son envie d’espace et d’aventure dans la Navy

- Jim Holden choisit d’abord de rester sur la station Tycho pour surveiller la réparation du Roccinante et attendre le retour de ses amis, avant d’être lui aussi entrainé dans de nouvelles aventures

Cela commence plutôt doucement, c’est plutôt plaisant à suivre, sans être totalement passionnant. Après un bon tiers du roman, je voyais déjà converger certaines histoires, je m’attendais plus ou moins à ce qui allait se passer, quand un événement majeur est venu tout bouleversé au milieu du roman. C’était plus fort que ce à quoi je m’attendais.

Je dois encore une fois saluer la capacité des auteurs à nous surprendre et surtout à ne pas attendre la fin du roman pour proposer des scènes fortes. C’était déjà le cas dans les romans précédents et c’est encore plus vrai ici : on ne s’ennuie pas et contrairement à certains romans de science-fiction, il n’y a pas vraiment de creux au milieu du récit, c’est plutôt le contraire ici.

J’ai dévoré la deuxième moitié du livre et j’y ai pris beaucoup de plaisir. Ce qui s’annonçait au début comme un roman de transition, un retour aux bases de la saga, s’est transformé en véritable révolution de l’univers de The Expanse. Autant dire que mon enthousiasme, un peu entamé avec le tome précédent, est remonté en flèche !

Comme à la fin du troisième tome, les cartes sont rabattues à l’issue de celui-ci et je suis impatient de découvrir la suite dans le sixième tome, Babylon’s Ashes.