Abaddon's Gate

The Expanse Series, book 3

audio cd, 1 pages

Published Aug. 6, 2019 by Hachette Book Group and Blackstone Publishing, Hachette Book Group.

ISBN:
978-1-5491-5307-5
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4 stars (272 reviews)

10 editions

reviewed Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #3)

Entertaining, but not as strong as the previous two books

3 stars

Same formula as Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War. The story revolves around and is told from the perspective of a number of main characters, whose storylines come together eventually. However, in this case, the main characters were a lot less relatable than in the previous two books.

It took some buildup for the story to gain some traction, but once that happened, ithe book became hard to put down.

I would have given it 3.5 out of 5. It was not as good as the first two books (which were both solid 4/5s), but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable read.

reviewed Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #3)

Serious Funny Business?

3 stars

I've had a complex relationship with The Expanse series, disliking its TV series and yet giving it a second chance via the novels. Abaddon's Gate has a lot of what I like about the series: the action is excellent, and it has a decent mystery (though not a police procedural) that adds a thrill to the times when the guns aren't firing. Holden is the glue that keeps the series anchored, and while he's an enjoyable presence, I'm also happy that his flaws are called out in-universe.

And yet... none of these books have been stand-out hits for me.

Abaddon's Gate is just serious enough to give the universe a sense of gravitas. But it never fully commits to either being serious business or a fun, easy read for the evening. The series is filled with high stakes (the fate of human civilization) and plenty of treacherous moments. I get …

Review of "Abaddon's Gate" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The Expanse continues to be engaging and high quality SF. As a viewer of the show, it felt like this volume was the first to significantly diverge from the TV series. Not only does it elaborate on events that were only depicted in fairly abbreviated form on-screen, the characterization also differed. The Captain Ashford depicted in this book was vastly different than the one we got on the show, for example.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly and look forward to continuing the book series.

Review of "Abaddon's Gate" on 'LibraryThing'

4 stars

This is more like a 3.5? Definitely closer to a 4 than a 3 though.

Last book's strength was characters, but unfortunately it wasn't the same here. I wasn't particularly thrilled by any of the POVs. But the adventure inside the ring? Hell yes!

Now to my usual comparison to the TV series: I found Clarissa a bit more convincing as a character here. Ashford isn't as much of an asshole in the TV series. Also, so far this one had the most differences between the mediums!

Review of "Abaddon's Gate" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is more like a 3.5? Definitely closer to a 4 than a 3 though.

Last book's strength was characters, but unfortunately it wasn't the same here. I wasn't particularly thrilled by any of the POVs. But the adventure inside the ring? Hell yes!

Now to my usual comparison to the TV series: I found Clarissa a bit more convincing as a character here. Ashford isn't as much of an asshole in the TV series. Also, so far this one had the most differences between the mediums!

Review of "Abaddon's Gate" on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Show a human a closed door, and no matter how many open doors she finds, she'll be haunted by what might be behind it.

The branch between the Syfy/Amazon show and the books had to happen but I didn't expect it to happen in Abaddon's Gate. The first half of the book I was cruising along, following with my memories of the TV show and the thought "this doesn't seem familiar" occurred more and more and then I realized I was in new-to-me territory.

Looking back on the book it didn't feel like much happened: Ring is established, people go through the Ring, Holden learns things, everyone leaves the Ring. Of course so much more happened between those peaks and they made the story fly by.

Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they'd never do if they were really thinking about it.

The destruction of …

reviewed Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #3)

Review of "Abaddon's Gate" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This was still good, but I liked it somewhat less than the previous one. I liked the newly introduced characters, but I missed a few from the previous books. The plot rhythm stayed on par with the previous one, even if the plot itself was less to my liking. The latest chapters did make me raise an interested eyebrow and I'm looking forward to the fourth book (I'll have a break before I start with the fourth one, though :) ).
But I was bothered by the "mysticism" that shrouded parts of the plot, and I cringed a lot at some characters' sudden demise.

Review of "Abaddon's Gate" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

As a big fan of the TV show, I was a bit underwhelmed by the first book, Leviathan Wakes, but they certainly have picked up speed since. Caliban's War was really good, and Abaddon's Gate is better. I like how the authors can keep widening the scope of the grand narrative so that every time you think you've gotten the plot pinned down, they "zoom out" and reveal that it was just a part of the greater picture.

If the writers keep up this stride, it'll be very interesting to read a few books from now.

Review of "Abaddon's Gate" on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

The plot is definitely one we've seen before, mankind finds unexplained thing left behind by a long-gone civilization. But the duo behind the Expanse books manage to do something much bigger and show the humans on the ground struggling to understand their place in the universe in connection with the things bigger than themselves that they find out there.

Overall, a really good book and a fun read.

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