2021 Re-read
That seemed to be the human pattern - reach out to the unknown and then make it into the sort of thing you left in the first place.

It's been eighteen months but going back to the universe of The Expanse feels like a comfortable pair of slippers. I have zero regrets doing a mini re-read in advance of Book #9 and found myself fully engaged and interested in the story.

That astonishing moment in human history, passing through a stable wormhole into an alien-created network of interstellar gates, had just led to a whole bunch of people deciding to shoot each other.

My review last year wasn't sure Laconia were the bad guys and I am still in that camp. They attack when provoked, stick to incredible standards and no one gets a pass (see Singh at the end). If there is a subreddit for r/thanosdidnothingwrong/ there should be one for Laconia too.

Happy to be back with my family on the Rocinante and carry on to the next one.

That seemed right too. Being at home, but also in a space her body didn't understand. Being in control of her day, but not of her life.

Across nine books I imagine The Expanse is split up in to a sub-series that spans multiple arcs, or perhaps it covers a specific amount of time. The idea of three trilogies within the series isn't unique and I imagine others will have outlined and described it better than I can, but Persepolis Rising feels like a natural break for the previous story and sets the stage on what's to come.

While trying to capture my thoughts on Persepolis Rising I was going to use that notion of trilogies to explain how I felt about the book. I picture each trilogy focusing on the following:

Books 1-3: The Protomolecule and what it can do
Books 4-6: The Gates and civil war among humanity
Books 7-9: Humanities evolution with the gates

I looked for patterns in how I rated the books and if they were impacted by where they were in those "sub-series". I made a pretty good case for why the "starting books" in the "sub-series" wasn't the strongest of the bunch, but it wore on and ratings are arbitrary so I abandoned the idea.

Why am I having a hard time unpacking this story? Is this natural when characters are scattered and new ones are introduced? Perhaps...

"We were just starting to figure this shit out. Earth and Mars working together, the colonies talking out their problems. Even the Transport Union turned out to be a pretty good idea. Why come kick the table over? Couldn't he have just pulled up a chair with the rest of us?"

"Because some men need to own everything."

I enjoyed Persepolis Rising, it deserved more than three stars but it didn't quite reach five star quality. Four stars is that happy spot but I may find the book leaned closer to three stars than five. The last few instalments have shown some nice change ups in how the story is told but in the end it's just humans fighting humans. This time Laconia has advanced alien tech and came to mess things up...right when colonies were figuring it out.

"It's the reward of old age," Avasarala said. "You live long enough, and you can watch everything you worked for become irrelevant."

Persepolis Rising felt like a reset on all the progression, as the Avasalara quote above indicated. This is simply how it is and humanity is destined to rewrite their own history because they feel they can do it better. And yet I found myself thinking that Laconia isn't all that bad and were the best parts of Martian and Earth rule so I'm curious to see how the rest of the series plays out and if the evils of Laconia (breaking a few eggs to make an omelette) will outweigh what humanity has done for centuries before.

It was an odd group of people to fall in love with, to adopt as your own kin and tribe, but there it was, and she wasn't ever going back.

With the time jump between books there is a heavy focus on age, family and the realization that none of it is permanent. The reader experiences the same grief as the crew of the Rocinante as we realize that we see less of our favorite characters, understand the "good old days" are behind us and need to embrace the changing tides as we see our heroes drift apart.

For me the most notable character in Persepolis Rising was Amos. He had a single POV chapter and very few lines in between but when he did speak it carried hurt, weight and emotion.

"I'm sad, Babs. I'm angry. But I'm okay. Going down fighting was a good way for her to go too. I can live with it."

Wow. Only a few sentences but it offered significant insight in to Amos' mental health and allowed himself to be vulnerable. This conversation followed the "talk" Amos and Bobbie had in the food storage room, which was another look in to what makes Amos tick.

The Amos and Clarissa story has been my favorite of the series and that carried through here. They are such an unlikely but totally plutonic pairing that is completely endearing. I may fault the series for defaulting to "humanity fighting with itself" but the character developments have been incredible, and that is no more evident than with Amos.

It was a deep irony that being a prisoner and being in power could be so mismatched.

I would have liked a bit more reference to stories or events that happened outside of the main stories (perhaps refer to some that are in the novellas), but it felt like the crew would reminisce about events from previous books and not much from the time the time jump covered. Or maybe that is the result of peace times and the only crazy stories were from Ganymede, Io or Ilus.

I am a big fan of unlikely sides working together in the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation and the insurgencies on Medina had that in spades. And how do you compete against an enemy with a superior advantage? You fight dirty, take advantage of any footholds you have and get creative. Naomi and Bobbie referred to this and they keep trying crazy plans hoping to get lucky and eventually that will run out. For now this plot device hasn't worn itself out but it was a nice acknowledgement that the team isn't invincible and they are sometimes just getting by.

It seemed to her that the real sign you were getting old was when you stopped needing to prove you weren't getting old.

Will the failures of humanity repeat throughout this next trilogy? Or will the protomolecule disrupt harmonious times? I'm strapped in to the crash couch and ready to dive in to the penultimate story.