Abaddon's Gate

The found family was Strong in this one

My review: https://mattstein.com/books/abaddons-gate

Very solid third in the series. I sorta missed Bobbie lol 😂 But the new characters were interesting too. I just couldn't figure out why everyone put Pastor Anna on a pedestal though. Just didn't make much sense to me as how the character has been portraied. Why would anyone listen to what she has to say?! Coz she's nice? Coz she has red hair? No idea... 🤔

Very enjoyable still. The admirable parts here are the tiny fraction of the conflict that the aliens cause; all the rest (95%) is humans backstabbing humans. How does it do as Serious science fiction? Social development: Belters are still too roughly sketched. How can they work? Not IRA-style cells plus official deniability, not military hierarchy, no discussion of their democracy, just Fred Johnson the guerilla tsar... Software development: Little unless you count ascended-Miller. Actual Science: Treatment of momentum and dynamics is good, besides of course the Wormhole Stargate thing.

I just love this series so much. Yes, they're long, but never feel bogged down by too much jargon and wahtnot. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE THE ROCI CREW!

The Expanse series is expanding with Abaddon's Gate. Each book in the series thus far has been "awesome" and an edge of your seat ride. I simply love this series. Abraham and Franck (pen-name: James S.A. Corey) have a tendency to open with a shocking hook that pulls you in and refuses to let go. In Leviathan Wakes it was a captured crewmember who escapes to find the horrible remains of her crew. In Caliban's War, a fearsome attack kidnaps a young child on Ganymede. In each novel, Corey starts off small and ends big, and that's exactly what happens in Abaddon's Gate. In this latest outing in the rapidly growing Expanse series, a gung-ho Belter tries to slingshot through an alien artifact known as the ring, turning himself into a liquid when it abruptly stops him. From there, we're off to the races, and it's utterly fantastic to be catapulted through Corey's solar system once again. Abaddon's Gate picks up a year after the events of Caliban's War, when an alien protomolocule constructed a major artifact: a ring that was flown beyond Neptune's orbit. When the Belter tries to thread the ring with his spaceship, it sets into motion a major interplanetary incident that brings each of the major Solar System factions (Earth, Mars and the Outer Planets Alliance) to the Ring, where they begin to study the construct, and keep tabs on one another. Of course, Jim Holden and his crew are part of the vast flotilla that head out to examine the Ring. Is the gate an opportunity or a threat? And of course, as it is in the Expanse, its the factions of humanity, with its fear of the unknown, its need for revenge that poses the ultimate threat. I don't want to spoil the book for you but I'll say that I found two of the new characters to be quite compelling. Anna, a Methodist preacher from Russia, is part of the flotilla and her role as clergy opens up a fascinating dialogue regarding the nature of God and our place in the universe. She is kind and tenderhearted and really attempts to live by her moral codes while helping even the worse individuals - individuals responsible for terrible crimes on board her ship. Melba, whose identity I must conceal for spoiler reasons, is a character who is a terrorist. Much of the plot revolves around her actions, which although violent and horrific, are based out of love. And who is her number one target: Jim Holden. Melba makes for a neat interweaving of protagonist and antagonist. She does something truly terrible early on, outright rejecting the reader’s developing affections at the outset, and falls further and further down the old rabbit hole as Abaddon’s Gate goes and goes. And then at the very end, she surprises you! I am not sure why Abaddon's Gate has recieved mixed reviews on Goodreads. It was quite riveting. It even closed out aspects of the overall arc which begun in book one while "expanding" the premise for more adventures to come. You must read this series!

My favorite installment in the series so far. Incredibly suspensful, with some masterful usage of the setting to influence how the plot unfolds.

A tonal change from the first two books that reads a bit like the slow zone itself for the first half. I thought it felt more like a novella distorted into a 550 page slab at times. I just found the world building and moralizing in this book a bit less deft than in the previous two installments. The final act was absolutely electric reading, though—this is what I read S.A Corey for. In the cosmic scheme of things, the character work was great and I'm excited to see what gates (sorry) this opens up for what comes next.

Absolutely slow start and an even slower build up but halfway through... bam! Action rolls in non stop. Still a great read just not as good as the first two books.

The quality of the writing is still overall better than the last two books. Where it falls short for me is the new characters that weren’t as interesting as Bobby and Chrisjen. Not all that much actually happened but because there were so many character POVs the plot inched, sometimes crawled, forward. I found it incredibly laborious at certain parts; neither of the previous books were ever even remotely so. That’s a shame because the actual “point” of this one, as well as the world building that happens, is the best so far. I loved that it critiqued violence as the first choice, despite never being the best. And how that choice continually only made things worse for everybody. I also really liked seeing restorative justice in this genre space. It felt very novel! But just when it introduced it, it’s stilted because a lot of people get off Scott Free, including Cortez at the end of the book just hanging out having a nice convo after inciting many, many deaths and mass panic. All in all, I still enjoyed it because of the novel aspects to the plot and some of the characters I like were still around. I liked Anna despite her somewhat boring POV (especially as she has no character arc to speak of) because of the contrast and commitment to non violence. The other two new characters felt like filler, though. I think this story would have been a lot more punchy trimmed down substantially.

Not as good as the first one, nor the second one. The characters I just didn't find as engaging as Holden/Miller or Bobbie/Avasarala.

I enjoyed the first two in this series. This one I couldn't put down! Several evenings I thought seriously of staying home the next day to read more of the book. Looking forward to the next one.

Alright, I read a third one. Rushed through it because I was a little mad that they got me with the cliffhanger at the end of book 2. Same complaints as before, but with a couple of really good moments inside the characters’ heads, which was lacking in the previous installments. Counterbalanced by some pretty crucial character motivations that don’t make any sense, though. It seems like the authors attempted to move a little bit more in the big-idea-sci-fi direction, but the big idea moments were half-baked and half-explained. Also: wayyy too many bullets, with a bullet-related plot hole conveniently erased for no other reason than... to allow lots of bullets, I guess. But no cliffhanger this time! So now I can escape.

3.5 stars. This book is much slower than the first two books, and pretty much served as a study of human morality and psyche when face-to-face with the infinite universe. Oh, and that several centuries into the future, there still won't be easily accessible therapy for grief and trauma >_> (I'm not kidding when I say many of the issues characters had in this book could've been addressed had they only been able to see a professional...) The crew of the Roci have a greatly reduced presence in this book that I disliked because I was really warming up to book!Amos & always want more Naomi. Bobbie and Chrisjen from book 2 were only mentioned in passing, and other quality characters died ;~; Now that Pandora's Box has officially been opened, however, book 4 will likely be a wild ride. I've ordered the next books but they haven't arrived yet, so I'll take this chance to cleanse my palate with some new releases!

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!

Still enjoying the series a lot. This one feels like a bit of a setup for the rest of the bigger overarching story to pan out, so it didn't quite go as I expected after the last one – which is not a bad thing.

It. Took. A. Freaking. Month. Again. I guess it's just how those books are for me. Very slow, but sooo enjoyable. I can't say much cause it's already a third book in the series, but... Characters. I loved Bull. And Anna. And even Mao. You know what? Corey, they know how to create interesting and lovable characters. (view spoiler)[And I'm so sad we won't be seeing Bull anymore, cause he's fucking dead. I liked him a lot and hoped to see more of him, even if not on the front lines. Also, his death was pretty anti-climatic, but on the other hand it represented the situation correctly, so I can't complain about that. Clarissa in the end. I know she was "the bad guy" in this book, but by the end you really get to sort of connect with her and sympathize, so I hope we're going to see her in the future. (hide spoiler)] As a Russian I couldn't help but laugh at some stuff, though. Annushka Volovodov? Are you serious? Annushka is... well, it's sort of a gentle name, a pet name from parents if you wish. It's not commonly used. Anna or Anya would be correct. Also her last name was supposed to be VolovodovA, but I guess it's a detail that is hard to understand for foreigners, so I'm not pushing. But "плодоовощ малыша потехи"... I fucking laughed out loud. Like, c'mon, Corey, ask people on twitter or something, there're plenty of Russians who read you. Don't just google translate it into some gibberish. I can only guess it was supposed to mean smth like "fun baby fruit" or whatever... But jeez. It's not exactly a thing I didn't like, just funny as hell. Plot. As always, those books start very slowly for me, but when things actually do pick up the pace, it's a very interesting read. I'm glad this one was a bit different from two previous ones, which seemed very similar. This one - not so much. Plus we got to see the "villain" POV, so that was entertaining as well. Overall, they keep me interested and those books leave a very good lasting impression, so I'm excited about the next one.

Excellent series. I think I've decided that the whole is definitely greater than the parts. Solid 4 star books that definitely mean a five star series

Too much religion. A little bit boring. Main arc of alien mystery does not move at all in this book.

People seem split on this installment, but I have to say this was one of my favorites and devoured it. Maybe the introduction of new characters injected some caffeine into these veins because let's face it, as adorkable and "good" as Holden is, he is not great at carrying the story. Frankly, he's the most boring. As frustrating or lip-pursing as some of the other chapters / perspectives are, at least you get to enjoy their motives and actions. Miller harassing Holden throughout and the scene on the alien space station were some of the best scenes. Some people feel the new characters aren't fleshed out, not done well. I happen to connect with them easily and think they're believable archetypes on any ship, land, sea, or space. In groups, there are always people who fall into these categories, so the adventures, trials, and tribulations of Bull, Sam, Pa, Ashford and co. are frustrating and fascinating sides of the coin. Bull and Pa happened to be my favorite dynamic, consistently, barely trustworthy but always trying to configure the situation into one that can create a good outcome for both of them without tearing the ship in two. Enter Clarissa Mao / Melba Koh. She's meant to be polarizing and possibly annoying as well. Her highmindedness, her single-mindedness, is grating for the first chapters she's in but as it goes on it makes sense. Those are the same ingratiating traits that her self-righteous father displayed throughout his time, and the complicated relationship she describes with her family members lends credence to her irritating focus. She was in the throes of anger, despair, tangled and strange jealousy for her father, oscillating between wanting to be like him and agonizing that she wasn't, and more notably, that she wasn't the embodiment of "perfect" Julie. I'll contrast her to Anna, the religious figure, who apart from self-destructive and shortsighted Ashford, was the most stressful to read about. Her first few chapters in particular establish her role and moral compass, which personally come off as the most incompatible with the situation and story. Maybe in that way, she isn't different than James Holden, who also gets on my nerves with his stumbling, blinding optimism, though it has abated in this book in comparison to the first two. (As an aside, Holden's perspective has changed into doggedly pushing forward because it's the only choice in the midst of despair, a trait, conversely, that I appreciated in Bull much more. Could be the writing, could be my annoyance with boy scout characters, but I digress.) While Anna ended up being integral to plot points, she wrung me out like a sponge with her inner monologues and Hector also bored me quite a bit. It's all good in the overall context of the story, but those were my least favorite chapters, if I had any. That one point in which her friend Tilly bought the Roci in order to transport Clarissa left a weird taste in my mouth and was my least-liked aspect of the whole thing, since it was sort of dripping with the forgiveness tone. Always missing Bobbie and Avasarala. Forever.

Very solid third in the series. I sorta missed Bobbie lol 😂 But the new characters were interesting too. I just couldn't figure out why everyone put Pastor Anna on a pedestal though. Just didn't make much sense to me as how the character has been portraied. Why would anyone listen to what she has to say?! Coz she's nice? Coz she has red hair? No idea... 🤔

Still love the worldbuilding of this series. Plot-wise, this one seemed less tight than the first two. But that is my only complaint.

Frigging A!