Expanse Novel Series by James S.A. Corey

This year I wanted to read the Expanse book series, by James S.A. Corey, which the stupendous television series is based on. I can now say I have succeeded and am extremely happy with it, as are many others as it won the Hugo for best sci-fi series in 2020. The pseudonym of James S.A. Corey was created by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. 

The story is set in our solar system. Humanity has colonized Mars (terraforming ongoing) and established a presence on a  multitude of asteroids and a few moons of Saturn and Jupiter with desperate citizens of an overpopulated Earth. The main mode of transportation is the Epstein drive, which is a fusion drive that consumes fuel pellets that are dropped within it, but it still takes weeks to travel between the inner and outer systems. Mars has already declared its independence from Earth and has had a conflict between them in the recent past. Both Mars and Earth utilize the populace of the asteroid belt and outer bodies to gain resources. They do so with a heavy hand because of the détente between Earth and Mars, which has given rise to separatist factions who do harm to the "Inners" in order to gain independence. Within this setting, an alien proto-molecule enters the picture and puts into effect the stories in all of the books.

Each book, and short story, focuses on a different character in each chapter from their point of view. This enables the action, character development, and plot advancement these two authors are masters at. The setting is gritty realism as much as possible with natural humour spread throughout. Be aware though, the stories in the TV series differ in parts from the source material in the books. Both are great but try not to be shocked as the printed word is a different medium than the visual medium. The authors advance the time between books, sometimes a few months, often a year or more, and between books six and seven its thirty years! Its an acknowledgement that things take time. 

The idea for the novels came from Ty Franck designing a MMORPG, which didn't find a backer, and then for tabletop roleplaying. Daniel Abraham, an established author, suggested a book series because of the setting and massive background Ty Franck had already developed.

The books and short stories (SS) are, in order are below. You do not need to read the short stories but they do help fill in the gaps between the books and add context:

-SS; Drive
-SS; The Churn
-SS; The Butcher of Anderson Station
-SS; The Last Flight of the Cassandra
-Book 1; Leviathan Wakes
-Book 2; Caliban's War
-SS; Gods of Risk
-Book 3; Abaddon's Gate
-SS; The Vital Abyss
-Book 4; Cibola Burn
-Book 5; Nemesis Games
-Book 6; Babylon's Ashes
-SS; Strange Dogs
-Book 7; Persepolis Rising
-SS; Auberon
-Book 8; Tiamat's Wrath

-Book 9; Leviathan Falls
-SS; The Sins of Our Fathers (not published yet, will be in Memory's Legion which collects all the short stories 15 March 2022)

I can see myself reading this again in ten or so years. This is up there in my top five of sci-fi book series with Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton, Remembrance of Earth's Past by Liu Cixin, Foundation Trilogy (the original three in the 1950's) by Issac Asimov, and Culture Series by Ian M. Banks. I realize there are many other great sci-fi book series out there but either I have not read them yet or have only read the first book in the series.