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Milkfred E. Moore posted:Omi was curious about this paragraph. The second sentence starts with " In any new assignment...", implying that she's thinking of various jobs she's had in her years of military service. Getting a new assignment/posting is still a new boss and new coworkers and a new workplace, even if it's with the same ultimate employer. The "what if I gently caress up and say the wrong things and everybody hates me and my boss thinks I'm stupid and..." kind of worries that go along with that situation seem like they'd be fairly universal across the military/civilian spectrum.
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Jan 8, 2021 10:59
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Chapter Twenty-One: Prax This is one of those chapters that I kind of forgot existed, or, at best, remembered differently. I'll explain later. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-One posted:Prax knelt, his arms zip-tied securely behind him. His shoulders ached. It hurt to hold his head up and it hurt to let it sink down. Amos lay facedown on the floor. Prax thought he was dead until he saw the zip-ties holding his arms behind his back. The nonlethal round their kidnappers had fired into the back of the mechanic’s head had left an enormous blue-and-black lump there. Most of the others—Holden, some of the Pinkwater mercenaries, even Naomi—were in positions much like his own, but not all. Whoever abducted them is making sure they're fixed up and fit to travel, although Prax has a little retrospective moment about dead moths. Amos wakes up and figures that the people aren't station security. Holden and co. have been stripped of their weapons and armor. Wendell and Holden chat quietly - Holden thinks they're not OPA but has no idea who else. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-One posted:“That leaves a pretty large number of suspects,” the Pinkwater captain said. “Is there somebody you’ve pissed off I should know about?” It's kind of a thought I had a few times while reading this chapter - it doesn't feel like a Prax chapter. Sure, we get some expository/memory/this one time on Ganymede... stuff from Prax now and again, but I feel like had this been a Holden chapter very little would be different. Which is a bit of a problem, because Idealistic Space Cop Idiot Holden is a very different character to Nerdy Anxious Botanist Dad. Prax feels very content to sit back and let Holden ask the questions and demand answers, but, as we've seen, Prax does not exactly have good impulse control and flies off the handle. I feel like it'd make a bit more sense if, in a Prax chapter, Prax was driving the events. Anyway, the soldiers decide they'll move the prisoners two at a time. Holden tries to shout at them about the protomolecule, but no one pays him any attention. Prax says that his daughter is missing, and no one pays him any attention. Then, the lead soldier mentions that 'we're firing' and no longer are they moving the prisoners two at a time - they're going to cut their leg restraints. Holden and Amos promptly try to break out. Wendell and his goons join in and help out. Like all Corey action, it's fine. After that, Naomi cuts everyones bonds and they tie up the soldiers. Holden tells Wendell's people to bug out with the Somnambulist. Wendell says he never wants to see Holden again. Then, everyone leaves. Holden still thinks the protomolecule is breaking out, but Amos doesn't think so. They can't reach Alex. Holden realizes they're bombarding the station. We get an Expansian infodump about Ganymede Station which, somehow, continues to toe this line of not being terrible to read but also clearly being there to pad out the word count. Prax thinks about how he and Nicola went somewhere on their first date and now the bombardment has destroyed it. Naomi says Alex can't make it to the sport to the land. Prax suggests they can go to the other landing pad, the secret creepy protomolecule base one. And this is what I meant about misremembering, because I assumed Alex touched down there right after they found the protomolecule. Even though, had you asked me, I would've mentioned that there's a bit where they get captured and Amos gets shot in the head. Weird, that. Holden asks Prax to guide him. They head towards the secret base. They lose contact with the Roci. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-One posted:“I’ve lost the Roci,” Naomi said. “No. I’ve lost the whole link. I was routing through the Somnambulist. She must have taken off.” Omi wonders: "I'm not sure how I feel about the escape - I like watching the Roci crew coordinate, but as a reader I know that they're as close as family, and have been in worse spots than this. I think it would've been more interesting for Prax to watch them silently and seemingly out of nowhere shift from bumbling space truckers to horrible murders so smoothly that the bad guys didn't catch on until bodies were already hitting the floor. Then Prax could go "Oh, gently caress," and we suddenly have character drama and potential friction between he and Holden. "Everyone running through a rapidly-devolving situation to escape is fun, but it feels like the exact same beat we got on Eros in Leviathan Wakes. I can't help but wonder if it's intentional, since they've been talking about Eros in the last few chapters." Eros, however, had idealistic Holden teamed up with cowboy death wish cop Miller and had them both getting irradiated and being confronted by pretty terrible stuff. Ganymede feels almost perfunctory, not helping the feeling that Prax is taking a back seat in his own chapter. Had Prax been written by the same guy who did Holden, I'd probably suggest that the author wasn't sure which perspective to have leading this chapter and so wrote it as neutrally as possible before shoving in some 'Prax thinks about...' things here and there. So, anyway, they walk for a bit. Prax thinks more about how Ganymede isn't going to exist soon. They hit a locked door but then, twenty minutes later, find a door outside. Once they're out on Ganymede's surface, they're going to need to hike towards the secret landing pad, but Prax has no real idea of how to get there beyond a vague direction. But that's okay because Naomi can see the Roci setting down, and the chapter ends. It's not a bad chapter, but it also feels a bit strange. Okay, we had the crossover from Avasarala's chapters - that's good. But I think it's pretty obvious why my brain had skipped over this chapter, in a sense. It's a little bit odd that the characters leave a location, have a little scuffle, then go back to the same location to escape, right? As an aside, this is the last we'll see of Wendell, too. Last we'll even hear of him, actually. No great loss - bye, redshirts! But it comes back to that idea of why even include him? Why not focus on creating tension with the pieces that're already on the board, instead of adding a few temporary redshirts to take bullets and so on? Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Jan 13, 2021 |
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Jan 13, 2021 04:57
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Chapter Twenty-Two: Holden We jump over to Holden. They're just reaching the Rocinante, which has touched down at the secret landing pad. Prax says it is bigger than he expected. Amos says... Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Two posted:“Corvette,” Amos replied, obvious pride in his voice. “Frigate-class fleet escort ship.” And that's what I'm going to talk about for a second. Well, more than a second. You see, I have opinions on sci-fi warship jargon - strap in for the juice. First things first, I'm not one of those people who thinks that sci-fi ship types should follow water navy designations. A lot of people get upset about how sci-fi sometimes has 'destroyers' that are larger than 'cruisers' -- Babylon 5, Freespace, probably others. But it makes a certain kind of sense if you assume that a space navy would be organized differently to a wet navy as it would develop under different circumstances. For example, what if a cruiser was one of the first ship classes designed. Y'know, a ship that can operate for a long time away from port, like the designation of a cruiser in the first place. Then, a destroyer could be a ship designed to destroy cruisers - like the original source of the term 'destroyer' from 'torpedo boat destroyer.' Y'know, stuff like that, designations that represent how the interstellar arms race went on. And then we get The Expanse. With the Rocinante, a a Corvette-class light frigate fleet escort ship/torpedo bomber. Which is just about the most awkward collection of ship jargon I can remember hearing about. For those of you who are unaware, frigates and corvettes are not the same type of ship - a frigate is larger. It'd be like saying Destroyer-class cruiser or Cruiser-class battleship. Except, it's often referred to as being a corvette instead of a frigate. In fact, in Leviathan Wakes, it is introduced as a corvette. Martians happily refer to it as a corvette, and I feel like Martians would be sticklers for their designations and warbook info. I don't know. Maybe someone on Mars just named the class after the car and not the warship type and now everyone gets mixed up about it.  And here, Amos has switched up the Corvette/Frigate parts of the designation, which makes the 'obvious pride' in his voice a little strange. It has to be something they didn't catch in the edit, but I feel it reinforces my point that it feels like no one was paying that much attention to the ship jargon. I like good ship jargon. It seems like a weird bunch of issues to have with your hero ship. Anyway, Prax says what you're currently thinking: Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Two posted:“I don’t know what any of that means,” Prax said. “It looks like a big chisel with an upside-down coffee cup on the back.” Holden tells Prax that he should go get strapped in, and also he has a room on the ship now. He tells him about 'the juice' and all that stuff. Amos takes Prax to get settled in while Holden heads up to ops. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Two posted:“So,” Alex said, dragging the word out to two syllables while he flicked switches to finish the preflight check, “we’re lookin’ for someone named Mei?” Omi: "What the gently caress is the Roci's mission? What were they supposed to be doing on Ganymede?? What's going on!??" You'd think this was a discussion someone would've had before Holden went off and assaulted a science base, y'know? Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Two posted:That had been Miller’s job. And he’d never be able to adequately explain the certainty he felt that this lost little girl was at the center of everything that had happened on Ganymede. Alex mentions that the cargo airlock doesn't have a seal and the foreshadowing is a touch too thick. Holden's like 'who cares, let's go.' Holden orders him to rotate for a full burn ASAP, which will have the bonus of melting the hidden base down. They breach the atmosphere and everyone starts shooting at them. They burn to Callisto really quickly - is it that close to Ganymede? Then they slingshot around it, and Holden says he'll be in his cabin. Or, as Omi points out, his bunk. Page break. We resume on Holden and Naomi just having had sex. Naomi decides to bring up Tycho, and that they're going to fly off to do something really rash. Holden is like, you weren't there on Ganymede, I saw it and you weren't on Eros either. Naomi is like, hang on, I carried what was left of you and Miller to the med bay. She says they can't just accuse Fred of being responsible for the protomolecule being on Ganymede. Holden is like, well, everyone could be dead right now. Naomi points out that just because Holden has strong feelings doesn't mean he's right - which feels like something he should stick on the ceiling above his bed. Naomi says that Fred has been their friend and patron for a year. Holden replies that he gave the last of it to Fred, and that everything Fred's done since has been for some political game. Naomi says that experiments on kidnapped children and the destruction of one of the most important moons in the outer planets is not something Fred would do. Holden decides that the OPA wanted it, the inners wouldn't give it to them, and so Fred must be making sure no one else has it. Naomi basically tells Holden he's acting like a crazy person. Omi: "I'm fine with Naomi and Holden arguing about his becoming a violent crime guy, but I think it needed to be set up in the text way more than it was." I'd also echo this, but slightly differently: I think we needed to see more Fred. While this is a sequel, it reads like Naomi and Holden arguing about someone who has had exactly one line of dialogue so far and a mission that Schrodinger would base quantum theories around. It's hard to get into. Naomi says: Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Two posted:“I didn’t like this new Jim Holden you’ve been turning into. The guy who’d rather reach for his gun than talk? I know being the OPA’s bagman has been a lovely job, and I know we’ve had to do a lot of pretty rotten things in the name of protecting the Belt. But that was still you. I could still see you lurking there under the surface, waiting to come back.” I'd really like to know what they spent the time since Leviathan Wakes actually doing. Similar to how it's hard to get into the Naomi and Holden dispute without seeing it, it's hard to understand this person Holden is supposedly turning into without seeing any of these bad things he supposedly did. Anyway, after directly comparing Holden to Miller, she says she can't stick around anymore. "I'm out." Dun dun! No real issues with the chapter. I think the thing I thought about while reading it was the missed opportunity for it to be a Prax chapter. Really embrace the opportunity to see the Roci and how fancy she is from the outside, so to speak.
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Jan 15, 2021 07:25
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:Alex pops open the airlock and they all pile in. Both Omi and I had a moment's confusion when Prax comments that everything on the ship is sideways, which confused me because I'd missed that the Rocinante was on her belly - I'd just assumed she was resting on her drive cone. The idea of the Rocinante resting on her belly at all just doesn't seem to fit to me - but, hey, that's what the authors say, so, that's what goes. It makes sense to me when you figure that the Roci is a military ship. Landing the ship belly-down seems would make it easier for troops to board and disembark, and it allows the ship to approach the landing zone in its normal flying configuration. That means that its weapons and point defense stay in alignment with its direction of travel, and it doesn't have to lead with its vulnerable drive cones when landing. And when it's landed, it's more stable in windy conditions and has a lower target profile against ground-based weaponry. Those things seem like they'd be worth dealing with the awkwardness of having some things oriented sideways when under planetary gravity. I'd imagine that civilian transports and such would probably be designed to land with their drive cones facing downwards
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Jan 15, 2021 07:53
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The Expanse has always been a bit inconsistent when it gets into military jargon... I remember Holden keeps calling the ship's PA system the "1MC channel," which sounds fine until you realize that 1MC stands for "one main circuit," and calling something a "circuit channel" is redundant and is also redundant. That's a good catch with the frigate/corvette stuff though- I completely missed that, I'm so used to sci-fi getting its naval parlance twisted around that I don't think I even read it anymore... my eyes just kinda glaze over every time we hit technobabble.
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Jan 15, 2021 08:17
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Khizan posted:It makes sense to me when you figure that the Roci is a military ship. Landing the ship belly-down seems would make it easier for troops to board and disembark, and it allows the ship to approach the landing zone in its normal flying configuration. That means that its weapons and point defense stay in alignment with its direction of travel, and it doesn't have to lead with its vulnerable drive cones when landing. And when it's landed, it's more stable in windy conditions and has a lower target profile against ground-based weaponry. I think a part of my issue is that the Roci doesn't strike me as a ship that would land on surfaces. I feel like the chisel/coffee cup design would just drop like a rock. But, then again, Ganymede has very little gravity or atmosphere, so, I suppose that isn't a problem. Very good point about not leading with the vulnerable drive cone when potentially landing in a hostile situation, however. Omi no Kami posted:The Expanse has always been a bit inconsistent when it gets into military jargon... I remember Holden keeps calling the ship's PA system the "1MC channel," which sounds fine until you realize that 1MC stands for "one main circuit," and calling something a "circuit channel" is redundant and is also redundant. Holden's the kind of guy who calls ATMs 'ATM machines', I suppose.
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Jan 15, 2021 08:54
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Chapter Twenty-Three: Avasarala Avasarala's annoyed. That fighting over Ganymede? Somehow, after she went to all that effort to undo Nguyen's little flotilla, the Admiral managed to acquire enough ships to start a shooting war. As always, it wouldn't be an Expanse chapter if we didn't have a paragraph of 'scene-setting' before getting to the interesting part. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Three posted:“I took apart that command group myself,” she said. “I pared it down until you could have drowned it in a bathtub. And he’s out there now with enough firepower to take on the Martian fleet?” I'll echo Omi's comments here. What struck me about this chapter is that it feels like the first one where I was interested in reading Avasarala's story again. Omi: "I actually like the opening hook of Nguyen having shadowy sponsors - it interests me in Avasarala in a way her past few chapters haven't." Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Three posted:“Would you also like a pony, ma’am?” Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Three posted:“They haven’t recalled you,” Avasarala said. “And they’re not going to. The wartime diplomatic code of contact is almost exactly the same for you as it is for us, and it’s ten thousand pages of nine-point type. If you get orders right now, I can put up enough queries and requests for clarifications that you’ll die of old age in that chair. If you just want to kill someone for Mars, you’re not going to get a better target than me. If you want to stop this idiotic loving war and find out who’s actually behind it, get back to your desk and find out who wants what wording.” But Bobbie goes back to work. Then, Avasarala gets more bad news - but not from Ganymede. It's Venus. So, long story short, a military science vessel - the Arboghast - just got unmade by the Protomolecule. In an instant, it was disassembled down to its nuts and bolts - with the crew still inside it. It took the suits of the crew apart, but not the crew. The expert Avasarala is talking to figures it might know all it needs to know about human anatomy. Avasarala sends a copy of the footage to Souther. Omi: "The instant stuff pivots away from Earth-Mars and back to Venus I lose a little interest." And this is kind of the problem I have with this chapter, too. The Arboghast is a very cool moment and the Protomolecule stuff is interesting - but it's also not really relevant. It's like the Corey boys are overselling that weird things are happening on Venus. Perhaps I'm overestimating SF/F readership, but at this point, I know weird things are happening on Venus and don't need to be reminded. I understand that there's Foreshadowing looming there. It's been mentioned maybe half a dozen times across as many chapters. I know there's a shark in the deep that's going to come back and bite us - I don't need to keep hearing about the Protomolecule doing weirder and weirder poo poo. I feel like some of this results from needing to find things for Avasarala to do. So you don't end up with, like, 1000 word chapters where everyone else is 2000-3000. But the opening was interesting. Avasarala's been outwitted by someone she underestimated and a war has broken out and just how big is the conspiracy, anyway? Anyway, Avasarala, retreats to a restroom and calls Arjun. It's okay. Avasarala returns to her office and asks Bobbie for her thoughts on the link between Venus and Ganymede, if any, and equates Venus to being a huge comet on the way to hit a planet. Bobbie figures that if you decide to deal with the comet - that is, spend resources to handle with Venus - then the other side will get you with your pants down. But if you beat up the other side first, then you can have all the cards when whatever happens on Venus happens. But, if that's what both sides are thinking and are unable to trust each other, then Earth and Mars are going to lose together. And that's basically it. Not much happens in the chapter, really.
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Jan 21, 2021 01:23
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Venus is a weird one- I remember being really interested in what was up with it in the epilogue of Leviathan Wakes, but nearly every time it comes up in CW my eyes glaze over and I start looking for sentences that lead us back to Ganymede. This just occurred to me, but there's a really easy way to improve both the Venus stuff and Avasarala in general: invoke the economics of space war and attrition. Neither Earth nor Mars can really afford a war (which I think comes up here and there throughout the books?), and they definitely can't afford two wars, so there's this constant game of chicken with both sides probing Venus for intel and tech goodies, but neither one wanting to poke the bear and potentially be forced to commit resources to a fight on two fronts. Move Avasarala to whatever her intentionally unimportant-seeming job is into something specifically tied into finance and logistics, and suddenly she's basically the chairwoman of the war production board, sitting unappreciated in a back room with her hand on hundreds of critical supply lines. She cares about Ganymede because food (and shooting war), she cares about Venus because aliens (and shooting war), and Bobbie basically starts the book as a hot-blooded ground pounder spoiling for a fight, immediately meets an enemy she can't kill, then her arc involves learning that soft words in the right ear can kill someone way, way dead-er than a giant mecha suit. Maybe that's just fanfiction that only appeals to me personally, but it feels like a much more natural way to tie everything together than what we end up getting.
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Jan 21, 2021 07:50
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I think that's why the stuff with Nguyen is so intriguing, because it's the first time Avasarala has really been stymied. But overall, I think the story suffers because there's four characters and two stories. Half of those - Holden and Prax on Ganymede - is pretty decent. But the other half - Avasarala and Bobbie on Earth - feels strange and disconnected. It's nice getting the broader context and a bit more of an idea of the world, because Leviathan Wakes didn't give us much at all, but I think there's something strange about starting Bobbie on Ganymede, having her meet the monster, sending her to Earth for a meaningless negotiation, and be working as a liaison to Avasarala while wanting to get back to Ganymede. There was a review I read a few days ago which hit on some of the points I've been turning about in my head, and one of the things it singled out was that the Corey team just dropped the ball on Bobbie and just didn't find much for her to do, summing her up as a spare part.
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Jan 22, 2021 02:59
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It feels to me like CW has the exact same structural problem as LW did with Holden and Miller, but unlike LW the Bobbie/Avasarala story just isn't interesting enough to stand on its own. It's interesting how long it takes them to step away from this, given what a big structural issue it is. I vaguely recall the third and fourth books fairly exploding with viewpoint characters relative to the first two, but I'm also pretty sure that, like, 90% of them were just used to inform the Holden-centric story, which worked better. (Spoilers for Abaddon's Gate) the one specific plotline I remember not being wired into Holden's stuff was the mutiny poo poo in AG, and that might be tied with the revenge stuff in 4 as my least-favorite plot element in the series. I haven't caught up on the show, but it seems like the TV writers figured that out too- from what I recall Holden's plot is the most consistently unadulterated, and entire swathes of Avarsala/Bobbie/later book characters get completely remixed to slot more cleanly into the A-plot instead of trying to juggle 2-3 major storylines at any given time.
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Jan 23, 2021 01:58
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A combination of finishing off the first half of my manuscript and the ongoing GME-related madness kept me distracted from reading even a single chapter. My bad! Chapter Twenty-Four: Prax So, we're back with Prax. He's sitting in his cabin on the Rocinante, getting used to the sensation of acceleration gravity. They've been traveling for a day and a half, heading Sun-ward. Omi had an interesting thought. Omi: "It's a bit weird to me how easily Prax is getting used to space travel. He explicitly acknowledges that he knows the cabin is spacious by space standards, but I think it would be a more effective beat if he was oblivious to how cushy his surroundings were, and just walked around complaining that everything is cramped and smells like grease." Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Four posted:He was in a tiny metal-and-ceramic box that was exchanging matter for energy to throw a half dozen primates across a vacuum larger than millions of oceans. Compared to that, how could anything matter? Anyway, Prax is talking his way through coming to grips with Mei's possible death by saying 'Your daughter is probably dead' to himself. By the second time he says it, I'm feeling over it. His hand terminal chimes and he goes to meet with the crew in the galley. Prax sees Alex: Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Four posted:His skin was darker than Prax’s, his thinning hair black, with the first few stray threads of white. His voice had the odd drawl some Martians affected. Alex is talking with Amos (over intercom) that something is eight percent and failing. Then, the two of them talk. During this scene, Prax notes that ROCINANTE is written on the far wall, along with a stencil of a yellow narcissus - that is, a daffodil. Even having read up through Book 8, I'm struggling to place the meaning or reference there. Prax and Alex talk and it gives up Prax's background. Lived on Ganymede most of his life and he was named after the moon of Praxidike. Yes, it's a woman's name, but Prax thinks it helped him stand out against all the other botany PhDs on Ganymede. They talk about Mei. Alex mentions he has a sister with a brittle bone disease. Omi says what we're all thinking. Omi: Wait, the pilot of the Roci has a sister with brittle bone disorder? I see someone liked Mass Effect. More talking. Alex mentions that Holden was on Eros. Holden comes through and there's an awkward moment where Alex picks up on that it's the post-breakup move out. Alex goes back to chatting with Amos and doing damage control. Memory leak in navigation, cargo bay is sucking vacuum, etc. etc. There's a Holden coffee moment. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Four posted:Holden went to the coffee machine, talking over his shoulder as he keyed in his preferences. His cup said Tachi too. Prax realized with a start that they all did. He wondered who or what a Tachi was. But, wait, something's wrong. There's damage to the cargo bay door, like someone bent it in from the outside. Not a gauss round or anything and - wait, is that a hand print? And then they find what left the handprint. A body curled into a foetal ball. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Four posted:“Alex, do we have a stowaway?” Prax figures out it must be part of the experiment that slipped its leash on Ganymede and had run across the cold surface of Ganymede until it found a way to escape. And, Naomi says, she doesn't think it's dead. Dun dun! Honestly, not a very fun chapter. I feel like it was a lost opportunity to have Prax be more of an outsider to space travel and the Rocinante as a whole, instead of giving us long conversations that aren't exactly exciting. Omi sums up my thoughts: Omi: "There's a lot of exposition in this chapter that feels weird - each character is explaining things to the others that the audience already knows."
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Feb 1, 2021 12:06
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A bit of a tangent before I write up Chapter Twenty-Five. I've mentioned before that I found information from the player of the original RPG who came up with the character who became Naomi Nagata. Today, I got pointed to another batch of information. This time, it was a comment from the player of Holden. There's some interesting stuff in it, especially given some of the things I've assumed or theorised or criticized, and it's been confirmed by Daniel Abraham as being true. So, in summary:
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Feb 3, 2021 07:46
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Chapter Twenty-Five: Bobbie Poor Bobbie. It's like the story doesn't really know what to do with her. You can tell because this chapters open with a rambling few paragraphs of exposition about the difference between Martian and Earther reveille and that she's standing in front of a mirror telling herself she's not a traitor. Soon, she heads off to Avasarala's office. Soren's already there. Avasarala, via Soren, lets Bobbie know her marching orders: get an early draft of the statement Mars put out yesterday. If the draft was harsher than the one they put out, Soren claims, then it means Mars is trying to de-escalate. If the draft is softer, the opposite. Bobbie starts making phone calls. There's some stuff to say about her relationship with Soren in this chapter, but we'll do that later. Later, Avasarala yells out for her. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Five posted:“Ma’am?” Bobbie said, taking a short step into Avasarala’s office. “You bellowed?” Then, Bobbie's getting annoyed at Soren. He eats cookies all the time, and he eats them loudly. They clash, and then there's an awkward moment where Soren stands up, pulls out a memory stick, and goes off to take care of something that Bobbie assumes Avasarala told him to do. Only he doesn't, and Bobbie knows he's heading for the elevators even though I'm pretty sure they're through a door and out down a hallway and just where is Bobbie situated that she can see all of this happening so clearly, especially when, as we'll find out, this is some covert job and surely Soren would've noticed her sitting at her desk and staring at him and trying to speak with him. So, Bobbie follows him. And that previous bit is clearly meant to be a little hint that Bobbie figures that Soren is up to no good- well, more on that later. Bobbie follows Soren to a bar about three blocks away. Bobbie goes inside. Soren's there with someone who Bobbie thinks looks like a soldier in a poor disguise. Luckily for Bobbie, the conspirators are kinda dumb. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Five posted:“Bobbie,” Soren said, giving his companion one quick glance and then looking away. “You play?” Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Five posted:“Seriously,” she said, looking at Soren. “Either stop jerking that pool cue off or take it somewhere private.” Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Five posted:“What are you going to do,” he said through a forced smirk, “beat me up?” Omi had an interesting thought on the Soren stuff: "The first time I read this, I assumed that Soren's spy poo poo was authorized backchanneling." Which might've been a nice kink to throw in the works here but, of course, it is not. On the one hand, it's nice to see some development of the Nguyen plotline but, as a whole so far, the Bobbie story just isn't working for me and it all feels a bit artificial. Like we're just spinning wheels on Earth until it's time to get back to Ganymede and kill the monster. The UN intrigue stuff isn't that bad, really, but I'm not sure there's enough meat to it to sustain two characters.
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Feb 3, 2021 10:31
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Soren's betrayal felt so stupid and out-of-nowhere that I legit assumed he was on the level and wrote the backchanneling comment even though I've read the book before. It completely slipped my mind that Soren was a weirdo backstabby guy, and nothing about the way he tries to pull this off convinced me otherwise. Like, this comes off like Soren's planting evidence on Bobbie's desk while she watches, then turning to a cop who was standing there and also saw him plant it and going "Officer, I think she has contraband death sticks in her drawer." That's how obvious and poorly-thought out it was. What's especially weird about this is that, like, Soren should be able to get away with this- Bobbie's smart and talented, but she's spent her whole career as an infantry officer. This is, what, her third or fourth day working in an office? A guy who's been a high-level political staffer for years should have this much trouble fooling Bobbie her first week on the job. It also occurs to me, his actually getting away with it would've been way more interesting. Have Bobbie see some suspicious stuff here and there, but not enough to put things together until he vanishes. Then she and Avasarala can work together to unravel his plot, with her providing boots on the ground and Avasarala mentoring her in the politics and espionage game.
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Feb 3, 2021 10:54
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Omi no Kami posted:Soren's betrayal felt so stupid and out-of-nowhere that I legit assumed he was on the level and wrote the backchanneling comment even though I've read the book before. It completely slipped my mind that Soren was a weirdo backstabby guy, and nothing about the way he tries to pull this off convinced me otherwise. Yeah, honestly, when you raised that point I broke from my desire to not read ahead and skipped to the next Avasarala chapter because, while I remembered Soren was a spy and gets found out, I'd completely forgotten how it'd happened and had invented something different in my head. The antagonists are all comfortably stupid and overconfident, I guess.
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Feb 3, 2021 13:02
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:Yeah, honestly, when you raised that point I broke from my desire to not read ahead and skipped to the next Avasarala chapter because, while I remembered Soren was a spy and gets found out, I'd completely forgotten how it'd happened and had invented something different in my head. The antagonists are all comfortably stupid and overconfident, I guess. That chapter took me completely off-guard, because yeah- I didn't remember exactly what happened, but I had zero memory of Soren being a bad guy, probably because he basically disappears right after this plotline is resolved. I wonder if it wasn't a bit of a structural decision, where they realized that they just didn't have anything for him to do or ideas of where to take him? Because up to this point, he might as well have been a bunch of faceless, nameless staffers milling around Avasarala's office helping her out.
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Feb 3, 2021 13:26
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Sidebar: Amos is chemically castrated? What? Did I miss this somehow? Edit: oh, lol, the vasectomy. Remind me to avoid any elective procedures at a goon's hands hahahahaha Edit 2: you might want to add an addendum to your page 1 posts, that's some weird enough poo poo to send a thread newcomer for a spin. Amos is many things, but a chomo he is not BrotherJayne fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Feb 7, 2021 |
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Feb 7, 2021 13:38
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I am absolutely not a Doctor, and especially not a urologist. Please do not use this thread as a source of medical advice. Do not pay the price I did when I talked to my surgeon and didn't understand the difference between vasectomy and castration. Chapter Twenty-Six: Holden Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Six posted:Holden watched the monster quiver as it huddled against the cargo bay bulkhead. On the video monitor, it looked small and washed out and grainy. He concentrated on his breathing. Long slow breath in, fill up the lungs all the way to the bottom. Long slow breath out. Pause. Repeat. Do not lose your poo poo in front of the crew. So, there's a proto-monster hiding in the cargo bay. The cargo bay airlock is sealed and Holden orders the O2 to be cranked up as the protomolecule is anaerobic. He then orders Alex up to the cockpit to get ready to blow the Rocinante if the protomolecule breaches the rest of the ship. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Six posted:Naomi spoke first. “What’s the plan?” They’d been intimate long enough for Holden to recognize the barely concealed fear in her voice. Holden and Amos suit up to go "shoot the poo poo out of it" and try to drive it out of the cargo bay and off the ship. After a pleasantly Coreyist infodump about how Holden isn't claustrophobic and another about the body armor he's putting on and a little bit of how marines would wear power armor, we get some nice banter between Amos and Holden. One thing I'll point out is that the power armor bit doesn't quite have enough ironic gallows humor given the first Bobbie chapter. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Six posted:“Yeah,” he said. “I just yelled at Alex for not being scared enough.” Holden mentions he saw Amos die when he got shot in the head. Sure, it was a nonlethal round, Holden says, but it does remind me of my point of how it feels cheap to make it seem like Amos had died when he hadn't. The fact that Holden brings it up here and now at least lets me know that it's intentional bit of Holden's perspective and not a cheap trick for a cliffhanger. Still, I feel like the way that moment was put felt more like a narrative voice than something we really saw from Holden's perspective. 'Amos never saw it coming.' With the banter done, Holden and Amos head into the cargo bay. There's a mention of how the Rocinante's cargo bay is cramped and how any cargo was an afterthought given that the ship is a warship. A nice little thing to consider in light of how the Rocinante crew must make a living - they can't go hauling cargo from port to port. But can you spot the goof? Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Six posted:Holden entered the room first, walking along the bulkhead on magnetic boots, and took cover behind a large metal crate filled with extra rounds for the ship’s point defense cannons. Alex followed, taking up a position behind another crate two meters away. The monster reacts. It's extremely acrobatic and hits a crate with enough force to disengage the magnetic locks and send it, and Holden, into the wall. Holden breaks his knee or leg. Amos gets thrown against the cargo airlock with enough force to bend the metal. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Six posted:The monster turned back to look at him. Its blue eyes were far too large for its head, giving the creature a curious, childlike look. It reached out one oversized hand. Well, who knows - but Holden empties his magazine into it. He just about gets it out of the bay, but the monster grabs hold at the last second. The monster throws a crate at Amos and narrowly misses decapitating him. Then, it goes back to where it was and curls up into a ball. Alex says that if he stomps on the gas, they might hurl it out the doors. Naomi and Amos shoot the plan down because the crates will kill Holden if the g-forces increase. Holden watches the creature go back to sleep. And then Prax says he's seeing something interesting, and the chapter ends. Again, not a bad chapter. In fact, I think it's a step up from the last three. The wonders of having an immediate goal, some complications, and a general situation we understand: there's a scary monster on the ship, get it off the ship without touching it. Probably the worst you can level at it is what Omi says: that it "spends a lot of words to accomplish very little." Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Feb 9, 2021 |
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Feb 8, 2021 10:37
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Some of the Sheep posted:There's some more protomolecule fuckery going on too that further underscores both 1) the connection between Miller and Julie and 2) how humans re-purpose the protomolecule as much as it re-purposes humans. In "Critical Mass" (S01E09), a head-Miller appears to Julie at the moment of her death, holding her beads and juggling a low-g tweetie bird (can be seen here - I could only find to show in one of those embarrassing tribute music videos). I figured that Julie's "Miller-Vision" was the strand of Julie inside the seed crystal, meaning her PoV scene extended to Miller's arrival, as opposed to some predictive vision Milkfred E. Moore posted:Omi wonders: "...why are they talking about toilet stuff? This is starting to feel like a Thing in Expanse prologues, and it’s honestly weirding me out a bit." Dealing with bodily waste in space is a big deal (see The Mystery of the Floating Turd" during Apollo 10), maybe that's a carryover? *shrugs like a belter while thinking about prostates and jamming his half eaten bagel into the reycler with a big meaty arm* Edit: ugh, I wonder how long "chemical castration" will be an autofill suggestion on this tablet YOU DID THIS TO ME! xD Edit2: "queer" in Amos's usage, means "weird" Edit3: likely to give Amos a bumpkin air? BrotherJayne fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Feb 8, 2021 |
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Feb 8, 2021 11:04
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The thing is, I just don't buy Amos using 'queer' to mean 'weird.' I'm not sure how many people still do that in 2021, much less whatever year these novels are set in. It does give Amos a bit of a bumpkin air, but Amos isn't a bumpkin - he grew up in an inner city crime ring and is pretty much implied to have been a victim of the child sex trade. It makes me think of Firefly and how the show used language out of old Western serials and such. It could be because of that aspect of Amos having been two characters and one of them spoke like that. It could be because the usage of language has changed in the ten years since Leviathan Wakes was published, but I don't think that's the case. It could just be that Firefly was a big influence. I had another thought while I was writing out the above, even if it's not really linked to it. When I was reading Leviathan Wakes for the first time and the Vomit Zombies showed up, I distinctly remember thinking, hey, zombies, these aren't already an extremely played out aspect of nerd culture. I wondered why the Corey team had put them in. But, if the game was running for years before publication, then it was probably running through the peak of zombie hysteria that gripped sci-fi/fantasy subcultures. So, the inclusion makes a bit more sense now. Now, after the last chapter, I was expecting to switch to Avasarala or Bobbie but, instead, we switch to... Chapter Twenty-Seven: Prax Prax! Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Seven posted:When Eros died, everyone watched. The station had been designed as a scientific data extraction engine, and every change, death, and metamorphosis had been captured, recorded, and streamed out to the system. What the governments of Mars and Earth had tried to suppress had leaked out in the weeks and months that followed. How people viewed it had more to do with who they were than the actual footage. To some people, it had been news. For others, evidence. For more than Prax liked to think, it had been an entertainment of terrible decadence—a Busby Berkeley snuff flick. Anyway, Prax had been one of the everyones who had watched it. His whole team had tried to apply conventional biological logic to it and gotten nowhere. So, he'd gone back to Soybeans. "Life had gone on," the story says. Which, I guess it would. We've swapped over to Prax as the creature is reaching for Holden and he empties his magazine into it. It's sort of interesting to see the events from Prax's perspective, even if it's stuff we've already seen and stuff we already know. Prax, for example, notes that the monster has "one head, two arms, two legs." I'm not sure whether I like this kind of storytelling device. Seeing the same thing from alternate perspectives can work really well sometimes, but this isn't exactly Rashomon. As it is, it's a little like... yeah, we just read this maybe one thousand words ago. But then we catch up to where we were - Prax thinking outloud that something is interesting. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Seven posted:“Um,” Prax said, trying to gather the words that would explain what he’d seen. “It’s trying to move up a radiation gradient. I mean … the version of the protomolecule that was loose on Eros fed off radiation energy, and so I guess it makes sense that this one would too—” So, they build some bait - a half-kilo cylinder of radioactive material - with the plan of hurling it out past the cargo bay doors and the hope that the monster will leap out after it. But they need to do it from outside the Rocinante. And with Alex piloting, Amos hauling Holden out of the bay, and Naomi... supervising, I guess, Prax is the one who gets to throw the bait. Prax goes for a spacewalk. And, y'know, it's pretty good. I really like the moment Prax has when he first looks up into the infinite sea of stars. The description of him walking in mag boots for the first time is neat, too (as are the troubles he has!) As is Prax reminding him that the right-hand side of the Rocinante is called starboard. Omi: "I like Prax thinking he's paralyzed and Naomi going 'Dude, turn your boots on.'" Prax makes his way towards the cargo bay and hurls the bait into space. The monster goes right out of it. I like Prax's nerves as he has to slowly stomp his way back to the airlock, wondering if the monster can maneuver in space and such. Prax makes it into the airlock and the rest of the crew is okay, excepting Holden may've broken his knee. Prax floats around in the airlock in zero-gee. And then, a problem. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Seven posted:“Amos?” Naomi said. “I’m seeing you’re still in the cargo bay. Is there a problem?” Anyway, the monster has left an incendiary charge on the Rocinante's bulkhead! Well, Holden tells Alex that everyone's good and Alex hammers the accelerator. Then something happens, which you an reasonably assume is that aforementioned charge going off, the Rocinante goes spinning, and Prax gets knocked unconscious as he hits the airlock doors. Honestly, I really liked this chapter. Omi's thoughts basically echo mine. Really, my only quibble is that I feel like if the strange alien monster left a bomb on the ship, then maybe that's something you could've taken a few minutes to investigate. The monster itself is floating out into space, huddled around your bait - if you don't turn the reactor on, that is where it will stay. Is the bomb on a timer or is it, say, triggered to something like the reactor powering up?
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Feb 10, 2021 12:01
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It seems to me that a monster scuttling charge might have "host monster proximity" as a detonation condition. And the q bombs A. smack of Deadwood/O Brother Where Art Thou, and B. don't make no sense as homosexual. To me, at least. Then again, in common parlance, I've probably heard it to mean homosexual to weird at a 4 to 1 exchange, so who knows, I just don't see Amos meaning it the one way when it fits as the other. Not a hill I'd care to die on, however. In the show, were there any ambulatory PM doses on Eros? I need to rematch it, I might be thinking of Miller and Holden chunking heavy. Reading through all this, they did a drat good job on the adaption, and what is surprising me most in figuring out that my "head cannon" was some combination of the both
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Feb 10, 2021 12:39
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There were ambulatory cases on Eros in the series, but they were more like disorientated sick people than vomiting zombies. Chapter Twenty-Eight: Avasarala It's actually pretty neat how this chapter opens. Basically, Avasarala has been hit by the news that there's been a third spike on Venus, but where did it come from? I wonder, perhaps, if it has anything to do with the events that have just transpired on the Rocinante... Unfortunately, Soren is distracting her. He's come up with an intelligence report that claims that Roberta Draper is actually Amanda Telele, a member of the Martian Intelligence Service. Soren's like, drat boss, she's good, even I fell for her little lost Martian routine. Soren's provided all sorts of data to back up his supposed claim, too. Of course, as a reader we know it's all bullshit, which means there's a little part of me that wonders why we spend so much time on it. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Eight posted:It was the smallest thing, and the least expected. Soren bit at the inside of his bottom lip. It was a tiny movement, almost invisible. Like a tell at a poker table. And as she saw it, Avasarala knew. Anyway, Avasarala figures that Soren is working for someone else - big surprise. She thinks that Soren is the reason why Nguyen was able to put his fleet back together, and that they had been anticipating basically everything that's happened, and that Errinwright is probably involved, too. After all, he'd let her basically do whatever she wanted, all in the hope of letting her guard down. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Eight posted:This wasn’t a shard of Venus that had escaped; it was a military project. A weapon that Earth wanted in order to break its rivals before the alien project on Venus finished whatever it was doing. Someone—probably Mao-Kwikowski—had retained a sample of the protomolecule in some separate and firewalled lab, weaponized it, and opened bidding. As far as Avasarala's concerned, Errinwright's about to do something bad with his new toy, and she's the only one who can still stop him. She finally responds to Soren and basically tells her that they're not going to arrest Bobbie. She's going to talk to Errinwright first. She calls him and he's like, well, are you going to arrest Bobbie? She says she won't, she'll just monitor her - better the devil they know, right? Then, Errinwright tells Avasarala that he'd like her to go with JP Mao on his private yacht to oversee the situation there. It is, very obviously, some kind of trap. Then, Bobbie arrives and takes a seat where Errinwright can't see her through teh camera. So, Avasarala's heading off with Mao in four days. And she's angry! Her boss has secretly started a war with the help of the dudes who just about ended the world. There's this funny moment where Errinwright seems to figure out something's up with Avasarala, that she knows about their secret plot, because... Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Eight posted:“Are you feeling all right?” he asked. “I think this is the first conversation we’ve had in ten years where you haven’t said something vulgar.” Wait. She hasn't mentioned anything yet? So, I'll admit, I'm confused and I'm not sure if I missed something or if I just thought this chapter would go a different way. If I have this right, the order of events is:
Anyway, Avasarala basically explains everything to Bobbie: she's being sent to Ganymede, either to keep her out of the way while important things happen, or to kill her. She has to go, or she'll basically lose her job and respect in the UN. Makes sense. Soren returns with some tea. He pointedly pretends not to notice Bobbie. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Eight posted:“Soren,” she said. “They’re going to know it was you.” Bobbie's like, a gun would be nice and all, but I'd rather get my suit back. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Eight posted:“If we’ve still got it, you’ll have it.” Only she didn't. And I can understand that, sure, a Martian marine can't just haul a member of UN staff into the UN building while screaming he's a spy or whatever, but it's really strange that I can only assume there was this whole exchange between Soren and Bobbie that we didn't see. Like, the biggest point Soren makes to her is 'What're you going to do, beat me up?' It'd make a lot more sense and feel smoother if we got some indication just how he slipped the net. I read this chapter, and wrote this up, in the grip of a headache, so it's possible my cognition is impaired but I generally feel like I've missed something or this is something an editor should've caught. Given that Avasarala and Bobbie were written by different halves, maybe they just didn't coordinate well enough on the Soren plot point. Franck wrote 'Soren is caught by Bobbie' and Abraham wrote 'Avasarala figures out Soren's in on it' and they didn't try to make them meet together. It's possible that the Soren file on Bobbie is an aspect of what Avasarala thinks about, that this has all been planned out and executed by various smart people, but then that clashes with what I feel is really the immediate, obvious assumption the reader will have: that Soren's fake file is an attempt to get rid of Bobbie before she can spill the beans. But Avasarala figures that Bobbie had spooked Soren, which implies to me it was not something planned out in advance, that this is a bit of a slapdash play to get rid of Bobbie ASAP, which plays into how she sees through it as a fake. And, like, despite getting away from her and having all these conspiracy resources at his disposal... he couldn't just kill her or something? I don't know. It doesn't help me that Avasarala is like 'Why don't I feel anything about this treachery?' before she even realizes that the report is a fake. Wouldn't this chapter be more interesting if, like, she thinks the report is real - odd, of course, but legit - only for Bobbie to burst in and be like IT'S ALL BULLSHIT, I JUST HAD TO BEAT UP LIKE SIX DUDES TO GET IN HERE, I SAW HIM HANDING OFF THAT USB KEY AND I GOT JUMPED AND- And then Avasarala could think, wait, that report was a bit too convenient - it must be fake, he must've been rattled and trying to play me against her. Well, bye bye, Soren, enjoy basic. Weird chapter. If I've missed anything or my opinion is off base, feel free to point it out. But this chapter just feels really weird to me. I feel like the reveleation that there's this conspiracy that reaches - and this is not an exhaustive list - one of the richest men in the Solar system, at least one UN Admiral, Avasarala's boss, members of the Martian military, and Avasarala's personal assistant... I don't know, I feel like that should be more of a moment. Instead, it feels a little like Avasarala cleared some arbitrary plot flag so she can suddenly realize there's a conspiracy afoot. Bit of a downer after the last two chapters. edit: I just can't shake the feeling that Soren was like 'Hang on, Draper, before you haul me in, I left my coat in the other room' and by the time Bobbie realizes, hey, he was wearing his coat, he's already halfway back to the UN building. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Feb 17, 2021 |
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Feb 17, 2021 10:16
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Yeah, it's kind of a bummer of a resolution to that whole arc, too. If this is how it's going to wrap up we could've almost skipped all of the Bobbie/Avasarala chapters up to this point. Bobbie isn't an appreciably different person from who she was when she woke up in the medical bay, and while some of the backchannel politics stuff is interesting, none of it feels vital (or even relevant) to the core plot on Ganymede.
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Feb 17, 2021 12:21
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I remember watching the series and wondering why they cut Soren since I remembered him being a prominent character. Reading the Avasarala chapters again have really made it clear why they cut him and why they rejiggered so much of the political intrigue plotline. At this point, we're over halfway through Caliban's War and I can't quite shake the thought that there's at least one substantial issue - or, at least, an issue I think is substantial - with each plot. A big criticism I'd level at the novel at this point is that the four plots don't feel smooth. They don't need to tie directly to the core plot of Ganymede Monsters and Missing Children (Or Are They?) but I don't feel like there's a nice 'rhythm' with how and when we swap between each perspective and how their plots develop when we're with them. Holden - well, we know what I think about Holden's stuff. Overall, it's one of the stronger plots, but the lack of proper context to his operations on Ganymede is a little annoying since he's about to come into conflict with his benefactor and sponsor. Bobbie - we started with her, really, and halfway into the story it doesn't feel like she's any closer to her goal of avenging her dead friends. She's kind of been puttering around on Earth on the edges of a conspiracy she's not really able to fight. She's a neat character and makes an impact despite not doing anything, but she feels pretty irrelevant. And Avasarala, who is in the middle of that conspiracy, doesn't feel like she does enough to fight it. A lot of the revelations in this chapter are interesting - she's been outplayed from the start, everyone else might be in on it, how's she going to fight back? - but they don't feel like revelations from anything Avasarala has spotted or figured out (Wait, Telele, wasn't that the name of a Martian operative we caught six months ago? etc.) as much as were just shoved into her head. If I were to look back on Soren's appearances, would I see anything that'd make me go, a-ha, he was working against Avasarala from the start? I like to think I was keeping one eye on Soren for that kind of realizing so far, but I don't think I've seen it. Bobbie had a few misgivings but Avasarala treats him like a trusted pal she can tease and insult without risk of actually hurting his feelings - all inside jokes. I wonder if this a result of Soren being split between two perspectives. Avasarala sees him like that, but Bobbie sees him as more of a snake, and it's not quite clear which is more accurate. If it was a Bobbie-centric story, then Soren could be the snake in the grass that Avasarala is too blind to see - and that would fit. If it was more Avasarala, then he's the confidant whom she fails to suspect despite how he's undermined her at every turn. As it is, he's kind of both and neither. I've been working on a novel that features three plotlines that weave together, so, I have something of an idea of how much work you need to put in to make those plots develop neatly as little plots in and of themselves and then as part of the broader novel-as-a-whole plot. It was hard enough doing it with three people who were all on the same island! Doing it with four people on different sides of the Solar system - yeah, that's a tall order. The Prax-Holden plot is a lot stronger than the Bobbie-Avasarala plot. As it is, it feels like Bobbie and Avasarala are basically spinning their wheels until they hit the part of the outline where they cross over with Prax and Holden, which means you can't really have any intricate plots on Earth because you only have x amount of chapters before x, y, z and so on.
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Feb 17, 2021 13:03
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Yup- I just finished reading ahead and writing up some additional chapters, and one of my big recurring complaints is that 100% of the upcoming Prax chapters and like 3/4 of the Bobbie/Avasarala chapters just don't do anything to justify their existence. Honestly at this point I wish the book had been boiled down to just Holden's plot, because it's the cleanest and best-paced of all the stuff.
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Feb 17, 2021 13:20
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I wonder if they've ever talked about their creative process. I know they've mentioned they write and pass the chapters back, but more the process of just planning a novel out. For the first novel, we know it was just an RPG adaptation and the Holden plot was the main 'thing' while Miller was basically a side game. I wonder if that's followed through to any of the later novels. What was the initial thought behind Caliban's War? Was it 'Holden goes to Ganymede and finds out someone else has been experimenting with the Protomolecule' or was it more like 'A marine and a botanist get wrapped up in Protomolecule shenanigans.' Part of me feels like it's very Holden-centric, if only because it feels like he's the main storyline while everyone else is basically on side quests (just to borrow some RPG terms.) It could just be teething issues, really. Sure, LW was the first novel they wrote together, but it basically came with a skeleton. I feel like the argument could be made that CW is the first novel that Abraham and Franck had really written together, which probably explains why it's kind of like Leviathan Wakes: Wake Harder. It's a missing girl that kicks off a war story but there's more action, more points of view, more drama, a bigger conspiracy, etc. It's funny. There's this whole chapter I thought happened around about now where someone calls Avasarala and is like, hey, our guys on Ganymede failed to get Holden. And, in my memory, Avasarala clearly goes: "Who the gently caress did they send? The loving Keystone Cops?" I keep expecting to hit it and talk about how much I liked it but it turns out I just invented it.
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Feb 17, 2021 13:51
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I suspect that yeah-part of it was just inexperience with their format and dynamic, and part of it was the trap of multiple POVs. It mostly worked for Leviathan Wakes, but I think an awful lot of the later books would've worked much better as all holden, all the time (#4), or 100% side characters without a main voice to hang the plot on (#3).
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Feb 17, 2021 13:53
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The Soren thing really threw me reading too.
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Feb 17, 2021 18:16
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Chapter Twenty-Nine: Holden If there's one thing Omi and I keep coming back to with some of these chapters, it's that they don't begin at the point one expects. The last time we were on the Rocinante, something had exploded and sent the ship spinning. As a reader, I expect to pick up pretty much at that dramatic moment or some time after (say, Holden was knocked unconscious like Prax.) Instead, we hop back to the moment where Alex starts to accelerate the Roci, Holden and Amos have a few lines, and then the explosion happens. So, boom, there we are. Holden gets his 'body armor' to shoot him full of amphetamines and painkillers. He asks Alex what happened and Alex says, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the moment they hit the accelerator and burnt up the monster behind them, the bomb went off. Long story short: this chapter is about them fixing their ship. It's kinda flat and skimmable which I think is always unfortunate. Prax is in the airlock, not moving, but Holden decides to fix the ship over first aid - makes sense. The Roci is totally busted and they can't even fire the manoeuvring thrusters because the water pumps are down. Amos and Holden go off to do that, but Amos has a concussion and Holden orders Naomi to shoot him full of speed so they can get him down to the machine shop where the secondary water pump is. Omi wondered if remote controlled spacesuits have been mentioned before. I don't think so. It's not a problem or anything - it makes sense to have someone able to use some of the suit systems, of course. But it's kind of scary, too, isn't it? Imagine if someone hacked into your suit and blasted you full of drugs or whatever else. So, they go down to the machine shop. There's a brief concern that it could be flooded by radiation and Naomi is all, Jim, how many times are you going to massively irradiate yourself? and that's a nice bit. It's all fine, of course. The reactor is untouched, but the monster's bomb had come close to punching through the wall opposite it which could've blown the ship. They end up fixing it and Alex confirms that the monster is definitely dead. One page break later, Holden's getting patched up in sick bay. Prax is there, too, and he seems to be pretty much fine. He's got bandages around his head and all, but Omi wondered if it wasn't a bit strange to go from 'Prax isn't moving in the airlock' to 'He's fine, everyone.' Holden's calmed down from thinking Fred was definitely behind to more of need to be sure that Fred isn't behind it. Prax asks Holden if the monster is dead and then starts weeping when Holden says it is. Holden gets up and goes to read the damage reports being compiled by Naomi and the Roci- Aside: one of the things I find interesting about the Expanse is that there are obviously some pretty intelligent, useful AI systems around. The authors have said they didn't include AI or robots because they were interested in telling stories about people. But what I wonder about is that the Coreys never included, say, a paragraph explaining how both Earth and Mars heavily-restricted AI development because of some disastrous conflict out near Neptune or whatever. On his way up to ops, Holden hears two people talking in the galley - it's Naomi and Amos. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Nine posted:“You almost beat a man to death with a can of chicken on Ganymede,” Naomi replied. Amos mentions that those kids they end up having have 'uses' as well. It's clear that Amos was involved in the trade and was probably one of those kids. Honestly, the weakest part of their exchange is that Naomi basically says that Amos was one of them. Caliban's War, Chapter Twenty-Nine posted:“So I’d like to find this little girl before someone uses her up, and she disappears. I’d like to do that for her,” Amos said. His voice caught for a moment, and he cleared it with a loud cough. “For her dad.” Which makes it a nice, strong note to end the chapter on. But, there was something I was wondering while reading it... Omi: "The pivot back to Amos' big chicken adventure took me a moment - maybe I wasn't paying attention, but I didn't realize it bugged Naomi when it happened. Also, this is the first time Amos' sex trafficking crime past is specifically set up - I wasn't expecting that, since in my head he doesn't really become a well-rounded character until 3 or 4." I flipped back to take a look, and it is a little bit odd. Not only does Naomi not factor into the scene at all (sure, she's only a voice in Holden's ear, but...) but she cracks a joke about how they can always get more chicken and asks only if Amos is okay. It's not the kind of reaction I'd expect if it was unusual. Anyway, my thought was: wouldn't Naomi know this? It's possible I may be basing my thoughts off the TV adaptation, where Naomi seems to know much more about Amos' past much earlier. Here, I suppose he's her trusted mechanic, but they've never really talked about his past? In Leviathan Wakes, Holden implies he knows something of Amos' past - that he's done bad things he's ashamed of and he's from Baltimore. It's ultimately a pretty minor thing, and it's only a thought I've come to on this re-read, but it feels a little odd that Naomi doesn't seem to know anything about Amos' past. But it's a good bit, either way. I also feel like not only is it our first look into Amos' past, but it's also about where the Coreys figure out how he should sound and act. So, it's cool, and I like that it sets up the stuff we learn in the later novels and, especially, The Churn short story which I think is one of the better works the Corey team wrote if only because they take what you expect you'd get an an Amos-focused short about his past and give you something you don't expect.
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Feb 19, 2021 04:37
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Incidentally, not to jump right back into book vs TV, but there's a moment in one of the first episodes (I think S1E2?) where there's a weird discussion/disagreement, and Amos turns to Naomi and goes "...wait, you're really afraid of me?" Wes Chatham knocks the line read out of the park and manages to sound simultaneously hurt, reassuring, and kinda like a nefarious violence man. It's one of those moments that stood out, like his loitering around in the back of the blue iguana, and by lieu of having been written after way more of Amos's story had been formalized, managed to inject him with more character and pathos in a single moment than a lot of the entire first book managed.
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Feb 19, 2021 14:09
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Chapter Thirty: BobbieCaliban's War, Chapter Thirty posted:Prior to working for Avasarala at the UN, Bobbie had never even heard of Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile, or if she had, she hadn’t noticed. I might be splitting hairs here, sure, but if you scroll down the list of the largest companies by revenue on Wikipedia, you'll probably have heard of most of them, if not all of them. You probably have some idea of what they do. There's a certain allowance for Bobbie being a Martian, sure, and maybe not familiar with Earth-based billionaires (trillionaires?) and their companies - but then the same paragraph establishes that Mao-Kwik ships to Mars too. In fact, just about every part of Bobbie's life, the chapter points out, seems to have been carried on Mao-Kwik freighters! It's just a really sloppy line to open the chapter on. How about 'The name Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile had always seemed to unobtrusive. But, prior to working for Avasarala, Bobbie hadn't had any idea of the true size and reach of the company...' So, the chapter opens on exposition. Here's what we learn: JP Mao owns significant properties on every habitable moon and planet in the system, his daughter had her own racing ship (and that was the daughter, Bobbie notes, he didn't like), Bobbie can't really grapple with that level of wealth, Bobbie grew up 'Martian middle class' which translates to a nice home, private school, and no need for tertiary student loans. Well, that's kind of interesting in a little worldbuilding sort of way - you kind of get the impression that Martian education would've been state-funded. She's waiting on Mao's private station. As in, private personal station - not corporate ones, private. Mao's so rich that he has personal space stations. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty posted:She also thought it made Mao himself very dangerous. Everything he did was an announcement of his freedom from constraint. He was a man without boundaries. Killing a senior politician of the UN government might be bad business. It might wind up being expensive. But it would never actually be risky to a man with this much wealth and power. So, we hit the point where the chapter should've begun ("I hate spin gravity," Avasarala said...) and Bobbie basically says what we're all thinking: Mao could probably shoot Avasarala in the face and get away with it. Avasarala is like, pssh, silly Bobby, that's now how the game is played. The two of them argue. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty posted:“Yes, that’s what I mean,” the old woman said. “The level we’re playing at has different rules. It’s like playing go. It’s all about exerting influence. Controlling the board without occupying it.” And, yeah, this is honestly the case for me, too. Now that we have Bobbie and Avasarala in a threatening place, they have a really neat chemistry. Bobbie is the realist who thinks the bullet is coming any second, and Avasarala is... uh, placing her trust in the system of decorum and politics even though a. Mao-Kwik had a hand in trying to kick off a war between Mars and Earth and b. she should know better than most that the system won't protect anyone. (Then again, Avasarala seemed to think more female Admirals would change up the UN... But whether this is an intentional aspect of her character or just the authors writing a kind of milquetoast liberal politician is hard to say.) Meanwhile, they're loading Bobbie's suit into the ship in a crate marked FORMAL WEAR. I feel like if I was Mao, I'd tell people to scan the poo poo out of anything they're bringing onboard and, if it can't be scanned, to do a visual inspection. It's not a big deal - I'm sure we can assume that they did some kind of espionage thing to get it onboard, but given how this chapter goes, it's one of those problems I have with The Expanse's antagonists - they're all kind of morons. Soon afterwards, they're boarding the Guanshiyin, Mao's private yacht. It is incredibly opulent compared to all the other corridor descriptions we've read to this point - plush carpet, chandeliers, raw bamboo walls, etc. As Bobbie reflects, the ship isn't ever in any danger of breaking down or getting into trouble. We meet the head of Avasarala's security team, a gentleman named Cotyar. Cotyar is a character who was greatly expanded on with the TV series. They conduct a bit of a security briefing. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty posted:“As you say,” Cotyar continued with a nod. “Seven. We do not control any of the ship’s systems. Assassination would be as simple as sealing the deck we are on and pumping out the air.” Well, Avasarala says that she's not in any danger. That Mao and co. have her on the ship to send her on a long trip and read all of her mail and that's all. Which is almost adorably naïve, isn't it? Hell, they could blow the ship up with some breach in the starboard fusion chamber. Avasarala just feels too naïve for the old powerbroker she's supposed to be. I guess she- Well, I won't leap ahead of myself. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty posted:“I noticed,” Avasarala said, her tone shifting to the one she used when she was going to ask for an unpleasant favor, “the executive officer staring at you when we did the airlock meet and greet.” Okay, thanks, Coreys. Is there something you'd like to tell us about your mothers? No? Okay, moving on. Avasarala asks Bobbie if she can chat him up over dinner. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty posted:“Yeah, no. Hell no. gently caress no. Nein und abermals nein. Nyet. La. Siei,” Bobbie said, stopping when she ran out of languages. “And I’m actually a little pissed now.” Anyway, we hop over to the dinner. Jules Mao greets them. Bobbie pretty much immediate leaps into demanding straight answers about what's really going on. Mao claims it's just humanitarian aid. Bobbie's like, hey, this ship can't even bring enough supplies to help out on Ganymede. Mao's like, trust me, Sergeant, everything is fine - oh and, by the way, I'm not coming with you. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty posted:“I’m afraid not,” Mao said, smiling up at the white jacket who placed another plate in front of him. This one had what appeared to be a whole fish, complete with head and staring eyes. That's not to say that characters should be these genre-savvy robots who just sort of know things. But, at the same time, if I'm thinking this as a reader, either because of familiarity or because you've directly raised the possibility of it being a trap in a previous chapter, then it's probably best to use it, right? It's helpful shorthand. If I see this as an obvious part of the trap, then I'm not put out by characters figuring it out. As it is, it just doesn't feel great that Avasarala, the savvy politician she is, was either too stupid to see it or otherwise actually outplayed by Mao's tactic of 'say I'll be on the yacht, then not be on the yacht.' Either way, Avasarala is struck speechless, seemingly until she, Bobbie and Cotyar are back in their suite. Then and there, she asks Bobbie to come up with a plan to get control of the ship or get their little group off it. Bobbie and Cotyar both agree that they should just grab Mao's shuttle. If he's about to leave aboard it, then they must still be close enough to his station to make it possible. Avasarala says that she can't leave yet, because of the game. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty posted:“Yes,” Avasarala snapped. “Yes, the loving game. I’ve been ordered by my superiors to make this trip. If I leave now, I’m out. They’ll be polite and call it a sudden illness or exhaustion, but the excuse they give me will also be the reason I’m not allowed to keep doing my job. I’ll be safe, and I’ll be powerless. As long as I pretend I’m doing what they asked me to, I can keep working. I’m still the assistant undersecretary of executive administration. I still have connections. Influence. If I run now, I lose them. If I lose them, these fuckers might as well shoot me.” Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty posted:“But,” Avasarala repeated. “If I continue to be effective, they’ll find a way to cut me off. Unexplained comm failure, something. Something to keep me off the network. When that happens, I will demand that the captain reroute to the closest station for repairs. If I’m right, he won’t do it.”
Anyway, Avasarala says that the moment the Captain refuses to obey her, then she'll declare it "an illegal seizure of her person" and she'll have Bobbie and Cotyar take control of the ship. Which is a fine plan, if you're assuming that your enemies will wait for such a pretence and that the mission is legitimate. That they're, y'know, competent. Were I in their shoes, I probably would've tried to ensure Avasarala's shuttle exploded on its way to Mao's station and then, I don't know, the poor mechanic killed himself with two bullets to the brain stem afterward. How unfortunate for everyone involved. The thing about his chapter is that for everything I've basically criticized, it's actually a decent chapter. It's unfortunate that it took 56% of the novel to put Avasarala and Bobbie in a situation where they feel like they're bouncing off each other and is straightforward and easy to grasp: how will tough space marine lady and cranky political grandmother escape the trap? It's actually interesting and fun to read. It's a drat shame it hasn't come earlier. But, I mean, I hope no one expects anything other than "Sorry, ma'am, the radio is down." "Just as I said - go get 'em, Bobbie." Like, I'm not trying to be pedantic here. It's just that one of the biggest - if not the biggest - flaw with these novels is the antagonists. Across all eight books, they're basically one-note. And a considerable tone to that note is incompetent. It's no surprise that the third season of the TV series changes this element of the plot fairly dramatically. I won't go into that yet, but it's different, more straightforward and, to be blunt, cuts the crap. Even Omi agrees that the 'Let's Do A Mutiny' idea is overall fun and interesting. But do you know how long it's going to take to actually happen? Take a guess, then highlight the next section set of black bars: Chapters 37 and 38. The thing I find strange about this novel is how it never just gets on with it. So, everything's laid out - Avasarala and co. are in a trap, they're in danger but they have a plan. Okay, great. So, skip to the trap going off - will they pull their plan off or not? As a reader, that's what I want to see and it is, on some level, what I expect to see. To borrow a Simpsons meme, sometimes I feel like Milhouse crying about the fireworks factory. It's something I was thinking about while writing up this chapter, actually. I'm not sure if it's something Omi has mentioned in this thread or if it's just been in one of our chats, but anyway, it comes down to how these books are marketed and sold to readers. The Expanse novels seem to be billed as these cinematic action adventure stories: "A Hollywood blockbuster in book form," "Interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written," and so on. But there's not exactly much action and not exactly much adventuring is there, really? For the most part, it's just people talking and then people waiting for the plot to happen. The pace is, to be kind, measured. Like I said, it's not a bad chapter. It just so happens to be the one where I've come back to my point in the OP, that you could cut these chapters by fifty percent (and punch them up with some smarter antagonists) and have the same story told in a much more exciting way. But then I think, these books are wildly successful, and I wonder if part of that is due to how slow and obvious they are. Sometimes if you condescend to reader, you can make them feel smart. I don't get it either. This chapter just leaves me going, wait, guys, why are you telling the story this way? Anyway, here are some other strange thoughts I had off the top of my head, about Soren: 1. When Soren brought Holden to Avasarala's attention, why did he tell the team to bring him in? If I had someone like that - the guy who probably knew the most about my evil conspiracy - in a war zone where he could meet with an accident, I'd probably have him meet with an accident. 2. When Avasarala asked Soren to arrange for a call with Fred, and it never ever happened or was even mentioned again, is this a sign of Soren 'forgetting' to do it? Did Avasarala also forget she asked? Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 12:53 on Feb 22, 2021 |
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Feb 22, 2021 12:36
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Chapter Thirty-One: PraxCaliban's War, Chapter Thirty-One posted:With every day that passed, the question came closer: What was the next step? Prax is calling up Persis-Strokes Security Consultants. They're on Luna and the twenty-minute comm delay makes actual conversation pretty much impossible so, to Prax, it's like she's making a series of promotional videos that are closer and closer to what he's looking for. That's a fun line and paints a pretty vivid image. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-One posted:"We have an intelligence-sharing relationship with Pinkwater, which is presently the security company with the largest physical and operational presence in the outer planets," she said. "We also have joint-action contracts with Al Abbiq and Star Helix. With those, we can take immediate action either directly or through our partners, on literally any station or planet in the system." Anyway, Prax decides that those guys are exactly who he needs to help him find Mei. Someone with eyes and contacts everywhere. The company will only take a processing fee for now and will only charge him once they've agreed to the scope of the investigation. There's something weirdly off about Prax employing the services of a company that happily works with Star Helix (dirty cops), Pinkwater (probably dirty cops), and Al Abbiq (NO DATA FOUND.) Like, hey, the future military-industrial complex/surveillance state is a good thing if it helps you find your missing girl? Prax heads up to the cockpit and chats with Alex. They're closing in on Tycho station. Omi raised the point that he was surprised that they skip over the whole rest of the journey without so much of a mention given the state the Roci was in. I counter that if they weren't reaching Tycho in this chapter, I'd probably lose my goddamn mind. Alex and Prax talk about the Nauvoo and the aftermath thereof. Tycho's building a ship to go catch up with the Nauvoo and haul it back. The Mormons want to sue the poo poo out of Tycho for what they did with their fancy generation ship. Unfortunately, the OPA refuses to acknowledge Earth and Martian courts, and they run all the Belt legal stuff. So, the Mormons can win in a court that the OPA doesn't recognize or lose in a court they do. Honestly, this is the most interesting bit in Caliban's War for a while. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-One posted:Prax looked at the mass of data being sent to Alex and said, "Why fly at all? Couldn’t the ship just use this data to do the docking itself?" They land on Tycho. Prax equates the docking manoeuvres to a neo-Taoist dance performance and, eh, it's okay. Prax goes off to see Holden and the crew to thank him for what they've done so far to help him, but he walks in on Naomi saying she's leaving. Alex wonders if they're going to find a new XO, Holden says no. Amos offers for Prax to come and bunk with him on Tycho and he goes with him. Amos' rooms are even smaller than the Rocinante's quarters. Prax realizes he doesn't actually have the money to pay for the Persis-Strokes people and so calls up his ex-wife Nicola. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-One posted:"Hi, Nici," he said. "I wanted you to know I’m safe. I got to Tycho Station, but I still don’t have Mei. I’m hiring a security consultant. I’m giving them everything I know. They seem like they’ll really be able to help. But it’s expensive. It may be very expensive. And she may already be dead." Prax gets a reply to one of his messages. It's from Nicola. Basically, she says, I got your message but there's nothing I can do and I'll talk with Taban (whom one can presume is her new partner) and see if they can throw in any money. She sends along a week's salary, too. Then he gets a reply from the Luna security guys and, well, they're charging way too much to help him. Prax needs money and he needs it fast! And that's basically it. Is it horrible? No. Is it engrossing? Not really. As Omi says, it's fine and it keeps the missing child plot going - but there's nothing really new to it. 'The guy needs money to find his daughter' isn't exactly a bad idea, but it's also not particularly interesting to have happen at the halfway mark. There's a certain passivity to the Expanse's protagonists, I think. And I mean, is there anything that dates Caliban's War more than where this story is about to go? Prax uses the power of GoFundMe to not only raise money but also to get the next plot token!
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Feb 25, 2021 04:40
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Chapter Thirty-Two: Holden Holden's overseeing the repairs of the Rocinante. Well, it's more accurate to say he's brooding in the engineering bay about recent events. If Fred really did make use of the protomolecule, then Holden will kill him. Unfortunately, that'll prove Naomi right that he's a loose cannon, and he'll lose her forever. If Fred didn't do it, Holden thinks, then he can probably apologize to her and win her back. And if it's not Fred who did it, then it's even worse. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Two posted:It was an unpleasant thought that the truth that would be worst for humanity was the one that would be best for him. Intellectually, he knew he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself or his happiness to save everyone else. But that didn’t stop the tiny voice at the back of his head that said, gently caress everyone else, I want my girlfriend back. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Two posted:“I read your report on Ganymede,” Fred said. “Talk to me about it. Impressions on the ground.” Omi: "Wait, since when?" Remember, Holden greets Fred with a very casual "Yo, Fred," back in Chapter One and never really gives much indication he's afraid of his patron. I think if this is what the novel wanted to do, then we really needed to see Fred before this point in the story. Establishing Holden's part of the story was 'idealistic guy has been sent to a crisis zone to find out what's happening by his patron who is a scary terrorist man' sounds like it'd be a great hook. Bring the exposition forward, don't jam it into the chapter where the confrontation happens. It's remarkably similar to how Leviathan Wakes gave us Fred's whole deal in the chapter where he calls them up. Fred chuckles and grins and Holden unloads. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Two posted:“You,” he said, “don’t get to laugh. Not until I know for sure it wasn’t all your fault. If you can do what I think you might have done and still laugh, I will shoot you right here and now.” It's not the worst reasoning, really. I mean, you can poke some easy holes in it. Such as, why would Fred would the infrastructure of Ganymede to get shot to bits and why would he draw such attention to Ganymede in the first place? On some level, I think that's intended - Holden's not the smartest guy. On the other hand, this bugs me because we already know - courtesy of Avasarala's earlier chapter - that Fred was not involved. Therefore, as much as I like this confrontation, it all feels strangely pointless. That is, unless the story goes with 'Fred gave it to Mao' but then that'd be kinda ridiculous and overly-complicated. I really like stories that give the reader more knowledge than the characters, but there's an art to it, and I don't think it's working so well here. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Two posted:Fred’s quiet tone made Holden realize how loud he’d gotten, and he took a moment to take several deep breaths. When his pulse had slowed a bit, he said, “Yes. Pretty much exactly that.” Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Two posted:“You,” Fred said with a broad smile that did not extend to his eyes, “do not get to ask me that.” Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Two posted:"I’ve been putting up with your bullshit for over a year now,” Fred said. “This idea you have that the universe owes you answers. This righteous indignation you wield like a club at everyone around you. But I don’t have to put up with your poo poo. Omi calls both Fred's anger and Holden's firing "melodramatic" and I think I'm inclined to agree, but I like melodrama, so, it's not so much a negative. What I think the issue is that makes it feels so melodramatic is summed up by how the scene goes from "gently caress you!" "gently caress me? gently caress YOU!" then into "But it wasn't me, though." It doesn't feel organic. The confrontation with Fred was necessary. Had Holden gotten back to Tycho and decided, hey, maybe Naomi was right and it wasn't Fred, it'd be weird and boring. But having him cool off on the flight back instead of getting increasingly convinced he's right and it all makes sense and then storm into Fred's office the first chance he gets... It just feels backwards. In Omi's words, it makes the Holden/Naomi conflict part of the plot feel lukewarm because Holden's already, prior to his big fight with Fred, basically deciding he'd rather have Naomi back. While there's a certain dramatic irony to the audience knowing that Fred's not responsible and therefore making Holden's anger that much more self-righteous and pig-headed, I'm not sure that helps the chapter overall. Possibly because the Holden/Fred dynamic hasn't been established well enough to make the conflict feel like it has ramifications beyond the Protomolecule plot. It should feel like something that's been a long-time coming, two trains about to crash head on, but it doesn't. In a more character-focused story, I think this chapter would work better. But honestly, the only real draw to these novels is the plot - which is why the fact they spend so much time not doing the plot is always odd to me. As much as I like the dressing down Fred gives Holden, it's a bit of a cheap anti-climax to have Fred tell him it wasn't him at the end of it. I feel it'd be more interesting if he just threw him out because of the accusations, leaving Holden to realize 'Oh, Naomi was right, and I just burnt the guy who's been paying for all our stuff - poo poo.' Imagine if the scene had been flipped a bit so Fred just said he didn't do it straight up, too. Might've been fun if Holden called bullshit and then Fred exploded - it'd make Holden a little more unreasonable. Similarly, I'd like to know a little bit more about these crusades Fred mentions Holden going on about. Has Holden's whole time with the OPA been one of him being this troublemaking idealist? I can't say that's the opinion I had, even reading these novels for the second time. Not even mentioning the whole idea that Holden's been a thorn in Fred's side as he implies but he's also really afraid of the guy. Despite all this, I think it's a fun chapter. The scene on the Roci with Sam and Alex is a nice breather after all the stuff with the monster and the explosion, and the Fred confrontation is good, too, even if it's a little messy. We're halfway into the novel and it's our first major indication of this tension between Fred and Holden, y'know? It feels a little anti-climactic for a moment where our hero throws his support network to the wind and maybe pisses off the third and final faction in the Solar system. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Feb 26, 2021 |
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Feb 26, 2021 07:50
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Sorry about the delay! I've just had a particular bad pair of weeks and it's really kept from doing, well, much of anything really. Chapter Thirty-Three: Prax Prax is hanging out with Amos and talking about his ex-wife, Nicola. According to Prax, Nicola didn't want to be married to him and didn't love Mei. Prax thinks if he had been 'a better father' by leaving the dome as soon as they got the warning, then maybe they wouldn't have taken Mei. Caring about the plants didn't really mean anything because they're all dead now. Amos points out that they grabbed Mei before the warning went out. Really, it's a nice little scene, and I'd say my favorite opening yet in Caliban's War. Which means that we then hit what I think might be clunkiest bit yet in Caliban's War when Holden arrives. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Three posted:The door chimed and slid open. Holden stepped in. Prax couldn’t see at first what was different about him, but that something had happened ... had changed ... was unmistakable. The face was the same; the clothes hadn’t changed. Prax had the uncanny memory of sitting through a lecture on metamorphosis. Amos thinks Holden got laid is the explanation, but Holden smiles and said he got fired - well, everyone got fired. Amos doesn't care. Naomi isn't returning Holden's calls. He asks Amos where Naomi is and he points him to a bar. Amos mentions that Prax tried to get Luna private security to help find Mei but it didn't work out. Holden points out, with 'genuine confusion', that he thought they were finding the kid. Prax says he can't pay anyway. There's part of me where my mind immediately goes to the preceding chapter where the crew talked about money and such. Especially when Holden is like, hey, how about we do some crowdfunding? Yes, really. This is one of those bits that I think really dates the novel. Caliban's War was published in 2012, but I think was written mostly concurrently with Leviathan Wakes. So, we'll assume 2010-2011. Kickstarter was created in 2009. GoFundMe was 2010. It wasn't for a few more years before, I think, the shine had worn off the idea of crowdfunding - you hadn't yet had your Pillars of Eternity, your Star Citizen, and so on. Nor had the idea that people will need to fairly often crowdfund expenses for things like healthcare, housing, legal aid become apparent, and criticized. Like a bandaid over systemic issues. Anyway, Holden records a video for mass distribution - because that worked out so well last time - and basically pitches donations to help them fund finding Mei. As Omi points out: "I like how Holden's first move after getting fired is to record a big, dumb video for mass distribution." Apparently, it's been four months since the Ganymede attack - huh, doesn't feel that long. Long story short, they send out the video and Prax goes to sleep. There's a dream sequence where Prax thinks he's getting chased by the protomolecule-infected soybeans and getting rejected from jobs. Meh. Prax wakes up and greets Amos. They talk about vat-grown beef which is actually kinda interesting and how microgravity makes fish better for you. I don't know if any of it is true, but it's neat. Anyway, in seven hours, the fundraising campaign has made enough money to keep the Roci flying for a month. People are just throwing money at Prax because of his missing baby girl. There's heaps of messages. And then there's one in particular. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Three posted:“Dr. Meng,” the man said. He had a slushy accent that reminded Prax of recordings of his own grandfather. “I’m very sorry to hear of all you and your family have suffered. Are suffering.” The man licked his lips. “The security video on your presentation. I believe I know the man in it. But his name isn’t Strickland...” Omi says: "I'm not wild about the whole "Prax discovers crowdfunding" model of creating narrative momentum. It's a little disappointing that their next lead just kind of emails them, instead of the crew doing their own investigating." And I think that's my perspective on this chapter, really. It's a weird one where it feels like it'd be more interesting if Prax went to the Rocinante crew and they were like, hey, yeah, we'll help you find your kid, don't worry about money - but we can't fly anywhere without Naomi. And then they did some investigating to figure out Strickland's deal. Instead, the previous chapter - which implies they have some okay money - doesn't really matter, and we get a chapter of Prax needing to get money, and then the next plot hook is dropped on him once the quest objective of 100,000 Space Dollars or whatever is reached. It doesn't feel great, y'know? But despite that, I didn't actually dislike this chapter as much as some others. I'm not sure why. It might be the character moments and some of the little bits and pieces here and there. It just feels a little janky. Prax needs money, Prax makes a call, Prax has more than enough money. How much money did the Roci crew have when Holden had the big idea to get fired? Enough to keep running for a week, two? Wouldn't you just cut to the point by having the Roci crew offer their money to help out? It wouldn't really change much. It might add some urgency to Holden's next chapter, to the need to get Naomi back. It feels like a little thing to keep Prax occupied while the other characters get into whatever position they need to be in for the plot to progress, instead of just progressing the plot.
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Mar 11, 2021 06:57
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As an aside, my plan (once we hit the end of Caliban's War) is to move into more of a batch format. I feel like I'm saying a lot of the same stuff, and the pacing of the novels lends themselves more to discussing big chunks instead of individual chapters.
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Mar 11, 2021 07:00
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Chapter Thirty-Four: Holden While Prax is getting news about Strickland delivered right to his door (so to speak), Jim Holden is on his way down to the Blauwe Blome to find Naomi. There's something about these first half a dozen or so paragraphs that make me think they're the most typical set of paragraphs one might find in an Expanse novel. Worldbuilding and retrospection that seem to combine to create this feeling of, hey reader, you remember Jim Holden, don't you? Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Four posted:He’d messed a lot of things up over the last year. He’d driven his crew away from him. He’d aligned himself with a side he wasn’t sure he agreed with in exchange for safety. He might have ruined the one healthy relationship he’d had in his life. He’d been driven by his fear to become someone else. Someone who handled fear by turning it into violence. Someone who Naomi didn’t love, who his crew didn’t respect, who he himself didn’t like much. It's interesting that Holden equates his fear to the protomolecule on Ganymede specifically, even though - according to Holden's own introspection - this anger that was born from his fear was already kicking around when he was Fred's enforcer. Here's something fun. Holden's description of the club: Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Four posted:Inside, the club was an all-out assault on the senses. Chapter Twenty-Three, Leviathan Wakes posted:The casino level of Eros was an all-out assault on the senses. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Four posted:“Can I order you something?” Holden asked as she sat. Holden says everything we pretty much expect - he was afraid and it made him do bad things. He's like, look, even if you don't come back to me, the crew of the Roci needs you, and the ship is still your home no matter what. I do like the little moment where Holden is like 'Yeah, I screwed things up with Fred - but some of that's his fault.' It's a nice little character bit. Naomi's like, Holden, do you even have a plan? She points out that they need to find someone to sell them supplies now, and what's he going to do when the euphoria passes. Holden's like, pssh, whatever, I'll figure it out. It makes this confrontation feel a little... empty. Long story short: Naomi agrees to rejoin the ship when it's patched up. Hooray! The next morning, Holden basically gorges himself on water from Tycho and makes himself a big breakfast and has five cups of coffees. It's a really bad idea because he has to pay for all this now, but it's - like above - a nice character moment. Holden's not an irrational dude and I can buy him being like, man, it's so good to PAY for THINGS. The team shows up. Prax's Save Mei Fund has reached "just over half a million UN dollars" with two hundred thousand of that in the last three hours. Mei's the poster child for the Ganymede tragedy and people are throwing money at them, blah blah blah - I still don't like it as a plot point. Especially with how Strickland was dropped in their lap, too. Which we're getting to now. But basically, it's just a bit much to have two issues the crew were facing - where is the conspiracy, how will they fund it all - get it basically resolved by the same thing, something which amounts to 'they put out an Internet petition.' I'd rather see the characters do something. Investigate Protogen, have them weigh up burning their savings to help Prax, etc. Prax plays the message he got. Strickland's name is Carlos Merrian - at least, that's the name the contact knew him at Ceres. That, Holden says, is what his "old buddy" Detective Miller would have called a lead. It's a minor quibble but, man, I thought that guy was a bad egg who turned you into a killer, Jim! So, Holden calls the guy who left the message about Merrian. We get his whole backstory. Get this, Merrian is a dude with ethical problems who isn't as smart as he thinks he is. I do like the time lag in the conversation, though. When Holden's contact replies, he basically says that one Merrian had a temper tantrum and bragged about getting a job with a big company that doesn't care about ethics - see what I mean? Omi: "Oh snap, it's the asteroid-dwelling sociopath squad!" Holden, of course, is reminded of Antony Dresden and figures that Carlos Merrian had gone to work for Protogen and been given a new identity as Strickland, abductor of small children. Dun dun! Honestly, it's a fine chapter. The RPG bones of The Expanse shines through with how the characters are sort of having their problems solved for them instead of solving them ('You pass the Performance check, over the next twenty-four hours you earn half a million space dollars. And someone sends you mail about Strickland!') But the Naomi confrontation is a bit empty. It starts with Naomi laughing with Holden and being nice and pleasant, and she meets just about all of the things he says like he's an adorable puppy. Holden doesn't really give any ground and it feels like he's going through the motions. But this is the closest thing we've had to intrapersonal conflict for a while, so, it's okay. As Omi puts it, "Holden's apology strikes me as not quite insincere, but a little stilted - too 90s sitcom." It doesn't feel like that Holden is really worried that Naomi might not come back, that she might realize she's happier with Sam and look for something where her boyfriend won't be an idealist who goes bad when he gets angry/scared. Huh, I wonder if the stuff with Marco was part of her character at this point. I'm willing to say 'no.' Otherwise, you'd think Naomi wouldn't be so quick to head back to Holden, y'know? History repeating, or something. Anyway, it's not a bad thing that Holden is someone who goes to the bar without really thinking that Naomi might say no. Holden's a bit pig-headed and stupid like that, right? But then maybe something should've happened there with that. Instead, Naomi's coming back to the ship and, as much as she can say that she's not back to being fine with everything yet, I don't imagine we'll see much in the way of tension or any real risk of them falling apart. Then again, another book where the second half consists of Holden trying to prove himself to Naomi isn't really something I'd be too excited to read, either.
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Mar 15, 2021 13:29
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Chapter Thirty-Five: Avasarala So, a big reason for the delay is because I found this chapter really unnecessary and I think it's the first real example of a chapter where nothing truly happens. Avasarala is still on Mao's yacht. She's talking with a young man back on Earth. There's just enough lag that it makes the conversation feel off, but not enough that a conversation is impossible - it's Avasarala's most hated kind of lag. It's a nice little bit. Anyway, the young man (I would've liked to know who it is - I imagine Avasarala knows anyone and everyone of consequence, and stressing that she doesn't know him could be good, too) tells her that he's tried looking into what the navy's up to but hasn't found anything. Her private quarters are, of course, ridiculously opulent, emulating a "private country club somewhere in south Asia." Avasarala hates low gravity. She gets a new report from Venus, which is about the Arboghast and nitrogen, ionizing metal, energy spikes... Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Five posted:Avasarala felt her eyes glazing over. The truth was she didn’t care. Venus is at the bottom of her priorities, however. Avasarala is worried about Cotyar as he's disapproving of her, and Bobbie is about to crack. The betrayal of Soren still hurts Avasarala - apparently, he had been her blindsight and Errinwright had exploited it. Unfortunately for the narrative, I'm still not sure at all how Soren betrayed her or the damage he had done. Then, she gets the crowdfunding message from Holden. Avasarala "watched Bobbie watching the screen" but it isn't actually mentioned where Bobbie is - is she in the same room? It turns out she is, but it comes across almost like Bobbie just appears out of thin air instead of being there from the start of the scene. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Five posted:“So he got out, then,” Bobbie said. Avasarala flips back to another report - this one an intelligent summary. Ganymede's status = still hosed. Then she pulls up a newsfeed, with someone saying that the images on the report have nothing to do with the protomolecule - in fact, it's a binding agent leak. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Five posted:“Alice,” the expert said, turning his condescension to the interviewer. “Within a few days of exposure, Eros was a living horror show. In the time since hostilities opened, Ganymede hasn’t shown one sign of a live infection. Not one.” Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Five posted:Bobbie licked her lips. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Five posted:“This is James Holden—” So, that's the chapter - Avasarala is trapped on the ship. She watches some reports about stuff we already know and remains trapped on the ship. Nothing's really changed or happened, excepting that we learned a bit of backstory. As Omi puts it: "The weirdo family tragedy thing feels like a side detail written in a character sheet, not a relevant plot beat. This whole chapter could've been cut without losing anything."
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Mar 27, 2021 01:03
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Chapter Thirty-Six: Prax We open on Prax remembering his first epiphany - or the one he remembers as his first. Omi said 'who cares' to it and, honestly, I have to agree. While most of these 'Expanse chapter introspection openers' are rather painless and endearing in an authorial tic kind of way, this one felt strange. Especially when... So, Prax's first epiphany came when he was in second form, seventeen, and- Wait, hang on. Admittedly, we're talking about future schooling here, but the way I understand it, 'second form' is the second year of a student's secondary schooling. That is, what we'd call Grade/Year 8. Where the students are twelve or thirteen. A quick Google search verifies this - I couldn't find anything that equates 'second form' to Grade 11. Honestly, kind of odd that no one caught this. Unless we're supposed to assume that smart guy Prax was held back for about four years of his schooling. The fact that we're then hit by this line is some kind of fantastic irony. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Six posted:It had been a failure, but it was a failure he understood, and that made it a victory. Anyway, Prax has spent the four days since the broadcast without doing anything except reading the comments and messages with the donations. I'm going to skip ahead in my commentary and say if the last chapter felt like the authors had just discovered crowdfunding, this is the authors having just discovered Twitter. The crew is discussing where Mei is. Amos says she could be anywhere. Prax says they can track her medication, though, and their lab on Ganymede was small - they must have a bigger lab somewhere. Somewhere within the Jovian planetary system. Omi: "I like using his daughter's unique medication as a lead, I wish they'd done that without the sociopath email thing." Meanwhile, Holden displays his amazing intellect. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Six posted:“You lost me again,” Holden said. “Why does it need to be close?” That's the thing about 'planning scenes' like this one. Unless the author is very careful, some characters are going to come across like idiots. In this case, Jim. But Holden especially is someone that we're told was a naval officer, an executive officer on an ice hauler, and then a freelance Captain - you'd think he'd understand things like that pretty intuitively. You wouldn't want your ships containing children and/or protomolecule monsters traveling across the whole Solar system - that's just begging for an OPA pirate to snatch one of them, something to go wrong like engine failure, or some other problem that could ruin the whole operation. Prax mentions Strickland is using the protomolecule to 'overlay' the protomolecule over an existing human bodily system. I guess this is something the off-page infodump conveyed. Naomi, right on cue, asks how they know that. Prax lays out his puzzle pieces: Ganymede started the war, secret lab, people who know about the attack, protomolecule in the lab, a dead boy, and the monster was killing people in the lab. The same monster that climbed about the Roci. There was a second, and that one they released intentionally - the one that attacked the Martians, not that the crew knows about that so far. As insurance, there's a bomb in each monster - a failsafe. But it didn't eject the bomb to target the Roci, it just kind of did it. Which means it knows the bomb is a threat. Prax thinks the base has to be close enough to get the monster from there to Ganymede, or vice versa, without risking it escaping containment. Which feels like we're just reiterating the bit about the medicine - the HQ has to be close to Ganymede. Naomi is like 'It's Europa' but Prax gets impatient and says it's Io because he did a tariff search on certain things and found out they were shipped to two places: Ganymede and Europa. And on Europa, they ended up on Io because the shipping crates came back from there. Omi said: "The whole thing reminds me of Miller using the shipping data to track down Holden." Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Six posted:“So,” Amos said, drawing the word out to almost three syllables. “The bad guys are probably on Io?” Later on, Prax is in his bunk, going through his messages from the space Internet. Someone who says he can't give any money because he's on basic but will put a report in his church newsletter. Someone else who says their 'powerful premonitions' make it clear that Mei is on Luna... Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Six posted:Yes, it was chemically mediated, but humans were social animals, and a woman smiling up from the screen, her eyes seeming to look deeply into your own, and saying what you wanted to believe was almost impossible to wholly disbelieve. As an aside, basic and donations - I'm wondering if that's a 'I can't donate because I'm poor' or 'I can't donate because basic doesn't give me currency/allow me to do that.' The latter seems to have interesting implications for the success rate and audience of Prax's crowdfunding drive, y'know? More messages. Someone who lost their son four years ago. And then an angry message from saying that - oh no - Prax is a "sick motherfucker" and should be "raped to death so you know what it feels like." Then a dozen more. Where's all this vitriol coming from? It turns out Nicola, Prax's ex-wife, has gotten on the news... Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Six posted:“What you don’t know—what no one knows—is that Praxidike Meng is a monster of a human being. Ever since I got away from him, I’ve been trying to get Mei back. I thought his abuse of me was between us. I didn’t think he’d hurt her. But information has come back to me from friends who stayed on Ganymede after I left that...” Another 'eh' chapter. It feels like the story has just stalled out on both of its plotlines. Prax is basically waiting to go to save Mei, and this chapter was an exercise in padding that out. Avasarala is quite literally just whiling away the hours on an evil cruise ship. I don't mind slow stories and I don't mind introspective ones but the plotting of Caliban's War doesn't feel as neat as Leviathan Wakes' did and Prax's side quest through the wonders of the Internet circa 2011-2012 is fairly bizarre. This story has a whole lot of waiting - which I guess is a consequence of constructing a story where you've placed your protagonists on either side of the Solar system in a setting with 'realistic' travel time. I don't tend to like these 'planning' scenes because they just fill the audience in on things they already know instead of just having Prax go 'it's Io, what're we going to do about it?' It's worse when they go through the whole scene (about 1800 words) and then have Amos hang a lampshade on it. Prax doesn't strike me as someone to put on this whole show thinking, like, boy, I hope they see it. He seems more like he'd bang on Holden's door at 2AM station-time and Holden would open the door, breathless because he and Naomi have been having make-up sex or something, and Prax is like 'HOLDEN! HOLDEN! I KNOW WHERE MEI IS, SHE'S ON IO BECAUSE- NO, I'M NOT SHOUTING!' That, or have Prax bring the thing about medication and travel times to the Roci crew and have them figure it out together. Holden can back him up, they can explain things to Amos, Alex and Naomi could bring up the connection from Europa to Io. Having Prax figure it all out off-screen and then explain it to them doesn't feel right. Prax hasn't seemed like much of an investigator - he's a plant dude who works in a lab, who is a bit obsessed by his work. If you're going to have this chapter anyway, then maybe I'd rework it into a collaborative thing instead of an excuse for Prax to infodump. Instead we get this chapter, which feels like an exercise in filling out a chapter based on nothing actually happening beyond disseminating two plot points: Prax knows where Mei is because of off-screen investigations and Prax's ex-wife is saying bad things about him. Which isn't exactly a planet-hopping cinematic action-adventure story, is it? I do like these books but, boy, they are a bit odd. edit: There's also something ironic about Prax turning out to be a super investigator immediately after the chapter where the talking head is like, psssh, he's just a plant guy, he doesn't know anything else. I don't necessarily mean that's good or bad, but just something that doesn't feel like it was intentional as such. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Mar 29, 2021 |
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Mar 29, 2021 07:41
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Chapter Thirty-Seven: Avasarala We hop from Prax watching the transmission from his ex-wife to Avasarala doing the same. Bobbie's there, too, but she's playing solitaire. Avasarala watches the transmission and figures that the conspiracy - and specifically Errinwright - is scared of Holden and Meng. Like, more scared of those two than she is. Whether Prax was 'diddling' his kid or not is irrelevant - Avasarala recognizes this as a smear campaign. Avasarala promptly sends a message to Admiral Souther, pointing out that someone's taken a sudden dislike to James Holden. She wants to know what's going on. She figures she should contact Errinwright but figures he's in on it so, bad idea. She calls a media person in the UN and basically threatens her, knowing that the lady would find out who actually authorized the media campaign. So, after a slump of about seven chapters, we're back in action. And it's actually fun to see Avasarala drawing on her knowledge and explaining her plays to Bobbie. It's just night and day from the last few chapters. After a while, Avasarala gets some messages back. The first that she opens is from Souther. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Seven posted:“Chrisjen,” the admiral said. “You’re going to have to be careful with all this information you’re sending me. Arjun’s going to get jealous. I wasn’t aware of our friend Jimmy’s part in instigating this latest brouhaha.” Avasarala notes that Souther said 'Jimmy' and probably was avoiding saying Holden to get around any comms filtering for his name. Avasarala wonders if Souther thinks its his outgoing or her incoming--but Errinwright can watch both so it doesn't matter. It's a neat little beat, but there's a few problems with it. The first is that Avasarala had already specifically referred to 'James Holden' in the message she sent to Souther. And two, the idea that the conspiracy was listening in on and maybe screening her calls was raised in Chapter 30 and Avasarala figured that reading her mail was all they wanted to do. The fact that Souther seems to think there's screening going on is okay - but the previous chapters had him sending bogus messages back and forth to confuse the people who were watching her messages so, uh...? It's a little bit of a bother that the conspiracy is letting her make these calls at this point, y'know? I know, I know - harping on tactical realism is gauche, but... Anyway, Souther says he'll look into it. Another reply Avasarala gets says that the UN had nothing to do with the footage of Nicola, and another says that she'll be getting a full brief -- which I guess means the UN did have something to do with it. She checks in on Venus, because that's what happens in an Avasarala chapter and I can't believe it's so common, and, yep, Venus is still spooky. Turns out it can think now - okay, sure, whatever. There's clever foreshadowing and tension of an emerging monster in the darkness, and then there's a bright neon sign telling you that THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT. There's a bit where Avasarala muses that Errinwright and his cabal are ignoring Venus and focusing on igniting a war because it was familiar to them, whereas the Venus business is - in Avasarala's mind - like looking into the face of God. This is not the first time this comparison has come up (it was in one of the earlier Avasarala chapters) but I don't know how well it works. "Turning away was natural," the novel says, "even if it was moronic and self-destructive and empty." But is it? I suppose my issue with it is that the notion of looking into the face of God is something transcendental - something utterly beyond human experience, beautiful and terrifying and spiritual. The protomolecule is just fancy space science. The first novel compared it to chimps monkeying about with a microwave, where the issue is not that the microwave is divinity beyond the ken of chimp minds, but that they'd press the wrong button. I mean, this whole novel is about science controlling the protomolecule! The series ends up with protomolecule-derived spaceship armor on the Rocinante and people driving powerful warships built in protomolecule shipyards. Ahem, anyway. (There's also another aside from Avasarala where she blames the violence on the fact that Errinwright's cabal is all men. Okay, I get it, but Sarah Connor she is not.) Souther sends along another message. Turns out that Nguyen has taken six UN destroyers and sent them on a path to the middle of nowhere - and a bunch of Martian ships have moved to match them. Avasarala realizes that Nguyen's flotilla is going to intercept the Rocinante and destroy it. So, she realizes she needs to act. She calls Cotyar and Draper up and sends the latter to get her armor. Avasarala tries to get the Rocinante on tightbeam, but the crew is like, welp, the tightbeam is broken, sorry. Turns out the whole communication array is down, too - sorry about that. So, like she said a few chapters ago, Avasarala makes a request for the yacht to send a distress call and get someone to fix the comms. The Captain refuses and says he only takes orders from Mao. Avasarala tells him "You're making a mistake, shithead," which is fun. Then, after hanging up, Avasarala tells Bobbie to take control of the ship. Finally things are happening! It's a noted improvement over the previous slump. On the other hand, it feels a little cheap that it all goes down how Avasarala thought it would, and that the conspiracy played right into it. Omi and I both think it might've been nice to have done a bit more with the mutiny thing, to do something to set it up beyond 'here's how we're going to mutiny' and then, a few chapters later, just having it happen. It's all coming together, it seems - but, boy, the novel took a long, winding path to getting here. Honestly, I'm just happy to have had a decent chapter again.
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Mar 30, 2021 12:59
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Of course, we swap from a mutiny right back to- Nah, I'm just messing with you, we go from Avasarala to Bobbie. Chapter Thirty-Eight: Bobbie They've just moved Bobbie's big crate of secret armor into Avasarala's room. The fact that it's labelled formal wear is one of those 'ha ha, I get it...' jokes. Bobbie wonders if the room is being watched but Cotyar says that there're no functioning eavesdropping devices, which we'll add to the list of oversights by Mao and Errinwright. Why does the UN still have Bobbie's Martian military property, you may ask? Well, Bobbie says that the UN just put it in a closet after analysing the video on it. I feel like Mars wouldn't want to leave military hardware in Earth's hands, outdated model or not, but whatever. The suit has been disarmed, its in-built 2mm cannon removed. Cotyar raises the point that it's maybe for the best, otherwise she might vent out the oxygen with the bullet holes in the hull. This is one of those sci-fi trope thing where, sure, it's good to not let any oxygen out, but a few bullet holes aren't going to drastically do much -- that is, if my understanding is correct. It doesn't matter, anyway. Cotyar doesn't think anyone on the ship will be able to penetrate her armor. Bobbie tells him that his job is to prevent Mao's people from taking Avasarala hostage and forcing Bobbie to stand down. It then takes Bobbie three hours to get into her suit, which I guess is three hours where no one on the ship sees any reason to figure out what's going on, even though Avasarala practically threw down the gauntlet and I guess the crew weren't told anything like 'contact us if she tries anything.' Whatever. Omi echoed a point I raised when this yacht plot started up: "The armored suit making Bobbie invincible seems like an awfully big oversight in Mao's plan. Wouldn't the ship's captain have a manifest of everything brought on board their ship?" You'd assume so, especially when the Martian has already been a bit of a thorn in your side. It's one of those things where, if Mao's people were competent, I don't think they could ever get the suit on the ship. Declare it? It obviously doesn't get on. Disguise it as formal wear? The container gets scanned. Scanner can't penetrate the box marked 'formal wear?' You have people open it up and check with their eyes. To me, this is the sort of interplay that makes a story interesting. Push and pull, play and counter play, action and reaction. When it comes time to put on her suit, Bobbie has a minor PTSD reaction - which is something Omi raises later - and Cotyar banishes it by... making a pass at her. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Eight posted:“You are,” he said, then paused for a beat. “Lovely.” The motley crew head into the lounge. Bobbie calls the elevator but it's 'out of service' and this is a part of the kidnapping. Avasarala is like, look, none of these people were on Ganymede and killing them won't bring your platoon back. We'll hit that question Omi had now: "Does Avasarala know about Bobbie's PTSD? Does she care? Does she have the background or forethought to realize that beating dudes to death might trigger it?" Bobbie moves through the ship via ladders. The Mao crew probably catch her on cameras, especially when she waves to them. She goes into a bathroom and tears a hatch from the wall. From there, she gets into a galley and finds a security team - all packing sub-machine guns. They open fire on her with plastic rounds and achieve very little except, like, shooting one of their own in the head. Bobbie beats the poo poo out of them. Bobbie finds out how they stopped the elevator, by jamming it with a crowbar -- she fixes it. This kind of thing goes on for a while and it'd kind of listless - falling back into that sort of RPG storytelling. 'I go into the crew quarters.' 'Here's what they look like. There's an access hatch on the wall.' 'I tear the access hatch open.' 'Here's what it looks like.' 'I search for the next hatch.' 'Ten minutes later, you find a hatch...' It's not bad, but I think it's way too long for what it is - I get it, Bobbie's a walking tank and the ship can't stop her. What I am wondering about is the possibility of Cotyar failing to stop them from getting Avasarala, but Bobbie never calls up. It's a little annoying that despite Bobbie's psychological state, it's all presented so blandly -- especially when part of it involves beating the poo poo out of six security dudes. Caliban's War, Chapter Thirty-Eight posted:And the ostentatious design of the ship extended to her outer hull as well. While most military ships were painted a flat black that made them hard to spot visually in space, most civilian ships either were left an unpainted gray or were painted in basic corporate colors. Bobbie ends up going outside the yacht and climbing up the hull. She looks into the shuttle bay and spies a ship named the Razorback - Julie Mao's racing ship. Bobbie goes back into the ship and her suit has military override codes to unlock the door, which is a bit 'eh' - Martian codes, UN codes, either way I feel like Mao would scrub them. Especially if you're going to be carrying Chrisjen Avasarala around. The crew of the yacht meet her at the deck below the bridge. The captain says that they obviously can't stop her, but they don't know what she wants and the XO is ready to scuttle the ship if they can't come to terms. Omi: "The captain being willing to scuttle the ship seems fairly extreme. Military ships do that to prevent classified hardware from being seized, what the gently caress does a civilian transport care?" Bobbie tells them that they've illegally detained a member of the UN government and that Bobbie's there to demand that they deliver her to a port of her choosing. The Captain says they were just following orders and that it's all good providing they log that when they take command. Avasarala orders the captain to plot an intercept course for Holden, but the captain says the yacht isn't exactly able to burn hard. But Bobbie goes, huh, if this is a race, then I know where we can find a racing ship... But I'm wondering what happened to the tightbeam request? Again, decent for what it is. Can quibble about a chapter devoted to the unstoppable monster Bobbie which is so bland and filled with worldbuilding, but the addition of a ticking clock situation is welcome. This set of Prax->Avasarala->Bobbie has been a really good bit of rotation. The 'send Avasarala to Ganymede' plot by the conspiracy is as easily foiled as one might expect from an Expanse novel ('Take Avasarala to Ganymede. Let her make calls but also don't. I'm sure the rest of you can figure out what to do from there.') Like, did Mao or someone call the yacht's crew and tell them not to let her call the Rocinante after Prax did his whole thing? Or was the Rocinante already on a do-not-call list? Did the crew try to apprehend Avasarala? Or did they just throw six dudes at the Martian marine in the service of a plot they didn't seem that keen on?
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Mar 31, 2021 04:53
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