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NmareBfly posted:It's worth noting that the audiobook narrator for the first three books absolutely nails Avasarala's line delivery. Unfortunately, they switch narrators on 4 and the new one's not nearly as good. The original narrator came back for book 5. I don't remember him doing Avasarala differently than he did in the earlier books.
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Aug 24, 2016 01:05
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Shed must've had the worst dice.
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Dec 5, 2016 13:22
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bitprophet posted:It's no Expanse, but IIRC the majority of the Dragonlance D&D novels' story was also based heavily on peoples' actual pen & paper campaigns. Sounds like friends-around-table style roleplaying is fertile ground for novel-length stories. I'm pretty sure the Forgotten Realms stuff with Drizzt and friends started that way too. I guess it makes sense. Having the setting largely worked out has to help, anyway.
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Dec 5, 2016 21:29
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Here's something I missed (or wasn't addressed): what do Marco and his buddies think Duarte is getting out of their arrangement? We know that Duarte is taking a page from the Protogen playbook and just needs the Free Navy to distract everyone, but what does Marco understand the terms of their trade to be? Duarte handed over, what, 10–20 brand new Martian warships, right? Did Marco think he'd just bought Manhattan for beads, or what?
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Jan 4, 2017 21:02
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gohmak posted:They delivered him the protomolecule from Fred Johnsons office in exchange for the ships. They think he is running tests and will return with new weapons and tech to share. Okay, that makes sense. I misremembered the protomolecule snatch as Duarte's work.
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Jan 4, 2017 22:52
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Bozart posted:I find it hard to believe that martians can leave mars faster than new martians are made. The trip takes months, and there are at most a few thousand ships making it, holding maybe 100 each, and there are many millions of martians, so they should have at most a slight decline in population unless they never screw. I think the larger ships carry upwards of a couple thousand, but yeah, with four billion people on Mars, the 10% drop in population that Alex saw doesn't make much sense. I get the impression that the colonies so far aren't much bigger than the one on New Terra, but even if you spread 10% of Mars across every single gate, you're still looking at over 36,000 people per system. It didn't sound like any colony had that many settlers, let alone all of them.
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Jan 6, 2017 03:27
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Milky Moor posted:Pretty sure they mention that Earth's fleet is too busy covering the rest of the planet from rocks. Yeah, that sounds right. I imagine Mars was doing largely the same, just in case. You'd think both planets would be ringed by orbital defense platforms, but whatever. I also still have a hard time buying that some shady admiral could make off with two thirds of the navy. For that matter, what happened to the Martian crews of the ships that wound up being sold to the Free Navy? Did Duarte and/or Marco manage to kill off a huge chunk of the MCRN without anyone noticing? Did Duarte somehow build half a navy's worth of ships off the books?
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Jan 10, 2017 02:53
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Moridin920 posted:Was it really 2/3rds though? More like 1/3rd at most iirc? I should go back and check, but I believe it was a fairly even three-way split among MCRN loyalists, Free Navy, and Duarte's fleet. It still doesn't make a ton of sense that Mars is immediately a failed state, but if we roll with that, I guess it's plausible that a charismatic admiral could make off with a bunch of ships and sailors.
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Jan 10, 2017 19:10
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I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be an evolving tool like the Investigator that went off the rails and did a great job with an unintended objective.
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Jan 15, 2017 00:51
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[Character] said something obscene.
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Jan 16, 2017 13:01
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People who have read the books don't need pretend-I'm-speculating winks in the show thread. If you're so sure the way the books go is the logical conclusion, then let the show-only crowd work it out for themselves. "Gosh, just spitballing here, but I hope Joffrey doesn't ignore his advisors and order someone beheaded. What?"
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Feb 6, 2017 13:56
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gohmak posted:Actress Cara Gee is playing Drummer in the TV series. Refresh me who the hell is Drummer? I can't remember a thing about the character. What books are they mentioned? What action of note did he/she carry out? Tycho's chief of security. Introduced in Nemesis Games, I think. She helps beat back the attempted coup on Tycho, and Fred leaves her in charge when he goes off with Holden. We don't spend a ton of time with her.
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Feb 8, 2017 17:12
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Arcsquad12 posted:Non spoiler question. I'm just starting leviathan wakes and enjoying it but I'm curious about something. Belters are humans born in microgravity and are culturally distinct enough in that regard to differentiate themselves from inner planet terrestrial types. What about outer planet inhabitants living on the gas giant moons, though? Are they still considered Belters? I don't know that they'd call themselves Belters, but I'm not sure what else to call them, either. It probably varies from moon to moon. Ganymede, for instance, is an inner-planet joint venture, is pretty well-off, and doesn't have much in common culturally with somewhere like Ceres. I don't think they think of themselves as Earthers or Martians either, though.
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Feb 18, 2017 18:36
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The Muffinlord posted:Eros was Space Vegas. Casinos and cheap hotels. Presumably some nice areas because casinos, but not too nice given what went down there. Space Atlantic City, maybe.
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Feb 20, 2017 18:58
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Dessel posted:Really dumb question but it's been a while since I listened to the audiobooks. Is there any chance that Miller was actually never/at some stage not hallucinating Julie but it was the protomolecule somehow, similar to how Miller is to Holden? I guess in the books it happened way before Miller had any interactions with the protomolecule. Then again physics and protomolecule. I guess it's possible, but there's no indication of it. Didn't Miller "see" his ex-wife occasionally before any protomolecule stuff? Also, there was none of the weird smell or blue fireflies, as far as I can recall.
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Feb 24, 2017 02:17
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Dessel posted:I really need to start re(listening) to the books because it sure feels like the series is taking quite a bit of "liberties" now (not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, the TV show has done some good changes). Or am I missremembering things? No, the show is significantly different. Wait a couple weeks on the books, though; Cibola Burn is getting re-released with Jefferson Mays narrating sometime next month.
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Mar 17, 2017 03:01
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MarksMan posted:Hey everyone, hopefully this hasn't been asked before, but I did not want to read the thread after reading in the OP that it contained spoilers up to a certain point in the books. I've watched the TV series up to the current episode today, S02E09. Where approximately is the TV show currently in the book universe? Like which book or part? I'm considering starting The Expanse after I finish reading my current non-fiction I'm reading, and I'm just trying to gauge how far behind I am. I guess I'm just assuming that some of you who read the books are also actively watching the TV show. The show's various plot threads have reached different points in book two, often with significant modification. The books are a quick read; you can catch up to the show in no time.
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Mar 23, 2017 11:33
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Platystemon posted:Prax’s chapters were the best. Agreed. Prax is one of the more distinct voices in the books, and it's a shame how much they're condensing his story so far.
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Mar 24, 2017 02:54
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Eiba posted:So discussion in the TV thread has me wondering again, how bad is living on Basic? I get that no one wants to do it, but I always assumed it was fairly comfortable, but last time it came up in the TV thread people said that it was more slums and squalor. I don't get the impression that Basic means squalor, just a maddening level of tedium for anyone who's remotely ambitious. In terms of necessities, the biggest drawbacks seem to be long waitlists for medical care, fertility restriction, and somewhat cramped housing. I don't think the housing is as small as the closets that pass for quarters on ships and stations, though; "freshman dorm" was a comparison someone made earlier in one of the threads, and it sounds about right in terms of size and quality. Edit: if I recall correctly, people on Basic are also subject to relocation if their household size changes, e.g. Cortazar getting moved to a smaller apartment after his mom dies. I don't remember how far they moved him, though. Toast Museum fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Mar 29, 2017 |
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Mar 29, 2017 03:42
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I'd have to go back and check, but I could've sworn they tend to talk about things weighing X kilograms in this or that gravity. Wrong either way, of course.
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Apr 27, 2017 18:01
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Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:I doubt Basic will come up again in the novels, but I presume that it is a reasonably comfortable if monotonous life. The whole point would be to keep the massive populace placated and docile. So free drugs, free entertainment and a decent standard of living. The authors talk about it a little in an episode of the Churn podcast. I don't remember all the details, but Basic is definitely at least kind of lovely. "Freshman dorm" is probably at the high end of what it might be like. I think it's the podcast for the episode where Bobbie goes to the water, if anyone's curious.
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May 9, 2017 20:48
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Gangringo posted:Over the past couple months I've been driving a ton for work and I've binged through the entire series in audiobook format. I took it as Alex remembering that snippet from the Eros feed, but on the Churn podcast the authors do talk about there being some protomolecule time manipulation in the books. I don't think this scene is an example of it, but I can't rule it out, either.
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May 21, 2017 02:46
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I should go back and get a direct quote, but I recall them saying that Miller seeing Julie wasn't always just his imagination.
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May 21, 2017 05:17
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Arcsquad12 posted:So the protomolecule is basically an alien bio weapon/terraformer/teleporter, I take it? Target an earth like planet, wipe out its population and then use its biomass plus radiation to build a giant fuckoff Stargate to their central hub? I don't get the impression its creators saw it as a weapon at all. I don't think that all of the alien tech we see is exactly "Protomolecule," either, but it's hard to tell where to draw that line. The only concrete thing we know is that it's a gate builder. Maybe it would've gone all grey goo on ancient Earth, or maybe it would've just used as much biomass as it needed and then launched to place the gate. In either case, we don't know anything about the aliens themselves, so we don't know whether what the Protomolecule does to planets would constitute terraforming for them; that might be some other device's job.
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May 26, 2017 18:54
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Eiba posted:I thought "The Protomolecule" was specifically the gunk found on Phoebe, which really only had one purpose. There's all sorts of other protomolecule-creator tech that humanity has encountered by now, but I don't remember if they call any of that stuff "protomolecule," You're right, Protomolecule is specifically the Phoebe stuff. On the other hand, the aliens presumably used the same technology to build other things. It's like a 3D printer we don't know how to give new model files.
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May 31, 2017 13:31
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Collateral posted:The situation doesn't hold up on close inspection. Like most SF/F its best just to accept ~magic or new technology~ as a narrative device. Was there something specific they messed up? They seemed to apply the rule consistently.
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Jul 31, 2017 14:04
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Phi230 posted:So I'm like over 4/5 the way done with book 3 and I no longer have any clue how they're gonna adapt this to TV With a lot of liberties, if I had to guess.
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Sep 25, 2017 22:25
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ClassH posted:I liked the 3rd book I'll admit that the lovely narrator made me feel a lot less charitable toward the writing. The good news is that they've rereleased the audiobook with the usual guy narrating, and anyone who bought the old version on Audible should have the new one now.
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Mar 26, 2018 20:33
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The 4th I think I mostly disliked because of the narrator of the audio book.
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AlternateAccount posted:So remind me, the protomolecule was not at any point planning on making difficult to kill monsters, right? Just repurposing meat to spread itself? The monsters were due to human engineering? Yes. Maybe some version of its plans would have involved those big crab robots, but the Caliban's War monsters were humans' fault.
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May 11, 2018 18:54
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I don't know if it counts as body horror for your purposes, but those robots do nonchalantly grind some humans into 3D printer material at least once.
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May 11, 2018 19:09
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nessin posted:Is the show actually worth watching if you've read the books? I noticed the first two seasons are on Prime streaming and thought I might watch it. Yes. The authors write for the show and sort of consider the show a do-over. Some characters are introduced earlier (e.g. Avasarala is in the pilot), and entire episodes are made of things that never happened in the book.
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May 12, 2018 04:37
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Book-Belters are mostly varying degrees of ethnically ambiguous. White Belters are pretty uncommon.
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May 14, 2018 03:22
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Milky Moor posted:Wasn't it a play-by-post forum game? Shed was a player character who had to leave, so he was GM killed? Then it was made into an MMO framework? Other way around, I'm pretty sure. It was shopped around as an MMO, then got used in a message board game when there were no takers. That said, I don't think the story tracks that game past, like, part of the first book.
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May 31, 2018 05:53
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appropriatemetaphor posted:Haven't read the books, just finished up the show. Does the show spoil so much it's sorta not "worth" reading the books? Or is there plenty of extra poo poo. So far, the show and the books are heading to the same place, but the character and plot details along the way are increasingly divergent. Many characters are written better in the show, particularly antagonists. The books obviously have a lot more time for little world-building details, if that's something that interests you.
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Jul 5, 2018 21:17
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Ainsley McTree posted:If we're talking about other sci fi; I started reading the Culture series, and...is this series a Dresden Files situation where it gets better after the first book (two in the case of DF), or if I'm not enjoying it right away, will I probably not like the rest? I don't think Consider Phlebas is bad, but it is tonally different from the rest of the series. Also, every book introduces an entirely new set of characters, so don't feel like you're saddled with Horza.
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Sep 8, 2018 01:13
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Use of Weapons' chapter structure in a nutshell: each chapter of the "main story" is followed by a chapter about a different event in the protagonist's past. As the main story moves forward, the accompanying vignettes take place further into his past. Edit: Excession was a bit of a slog for me, though. A lot of it is basically chat logs, and I had trouble tracking those characters.
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Sep 27, 2018 03:09
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I know I'm in the minority on this one. I thought the other parts of the book were pretty good, but the chat logs dragged it down for me. Something about the format of those exchanges made it hard for me to remember who's who among the various ships, especially the ones we don't otherwise see much of.
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Sep 27, 2018 04:40
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For what it's worth those are unambiguously the bad guys.
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Oct 2, 2018 17:56
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Johnny Truant posted:Maybe the traffic laws or whatever are actually the PM makers enemies!? I think this is very strongly implied, yeah. The impression I get is that the Protomolecule makers pushed the wrong envelope and attracted the attention of something they couldn't handle. I haven't spent much time thinking about what makes the enemy so effective against the Protomolecule makers and their tech, but here's an idea. A lot of what we've seen of how PM tech works is grounded in evolutionary algorithms and emergent properties. I wonder if something about the enemy causes those algorithms to figuratively divide by zero, making them impossible to assimilate and maybe also causing errors to ripple out. I don't know why, exactly, but I feel like the enemy probably wasn't just an antagonist with better tech. I suspect it's another implacable unthinking mechanism, like the Protomolecule but operating on antithetical principles.
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Nov 28, 2018 00:06
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Pump it up! Do it! posted:So I have started reading the books and have a question: Opinions seem mixed-to-positive about the subsequent books, but I think there's general agreement that Cibola Burn is the nadir of the series.
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Jan 3, 2019 13:02
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