BOOK REVIEW: The Cruel Star (The Cruel Stars, #1) by John Birmingham

The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham is the first book in a space opera science fiction trilogy with the same name. Birmingham has summarized the Cruel Stars trilogy as “Space Nazis invade and try to ruin everything, everywhere, all over the galaxy.” This is the first book by this author I have read; I did so because a machine learning algorithm recommended The Cruel Stars to me because I have either read, bought or borrowed related/similar books (like The Expanse books by James S.A. Corey and The Final Architecture trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky) that led the computer program to extrapolate that I would also enjoy this one. And you know what, the code was right, people, because I completely loved reading The Cruel Stars!

The structure of the book will be quite familiar to regular readers of fantasy and science fiction. The story is told via chapters from the perspective of different characters, similar to the structure of George R.R. Martin’s The Song of Ice and Fire and James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse. The five main characters of the The Cruel Stars are Lucinda Chase, a newly minted war hero who gets a field promotion to captain of her ship when the enemy’s sneak attack decapitates the senior leadership of the entire Armadalen military; Frazer McLennan, a foul-mouthed military genius from Scotland turned archaeologist who killed millions of Earth citizens in order to save billions by almost entirely wiping out an invading  army over 700 years ago and by miraculous advances in medicine is still alive (but decrepit); Sephina L’trel, a foul-mouthed lesbian space pirate who leads a small team of violent mercenaries burning to get revenge on the people who killed their loved ones; Princess Alessia Szu Suri sur Montanblanc ul Haq, the 12-year-old scion of an incredibly rich and powerful family who owns and rules the entire planet of Montrachet as well as a galaxy-spanning financial empire; and Corporal Booker3-212162-930-Infantry, a human being who has downloaded his mind into software as a member of a belief system called The Source. 
Each of these characters gets their own POV chapters as the story progresses, demonstrating their importance to the plot. However my favorite character in The Cruel Stars is not one of these previously mentioned POV characters, it’s Herodotus, who is an “Armada-level Intellect,” which means he is a sentient artificial intelligence with technological powers that are near god-like (such as the ability to teleport or “fold space” at will and near-infinite data processing capacity and speed) along with an incredibly snarky attitude. (Come for the god-like computer, stay for the snark!)

In The Cruel Stars we discover that the Sturm, also known as The Human Republic, the group that McLennan defeated hundreds of years ago (and has not been heard of since) has returned to continue their genocidal war against all humans who have modified their bodies with either technological or genetic enhancements. In the beginning of the book we discover that The Sturm has launched a devastating first strike in the form of a successful malware attack that turns any humans with technological implants who were accessing the galactic equivalent of the Internet at the time into brain-devouring zombies. 

The return of The Sturm has life-altering consequences for all of our main characters. Lucinda becomes the captain of her ship, the Defiant, because all the higher ranked officers are struck down by the Sturm malware. Alessia becomes the sole living representative of her family, as the few remaining relatives who were not affected by the initial attack were killed in a grisly execution broadcast galaxy wide. McLennan is captured by the Sturm while conducting an archaeological dig at a site the Human Republic considers sacred but is rescued by Herodotus after only some mild torture has occurred. Sephina has a lucrative heist interrupted and then watches the love of her life slaughtered by Sturm weapons hours after the initial attack. The only person who is positively impacted by the return of the Sturm is Booker, who is in prison sentenced to be permanently deleted at the vey moment the malware attack strikes his penal colony. The warden makes a deal to allow Booker to escape and promises to put in a good word with future authorities if Booker uses his military expertise to fight back and save lives on the prison habitat. Booker agrees to the deal, keeps his end of the bargain and escapes into space implanted in the operating system of a huge security robot.

Overall, The Cruel Stars is a fantastically entertaining space opera with lots of action, humor and violence. The characters are compelling and world-building intriguing. It’s reminiscent of the very best work of Peter F. Hamilton; fans of Hamilton should also read (and I am confident will enjoy!) The Cruel Stars.

Title: The Cruel Stars.
Author: John Birmingham.
Format: Kindle.
Length: 416 pages.
Publisher: Del Rey.
Date Published: August 20, 2019.
Date Read: October 17, 2022.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★½☆  (4.5/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A-.

The Expanse Season 4 Is Available NOW on Prime Video!

Now that Game of Thrones is off the air, my favorite television show is The Expanse, based on the amazing 9-book space opera series written by James S.A. Corey is my favorite show. After the first 3 seasons aired on SyFy, that network failed to pick up the show but it was revived at Amazon Studios, which has produced Season 4 (based on Cibola Burn) and is currently in production on Season 5 (based on Nemesis Games). Season 4 (all 10 episodes!!) is now available for streaming on Amazon Video. Once my semester is truly over I expect to binge all 10 before the end of the year!

The Expanse Season 4 Premiere Date Is December 13; Season 5 Is a Go!

There is absolutely awesome news about The Expanse, the television adaptation of my favorite space opera novels of the same name written by James S.A. Corey. The first three seasons (covering the first 3 books) aired on SyFy which then cancelled the show. But it was picked up by Amazon Prime after an energetic campaign by fans (like yours truly), The release date for Season 4, which is based on Cibola Burn (not my favorite of the books) is December 13, 2019. But also announced (today!) is that the show has been renewed for season 5 on Amazon Prime, which presumably will be based on Nemesis Games, which is probably the best book of the 9-book series. It features an "oh @!$@&*#!!" moment akin to the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones which I absolutely can not wait to see.

Meanwhile here's an official synopsis for The Expanse Season 4 from Amazon Prime Video:

Season 4 of The Expanse, its first as a global Amazon Original, begins a new chapter for the series with the crew of the Rocinante on a mission from the U.N. to explore new worlds beyond the Ring Gate. Humanity has been given access to thousands of Earth-like planets which has created a land rush and furthered tensions between the opposing nations of Earth, Mars and the Belt. Ilus is the first of these planets, one rich with natural resources but also marked by the ruins of a long dead alien civilization. While Earthers, Martians and Belters maneuver to colonize Ilus and its natural resources, these early explorers don’t understand this new world and are unaware of the larger dangers that await them.

BOOK REVIEW: Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse, #8) by James S.A. Corey

Tiamat's Wrath is the eighth and penultimate book in The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey.
I have eagerly bought and quickly devoured each of the previous books in this fast-paced, high-quality space opera after I stumbled into the first one, Leviathan Wakes, giving it a chance because of  the recommendation from George R.R. Martin. This series (and the author) are at the very top of the short list of my favorite reads and authors. (Others on this list would be anything by Peter F. Hamilton, Tana French, and Richard K. Morgan.)

Tiamat's Wrath takes place a few years after the events depicted in Persepolis Rising. The main characters of the series (James Holden, Alex Kamal, Naomi Nagata, and Amos Burton) are scattered across multiple star systems while more recent additions to the crew/family like Clarissa and Bobbie have also experienced big changes since they were added to the original inner circle. 

Tiamat's Wrath begins with the news of the death of Chrisjen Avasarala, one of the most popular characters in the series (played irrepressibly by Shohreh Aghdashloo in the television adaptation of the books) and probably my favorite character in The Expanse overall. That devastating news basically sets the tone for Tiamat's Wrath, because since it is the penultimate book it is becoming more likely that not all characters will survive each installment, and clearly not everyone is going to make it to the conclusion of the story. In fact, Tiamat's Wrath has the biggest body count of significant characters who die in any of the previous books in the series. In addition to Avasarala, there are other significant deaths in Tiamat's Wrath as well, which I won't mention here but are shocking and saddening when they occur.

The situation in Tiamat's Wrath  is definitely not good for our heroes and for most of humanity in the solar system and the nearly 1300 other star systems that can be accessed by the alien gates discovered at the end of Book 3, Abaddon's Gate. By dint of superior technological and military firepower (fueled by the mysterious alien entity called "the protomolecule" discovered in Book 2, Caliban's War), High Consul Winston Duarte of Laconia is now the de facto Emperor of the known Galaxy and Bobbie, Alex, and Naomi are trying to organize what little resistance there is to Laconian hegemonic rule of humankind. Holden is a prisoner on Laconia, an "honored guest" (read: prisoner/hostage) of Duarte and has been for years since the events at the end of Persepolis Rising. Amos is missing and assumed dead after not being heard of for years after volunteering for a special ops mission on Laconia several years before. Naomi has put herself into a self-imposed isolation as she works as the chief strategist for the Laconian resistance. Alex is piloting the Resistance's biggest ship under Bobbie's command.

The POV characters we get in Tiamat's Wrath are Elvi Okoge (an exobiologist who we first met in Book 4, Cibola Burn, who is now an important scientist in the Laconian Science Directorate), Alex, Bobbie, Naomi, Holden and a surprising new one: Teresa Duarte, the 14-year-old daughter of the most powerful man in the known Universe, Winston Duarte.

While the main storyline is how our main characters fight (and die!) to resist (and successfully!) end Laconian domination of the Sol system and others, another even more important story is how the aliens who destroyed the other aliens who developed the ring gates are apparently trying to figure out a way to eliminate the consciousness of every human in every system where humans live. It is clear those aliens know how to affect the consciousness, because during the course of Tiamat's Wrath there are multiple times that the entire human race (on all planets) simultaneously loses consciousness for a brief (but not insignificant) time. Only Elvi seems to realize how serious the threat to all human life is; all the other main characters are focused on the Laconian threat.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the plot in Tiamat's Wrath is the inside look at the putative Laconian Empire, as seen from the perspective of the 14-year-old Teresa. The way that everyone defers to Winston Duarte, and  by extension his daughter is fascinating (and frightening). The warping of the social fabric of an entire society is clearly depicted and manifests in unusual ways. For example, crushes and friendships between teenagers are nonsensical when one member of the group has the ultimate power to have anyone expelled, vanished or worse. We also get the perspective of Naomi Nagata as she becomes the head of the underground resistance and finds a way to undermine the seemingly omnipotent Laconian empire, even as the attacks by the evil aliens become more disruptive.

For me, an incredibly attractive aspect of Tiamat's Wrath and The Expanse series as a whole is the diversity of the characters. This is (obviously)  easier to see in the television adaptation but the authors make it explicit in the book as well. Non-white characters (such as Naomi, Elvi, the Duartes, Cortázar and Bobbie, to name a few) have incredibly significant parts to play in the story. The inclusion of non-heterosexuality happens casually but intentionally among various secondary characters which for an LGBT reader like myself is quite affirming. The effort to be consciously inclusive is a clear feature of the book (and show).

SPOILER ALERT!!

By the end of Tiamat's Wrath  our four main characters are actually back together (on the Rocinante no less!) which was incredibly satisfying (if a little improbable). It brought back nostalgic memories of where the entire story began, way back in Book 1. It’s nice that Book 8 basically has a “happy ending” but this does make me suspicious that Book 9 may not....

Regardless, things are teed up perfectly for an exciting conclusion to the entire 9-book series in the final book. I can't wait!

OVERALL RATING: FIVE STARS

Title: Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse, #8)
Author: James S.A. Corey.
Paperback: 534 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Date Published: March 29, 2013.
Date Read: May 24, 2019.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★★  (4.0/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A (4.0/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A.

Cover for The Expanse #8 Revealed: Tiamat's Wrath

The cover and title for the eighth (and penultimate) book in The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey has been released. Tiamat's Wrath will be released in December 2018. The television adaptation of the Expanse series is up to Season 3 and currently airing on SyFy, covering the events that appear in Book 2 (Caliban's War) and Book 3 (Abaddon's Gate). These are some of my favorite books. I'm hoping that the entire 9-book series eventually gets adapted for the screen!

THE EXPANSE: Season 3 Debuts Today on SyFy!

The third season of The Expanse begins airing on SyFy today at 10pm EDT. This season should cover the events in the second and third books in The Expanse series written by James S.A Corey: Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate. These are some of my favorite books of all time. The 8th book in the 9-book series is called Tiamat's Wrath and should be published in December 2018.

Until then, enjoy The Expanse!

#AlteredCarbon is Now Streaming on Netflix!

The screen adaptation of the Richard K. Morgan novel Altered Carbon is now available on Netflix!
The ten episodes of the first season are titled:

1. "Out of the Past" (pilot directed by Miguel Sapochnik)
2. "Fallen Angel"
3. "In a Lonely Place"
4. "Force of Evil"
5. "The Wrong Man"
6. "Man with My Face"
7. "Nora Inu"
8. "Clash by Night"
9. "Rage in Heaven"
10. "The Killers"

I have been waiting a long time for this! Happily, it is getting very good reviews and it is apparently a high-budget, high-quality entry into the televised science fiction and fantasy canon which includes such award-winning shows like Game of Thrones (HBO), The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu) and The Expanse (SyFy).

The book is one of my favorites (see review) and is the first in a trilogy, so perhaps we have two more seasons to go?

BOOK REVIEW: Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7) by James S.A. Corey

Persepolis Rising is the seventh book in The Expanse series written by James S.A. Corey. The series has been adapted into a high-quality television series that airs on SyFy, but unlike other well-known speculative fiction adaptations (like Game of Thrones and American Gods) I think that in the case of The Expanse the book version is better than the filmed version. This is probably because the books are written in such a fast-paced, action-packed, visually stimulating way that reading them is basically like riding a rollercoaster or watching a Hollywood blockbuster. So perhaps there is not as much "value added" to adapting The Expanse to television when the words on the page have already (over)stimulated the reader's imagination; However I applaud SyFy for doing so and I am a big fan of the show.

If you have not read these books yet it is hard to know what I can say to convince you to do so without revealing spoilers. The first point I would make is that these books are the very best that the space-opera genre has to offer. The books are set in a future where humanity has made significant inroads into colonizing our solar system, with self-sustaining settlements on various solar objects (Mars, the Moon, Ganymede, multiple asteroids). The second point I would make is that the primary characters that the series are centered around are nuanced, interesting and diverse.

One animating plot development for the series as a whole involves the arrival/discovery of an alien substance called the "protomolecule" which has a destabilizing impact on the fragile power balance between the largest political forces in the solar system: Mars, Earth and the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA).

In Persepolis Rising, the story has skipped ahead 3 decades from the shocking (and thrilling) plot developments in the prior book Babylon's Ashes. Obviously, this time jump has a profound effect on the main characters but there are even more surprising developments in Persepolis Rising which basically re-orders the powers that be in the solar system even after 30 years in which the political calculus had been changing slowly and inexorably in a certain direction.

These jolting plot developments make sense, because the authors of the Expanse series (James S.A. Corey is a pseudonym for Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham) have stated that it will be 9 books long, consisting of three sets of trilogies, which would make this 7th book the first book in the final trilogy. Thus it is not surprising that there a lot of things are put in motion in Persepolis Rising which will presumably need to be resolved in future books. (However, there are definitely a lot of satisfying resolutions of sub-plots in Persepolis Rising as well.) Even more important is that we start to get some information about the protomolecule itself (and the creatures who created it) which does give support for the idea that we are hurtling towards the conclusion of the entire 9-book story arc.

Overall, Persepolis Rising is one of the best entries in The Expanse series. It is tautly plotted, incredibly thrilling and emotionally resonant. I knew it would probably be one of my favorite reads of the year so that even though I pre-ordered it for arrival on its day of release, I waited until the holiday season to read the book and ended up devouring it in one day (it was absolutely impossible to put down)! And maybe that's the most convincing thing I can say to encourage you to start reading this incredible series of books. You will NOT be disappointed.

Title: Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7).
Author: James S.A. Corey.
Paperback: 548 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Date Published: December 5, 2017.
Date Read: December 25, 2017.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★★  (5.0/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A+/A (4.167/4.0).


PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: A+.
WRITING: A.

Netflix's Altered Carbon IS Arriving 02/02/18 (And Looks Awesome)!

The next great television show based on a science fiction/fantasy books is going to be a reality soon! It was announced in January 2016 that Netflix had ordered a 10-episode season of 1-hour episodes based on Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs trilogy: Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies. These books are set in the 24th century where humanity has expanded to about a dozen worlds and the most notable technological change is the development of human conscious transfer and storage. One consequence of this is effective immortality because once a body begins to fail, one can transfer one's consciousness into another body. In fact, for the super-rich there's no reason to wait until death to do this consciousness transfer from an , and so the bodies that store consciousness are known as "sleeves."

Netflix has now announced that the series is called Altered Carbon will be available on the streaming service starting February 2, 2018! In addition to announcing the release date, a number of teaser and trailer videos have been released and they look AMAZING!

and
One quibble I have with what I have seen of the show (in the trailers) so far is that in the books Takeshi Kovacs (the primary protagonist) is described as being "of Japanese and Eastern-European descent" but in the Netflix television adaptation he is being played by an actor named Joel Kinnaman who looks pretty fair-skinned (he's a Swedish actor). Kinnaman is quite attractive, but the non-white hue of most of the characters in the books (as far as I remember) was definitely mentioned. I don't think this will become a huge talking point as the series starts getting more prominent public notice, but I do find it somewhat troubling. I believe they will explain it by referring to an original "sleeve" Takeshi had where he is played by a Korean-American actor.

There are other interesting tidbts about the show in this Entertainment Weekly article: the pilot was directed by Game of Thrones alum Miguel Sapochnik (S6E09: The Battle of the Bastards) and the budget is rumored to be the biggest ever for Season 1 of a show (and remember House of Cards had an estimated budget of $100m for its first two seasons, or approximately $4.5m per episode).

I can't wait see this show on February 2, 2018!

With Game of Thrones probably off the air until the end of 2018 at the earliest and Season 3 of The Expanse shot but no airdate released (but expected to be sometime in 2018) we are living in the golden age of television based on speculative fiction classic works (by George R.R. Martin and James S.A. Corey, respectively).

THE EXPANSE (S1E09-E10): "Critical Mass";"Leviathan Wakes"

Season 1 of The Expanse ends with a double feature of the last two episodes entitled "Critical Mass" (Episode 9) and "Leviathan Wakes" (Episode 10). The Season 1 finale aired on February 2, 2016. The Season 2 premiere will air on February 1, 2017.

S1E09: Critical Mass.

The title of episode 9 refers to the situation one needs to detonate a nuclear weapon. In "Critical Mass," the number of various elements of the story are starting to come together in order to reach a critical mass that will presumably explode in the final episode of Season 1.

Some of the elements which start to be revealed include:

• What happened to Julie Mao and how a billionaire's daughter ended up dying in alone in a hotel room on Eros infected by what appears to be an alien entity called the "protomolecule."
• Fred Johnson of Tycho Station reveals who was responsible for the creation of the ships which destroyed the Martian flagship Donnager (in Earth-based shipyards).
• That Eros is becoming a scientific test site for the human incubation and experimentation with the protomolecule.
• Crisjen Avarasala discovers that her boss, UN Undersecretary Errinwright, had her friend, the former Ambassador to Mars, killed in order to hide his connection to the mystery ships that killed the Canterbury and the Donnager

S1E10: Leviathan Wakes.

The title of episode 10 has the same name as the title of the first book in the Expanse series written by James S.A. Corey. Much of this episode takes place on Eros, as the Amos, Naomi and Alex make their way through the tunnels (using information only an OPA terrorist should have access to) to reach the Rocinante at the docks. The other main story in this episode is Holden and Miller trying to get to the docks but they have to do so by making way through an entire mercenary army who are attempting to enforce a genocidal lockdown.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The look on Holden's face when he realizes that he and Miller have been exposed to fatal doses of high-energy radiation as he says "We're dead."
• The chemistry between Holden and Nagata becomes palpable in the final scene they have in the episode (and season) as he realizes that since she did in fact wait for him to get back maybe there is some kind of (romantic?) connection there after all.
• The deadpan way Amos "cleans up the mess" after he prevents Sematimba from forcing Naomi to give him access to the controls of the Roci so that he can escape Eros (and leave Miller and Holden behind) is absolutely chilling.

LOWLIGHTS

• Why does Holden waste all his ammunition by shooting at Kenzo to scare him off and leave him to die on Eros instead of actually shooting and killing him himself? They have already made it clear that Holden is a wuss when actually pulling a trigger to kill someone but this scene literally doesn't make any sense in the context of the life-and-death situation finds himself in.

GRADE: 9/10. ("Critical Mass").
GRADE: 9/10. ("Leviathan Wakes").

YAY! Netflix Announces 10-Episode Deal To Adapt Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon

Wow! The number of my favorite works of fiction that are becoming multimedia projects is increasing. Of course if you follow this blog you'll know that I have been a big fan of Game of Thrones (adapted for HBO from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin) and I'm currently ecstatic that the first season of James S.A. Corey's The Expanse series is on SyFy.

Yesterday, Netflix announced that is going to adapt Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon into a 10-episode streaming series. There are three books in the Takeshi Kovacs series (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies), which are set in the 25th century and are an exciting combination of noir mystery and far-future cyberpunk science fiction. Here's the description by io9:

Altered Carbon is set in the 25th century, where humans live all across the universe and consciousness can be transferred from body to body, making death a thing of the past. It follows a centuries old soldier who is “resleeved” (their word for transferring consciousness) into the body of a police officer and must then explore a huge conspiracy. 

Writer and producer Laeta Kalogridis, who co-wrote Avatar and Terminator Genisys, bought the rights to the book and its sequels several years back, after co-writing a movie script that didn’t get picked up. She’ll now serve as writer and executive producer. 

“Altered Carbon is one of the most seminal pieces of post-cyberpunk hard science fiction out there,” Kalogridis said at that time. “A dark, complex noir story that challenges our ideas of what it means to be human when all information becomes encodable, including the human mind.”

It looks like the production team is strong as well (although Terminator Genisys mostly sucked) the studio SkyDance is well-versed in big special effects movies and is exactly the right place for this adaptation. VERY psyched about this news!

I don't understand why producers are not knocking down the doors of two of my other favorite sci-i authors Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth saga and Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space books would make awesome movies or television series.

THE EXPANSE (S1E05): "Back to the Butcher"

I previously reviewed the first four episodes and am planning on blogging every episode of the show this season. The Expanse is a television adaptation of the science-fiction space opera books written by James S.A. Corey, one of my favorite authors.

The fifth episode of Season 1 of the Syfy's The Expanse's is called "Back to the Butcher." 

S1E05: Back to the Butcher.

The episode again starts soon after the previous one ended, with Havelock in a hospital room, which is quite surprising since we saw him get a meter-long spike through his chest. His survival is not explained and we see a confrontation between Holden and Havelock's girlfriend, the Belter hooker Gia, in his hotel room.

Back on the Martian ship MCRN Tachi we see that Lopez is dead and that Amos has a horrible fracture with a piece of his bone sticking out of his leg. They appear to magically fix Amos's leg and even though no one in the Solar System should know where they are somehow they receive a message from Fred Johnson of Tycho Station. In a series of flashbacks, the episode depicts events from 12 years before in Colonel Fred Johnson's career when he was a United Nations Marine and ended up responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilian Belters after a tense standoff over resources on Anderson Station. For this Johnson is known as "The Butcher of Anderson Station," (This explains the title of the episode; a significantly different version of the events of Anderson Station was told in a novella written by The Expanse author Corey that was released between the publication of the first two books, Leviathan Wakes and Abaddon's Gate.)  

Back on the Tachi, the crew is very impressed with how clean, sleek and powerful the ship is. However, Alex and Amos learn how famous Holden is throughout the system by tapping into a video feed from Ganymede which depicts news reports of the rioting on Ceres Station and shows images of Holden with the now-famous battle-cry "Remember the Cant!" In fact, that is exactly the phrase which the guy who put the spear through Havelock said in another viral video.

Meanwhile back on Ceres, Miller continues to track down Julie Mao instead of trying to find the person who attempted to kill his partner. In fact, he gets tempted by OPA bigwig Anderson Dawes who has the guy who did it in an OPA safe house, whose location he will give to Miller if he agrees to an exchange of information in the future, because he also wants to know Julie Mao's location, since "she was one of ours."

Back on the Tachi Naomi confidently follows Col. Johnson's instructions on how to change their ship's transponders and the entire crew sighs with relief when MCRN Tachi becomes Rocinante. For book readers this is an important moment because we know that the Rocinante becomes the space ship that our crew of four principals uses for the next five books.

Overall this episode was much more low key than previous episodes (but in a good way, since for once the crew was not in mortal danger).

HIGHLIGHTS

• The interior design of the Rocinante is incredibly impressive!
• The decision to include the back story of Fred Johnson was a nice one, since he will become an integral part of the story moving forward
• The set dressing and all the little details on Ceres Station (which we see as Miller tries to trace the whereabouts of Julie Mao) are really amazing
• The look on Holden's face when he finally gets to have a cup of real coffee!

LOWLIGHTS

• No Chrisjen Avasarala :(
• The lack of explanation of how Havelock survived
• I think they could have done a more nuanced job in depicting the events which led to Johnson getting his name as the Butcher of Anderson Station.

GRADE: 8/10.

THE EXPANSE (S1E01-E04): "Dulcinea";"The Big Empty";"Remember The Cant";"CQB"

The Expanse is a new show on SyFy based on the series of space opera books written by James S.A. Corey. They have rapidly become some of my favorite books, and happily, since 2011, the authors have released a new volume in the series annually, with the sixth book Babylon's Ashes set to come out in June 2016.

So I have been very excited about the news of the adaptation of the books for television, which I have been following relatively closely. The first episode in the show is titled "Dulcinea" and has been available online at SyFy.com and other outlets since November 23rd. The official broadcast premiere of the show was Monday December 14.

Here is my review of the first four episodes of The Expanse, with episode 5 "Back to the Butcher" scheduled to air at 10pm PST on SyFy tonight.

S1E01: Dulcinea.

The primary take-away I have from the very first episode of The Expanse was wow! But the wow was the exclamation of glee at my first look at Steven Strait's taut muscled body playing the lead character James Holden. The setting of the story is tripartite: On Earth we see Chrisjen Avasarala (well-played by Shohreh Agdashloo) torturing a very tall skinny guy who we are told is a Belter; On the Canterbury we see Holden having an improper sexual relationship with the ship's navigator and unsuccessfully avoid being named the new Executive Officer of the old space trawler; On Ceres we see Detective Joe Miller (played laconically by Thomas Jane) pick up the case of a missing heiress named Julie Mao. Overall, the episode looks amazing and ends with a bang (literally) as the Canterbury is blown to bits by nuclear missiles launched by a mysterious spaceship while Holden and the rest of our main cast members Naomi Nagata (Domonique Tipper), Amos Burton (Wes Chatham), Shed Harvey (Paolo Costanzo) and Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar) watch mouths agape from the interior of a small shuttle.

GRADE: 8/10.

S1E02: The Big Empty.

The episode starts seconds after the last one ended, with the crew reacting to the news that dozens of their friends, lovers and colleagues have just been obliterated by the Canterbury’s destruction. Holden immediately wants Alex to follow the mystery ship that fired the missile but he is thwarted by Naomi turning the engines off (and is seemingly undaunted by the very large gun Amos points at his head). The surviving crew of the Cant has bigger problems though because they are pummeled by the massive amount of debris and space rubble their former ship has been converted into.  Back on Ceres, Miller is learning that his missing heiress was a lot more complex than just a spoiled little rich kid with daddy issues. This is a very taut episode where we learn much more about the main characters as they go to extraordinary measures to get themselves rescued before they run out of air. Holden is a hothead but is also very brave. Naomi is extremely resourceful, scary smart and an engineering wizard. Amos does anything Naomi says but is also brave. Shed and Alex are both goofy, but Shed saves Alex’s life by sharing his air with him. This episode ends with the crew being “rescued” by the one ship they would have least liked to see: the Donnager, the massive and mighty flagship of the Mars Congressional Republic Nacy (MCRN). However, before they are boarded Holden creates some insurance by recording and broadcasting a message with his suspicions that a Mars ship was responsible for luring him and his crew to the Scopuli and probably destroyed the Canterbury.

GRADE: 8/10.

S1E03: Remember The Cant.

The episode opens with multiple shots of screens depicting Holden’s face with the audio coming from his recorded message that was broadcast essentially accusing Mars of destroying the Canterbury. The surviving crewmembers are put into holding cells on board the Donnager by some very militaristic looking MCRN Marines. Everyone, that is, except Alex, who we find out spent twenty years in the Martian Navy and is therefore treated differently than his fellow crewmembers. This episode is where we learn even more about the crewmembers and discover how much they don’t know about each other. Curiously we are only shown Naomi’s and Holden’s interrogations and we see that the Martians (especially the Donnager’s Captain Yao) believe that Naomi is an OPA terrorist and are wondering why (and how) the rest of the crew are going along with her plans when none of the rest of them (Shed, Amos, and Holden) are Belters. We also learn that Holden was given a dishonorable discharge from the Earth military for attempting to strike a superior officer for asking him to fire on a ship smuggling Belters. Back on Ceres we follow Miller’s partner Dmitri Havelock (Jay Hernandez) as he links up with a hooker, not for sex, but to learn Belter hand signals. By the end of the episode it becomes clear to Holden’s crew on the Donnager and Avarasala on Earth that Mars actually did not kill the Cant and it might have something to do with those mysteriously nonresponsive ships that are approaching Mars’ largest warship without hesitation. However, the Belters on Ceres are starting to riot as conditions are getting worse since the ice the Canterbury was hauling would have provided much needed water for the station and the chant “Remember the Cant” becomes a rallying cry for enraged (and violent Belters), one of whom shoots what looks like a meter long stake through the unfortunate Havelock at the very end of the episode. Yipes!

GRADE: 9/10.

S1E04: CQB.

This episode features one of the most graphic scenes in the elimination of (what we thought) was a major character ever seen on television. I don’t want to spoil what happens, but suffice it to say, Shed picked the short straw. And what is so amazing is that this scene happens very early into the episode and just leads to another near-death experience for our Canterbury crew. Naomi, Amos and Alex are left in an enclosed space with limited air while the mysterious ships from the previous episode engage in a close quarter battle (hence the eponymous episode title) with the Donnager. “What kind of ship would take on a CQB with the Donnager?” asks Alex, unbelievingly. We don’t actually find out because we never see the ships that attack the huge Martian warship but we do know they get boarded by soldiers wearing quite advanced tech. Holden was in the command center (on Star Trek it would have been called the bridge) of the ship with Captain Yao when she realizes he (and his crew) are the reason her ship is being attacked and sends him away with Lopez (Greg Byrk) the guy who was previously interrogating Holden and Naomi. Before that happens we are introduced to Fred Johnson (Chad Coleman) on a huge generation ship being commissioned by the Mormon Church called the Nauvoo. The Mormons are nervous about Johnson’s OPA ties but he threatens them with the collapse of the entire project and they give in to him. Back at the Donnager the MCRN Donnager is getting its butt kicked and Holden (with Lopez in tow) barely manages to find Amos, Alex and Naomi in time before they run out of air. They all fight their way through a hail of bullets to what looks like a speedy ship in the docking bay of the huge Martian ship and literally blast their way out of the ship and get away only seconds before the entire ship self-destructs (“The Captain has initiated Condition Zero” Lopez tells Holden tersely). Meanwhile back at Ceres, Miller has tracked down Julie Mao’s last hookup but the guy whom he thought it was is in the morgue but he is carrying a lot of tech which spoofs the identifying software. The episode ends with Havelock (the guy who was impaled by a spike in the previous episode!) waking up groggily as someone tries to rifle through his pockets. Whaaaaat?

GRADE 10/10.