'Caliban's War' (Expanse V2)

The conclusion of Leviathan Wakes left me with more questions than answers, the beginning of Caliban's War had my mind racing with even more questions but equally, more excitement.

Volume 2 does not specify the exact time that transpired from the incident on Venus to where we find ourselves now, Mars. Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper is conducting some routine training missions with her squad of Martian Marines. She has been assigned the glorious mission of patrolling the neutral zone that spans between the Martian and UN controlled territory on Ganymede, a moon orbiting Jupiter. On one such patrol something went very, very wrong. As the squad moves across the icy surface of the moon, they spot an equivalently, powered squad of UN marines advancing on their position from several hundred meters away. Bobby and her team lock and load in preparation for what appears to be direct contact. The UN team approaches closer when Bobby realizes that they are not assaulting her team, but, rather, are falling back as they are under direct contact themselves. Bobby immediately radios to her superiors to relay and receive the information on the ground but all of their communications are mysteriously being jammed. Once the UN team was close enough to engage, Bobby and her team become horrified at what they were witnessing. A strange, large, blue creature of a man, not wearing a vac-suit, ripping the enemy marines to shreds. The following confrontation left Bobby and her squad dismantled. As Bobby lay facing the stars, she could see that the Martian and UN navies were engaged in a conflict of their own, as a result from the confusion of the events on the surface. As the ships in orbit begin to tear each other apart, the creature pears into her helmet and looks her directly in the eye. Seconds before ending her life, the creature suddenly looks skyward as one of the large orbital mirrors comes screaming towards the surface, and decides to leave her be. The mirrors crashed into one of the large farming and research domes, killing everyone within it. She eventually passes out from the pain, and awakes to a new horror. Her entire team, along with the UN counterparts, were all killed in action, and she was now faced with having to explain what exactly went wrong that day.

This is just a short summary of the first couple chapters. Obviously, reading them for yourself would be a better option, and I hope I did the authors justice. However, in pure James S.A. Corey fashion, the story unfolds in separate segments that all intersect at a specific point in the book, but I won't spoil the intricate political platforms that make this story one of a kind. Similar to the first book we find an introduction to new characters and a furtherance of the ones that were introduced to in the first book. You all know that I am absolutely in love with the way the authors develop the characters and how they create the landscapes for this illustrious story. I have also had a change of heart for the television series that has been picked up by Amazon for the foreseeable future. It took me a minute to appreciate the direction that the show was taking the story, and to fully understand their interpretation of the books. Now that I have finished the second season, I realized that they have taken some liberty with how the story plays out, but they have done fairly well in staying true to most of the development.

Caliban's War takes you on a wild ride that ends in a way that you may or may not see coming. I for one turned off my assumptions and just buckled my creative seat belt. I did put the book down for a few months, but once I was back into it, there were several nights that I burned the eyes out of skull hundreds of pages at a time. My intention is to not beat a dead horse by telling you how amazing this story really is, but if you are any sort of science fiction fan, you might find yourself skeptical comparatively to other popular books and shows. With an honorable mention to Star Trek, I think that it is important to observe where The Expanse falls within the Trek timeline (this is also one of the elements that attracts me to the story). So, the universe of the expanse would be after the earth branches out from its' own atmosphere, before warp drive is discovered, and also before first contact is made. Unlike other science fiction stories where the 'aliens' are mostly humanoid, the Protomolecule is anything but human-like. The ships they use in the expanse are driven by fusion, rather than the anti-matter (dark matter) warp engines of those found in the Trekverse. The Protomolecule could be considered the first contact with an alien race, and it has proven to be hostile but igniting to my curiosity. If you happened to read my take on Leviathan Wakes, you know that I do have some insight as to where the near future will end up, and the 3rd volume is titled Abaddon's Gate. As you can surmise, I have a feeling that the known solar system is about to become much smaller. I find that given the perfection of advanced technology, humans will become both the ultimate forms of good and evil. In other words, higher technology allows individuals or groups to enact what they already have within themselves.

In closing, I am excited to see where the story will take me, but I am also weary of the fact that expanding The Expanse (like what I did there?) will result in the negligence of the characters that I have already come to know. As I begin Volume 3, I am still basking in the curtain call of Caliban's War, and I have not cracked the cover just yet to give Volume 2 the time to run its course through my mind. As I mentioned earlier, I am left with more questions than answers. The authors have masterfully allowed you to share in the suspense and confusion felt by characters themselves as the universe morphs chapter after chapter.