Defalt

So this volume pick up right after the ending of the previous one and for me it was a little hard to remember what happened at first.

There's a lot of time—too much for my liking—spent on backstories of the main characters. And I didn't really care about their past. maybe because it was too detailed or because I read the first volume a year ago. Also I always don't like when the villain spends most of the time just talking about their plan or issues or ways of vengeance. It's just boring.

The art is still good. So read it if you're a big fan of the first volume, I guess.

The second part of The Three-Body Problem.

For the most part the plot feels slow and mystical, very similar to some classic sci-fi—like Foundation and Childhood’s End—where you and some characters don’t know what’s going on or going to happen next. Or it’s just you and the author doesn’t reveal some character’s plans. Also there are some unique—to me—alien features, which has a big impact on their communication with humans and perception of the world.

The intro (the first third) is kinda slow and I’m like "where are the aliens or some cool sci-fi stuff?", cause mostly it’s just discovering how ordinary human lives may change in that kind of alien situation. And then, as always, after the intro the plot accelerates to the first cosmic velocity. We also get some time jumps here, the last of which for me is very captivating.

Then there’s that action episode on the 80% mark… It’s just shocking.

And then it’s very devastating and depressing because The Dark Forest finally gets explained to you. But the ending suddenly becomes hopeful during the last 5 pages. Which leaves you with a lot of questions about the next book’s potential story.

Overall it’s a realistic, grounded and even scary science fiction story. Can’t wait to read the conclusion!

The beginning of a long, epic sci-fi—The Expanse.

The story is set in the close future solar system where capitalism is still the main driver and the amount of explored space is similar to Red Rising but the society is much closer to modern. So there are some research stations on some of Saturn’s moons and that’s the farthest we get in this book.

There’s a very short intro—compared to most other books where it’s at least a third—after which we get one gripping event after another with very short breaks between them. And also there’s a lot of mystery about what’s happening for like half or two thirds of the story which gets even more mysterious and dangerous. But then it all slows down around 70% mark until almost the very end which feels a little strange and like the authors try to build tension through a lot of text instead of a lot of exciting stuff.

Also the story is told from two points of view: a detective on the asteroid belt and a captain of some transport ship who, at the moment, works for the belt. I think they’re pretty good in showing the story from different perspectives and telling a lot of interesting details about how the world works and how people live on the asteroids. And I mostly prefer the detective here as he shows some real dangers and unpleasant details of that future, while the captain has some good points and decisions in the beginning, he later becomes too naive or strict with his rules (at least he starts to realize this in the end).

So the epically open ending promises some big events and even bigger threats. Can’t wait for the second book.

Ascender continues the story of Descender, but this time it's in a fantasy setting instead of sci-fi.

And this change may sound very sudden, but it was created by the same team, so for me it felt just as mind-bogglingly beautiful as the prequel. Locations, character designs, details—really nice.

Also the plot picks up after 10 years and even has some of the old characters—which obviously has changed a lot—and overall a similar atmosphere. The new characters are also quite interesting, but there aren't a lot of them. Considering it's just the first volume, the story still has a pretty good pacing, while making all the necessary introductions, and even a sense of mystery.

So if you like Descender, then definitely read this one.