Nemesis Games

I read this book after seeing the TV series, which is very unlike me. I remember the TV adaptation was great, and the book is even better.??
This might be my favorite book in the series. The pace of the book is just perfect with POV chapters for each one of the Rocinante crew members: Holden, Naomi, Alex, and Amos. It???s a different setting as well because they are not inside Rocinante for a change, and they are not even in the same places for most of the time and that just shows how good these characters are.??

After reading Cibola Burn, I wanted more of the gates and alien technology but instead got more politics and killing. This story really did for Naomi and Alex what The Churn did for Amos, letting us know more about their past. The authors do write politics, killing and characters very well, so I enjoyed the story immensely and can't wait for the next book to be released.

From the outset (and without giving anything away) it was apparent in the first few chapters that the central conceit of Nemesis Games would be that each member of the Rocinante's crew would have their own fairly isolated storylines. Because of this, I was looking forward to learning something about each of their back stories. While all these seemingly disparate journey's end up being interesting and significant to the overall story, and while there are some truly big, dramatic moments in the plot - they are flanked by a fair number of passages that seem to drag. I'm leaning toward giving this one a 5 star rating, especially because of the final chapter, which was eloquent and poetic... but I feel like Nemesis Games is just a very strong 4, and is set to introduce a (possibly) great 6th book. Let's find out!

Nemesis Games est le cinquième volume de la saga de science-fiction The Expanse signée James S.A. Corey, le nom de plume du duo composé des auteurs Daniel Abraham et Ty Franck.

Après un quatrième tome qui m'a semblé un peu en-deca, j'espérais retrouver avec celui-ci toutes les qualités démontrées dans les trois premiers volumes du cycle.

Contrairement aux romans précédents qui donnaient la parole à de nouveaux personnages, celui-ci revient aux bases : les quatre points de vue présentés sont en effet ceux des quatre membres d'équipage du Roccinante, qui prennent des chemins différents pendant les longs mois nécessaires pour que leur vaisseau soit réparé après leur périlleuse expédition dans Cibola Burn :

- Naomi part sur Ceres après avoir été recontactée par une vieille connaissance de l'époque où il menait des actions clandestines pour l'OPA

- Amos retourne sur Terre, vingt ans après son départ, après avoir appris la mort d'une femme qui a semble-t-il compté pour lui à l'époque

- Alex se rend sur Mars en espérant renouer ou en tout cas s'expliquer avec son ex-femme, qu'il avait abandonné pour suivre son envie d'espace et d'aventure dans la Navy

- Jim Holden choisit d'abord de rester sur la station Tycho pour surveiller la réparation du Roccinante et attendre le retour de ses amis, avant d'être lui aussi entrainé dans de nouvelles aventures

Cela commence plutôt doucement, c'est plutôt plaisant à suivre, sans être totalement passionnant. Après un bon tiers du roman, je voyais déjà converger certaines histoires, je m'attendais plus ou moins à ce qui allait se passer, quand un événement majeur est venu tout bouleversé au milieu du roman. C'était plus fort que ce à quoi je m'attendais.

Je dois encore une fois saluer la capacité des auteurs à nous surprendre et surtout à ne pas attendre la fin du roman pour proposer des scènes fortes. C'était déjà le cas dans les romans précédents et c'est encore plus vrai ici : on ne s'ennuie pas et contrairement à certains romans de science-fiction, il n'y a pas vraiment de creux au milieu du récit, c'est plutôt le contraire ici.

J'ai dévoré la deuxième moitié du livre et j'y ai pris beaucoup de plaisir. Ce qui s'annonçait au début comme un roman de transition, un retour aux bases de la saga, s'est transformé en véritable révolution de l'univers de The Expanse. Autant dire que mon enthousiasme, un peu entamé avec le tome précédent, est remonté en flèche !

Comme à la fin du troisième tome, les cartes sont rabattues à l'issue de celui-ci et je suis impatient de découvrir la suite dans le sixième tome, Babylon's Ashes.

This book, the latest in the Expanse series, sort of exists on two separate levels, so I think it's appropriate to consider it on two separate levels.

First, there's the character level, which is the primary focus for the first half of the book (character continues to be important in the second half, of course, but it's not the only focus). The crew of the Rocinante gets shore leave, and use it to tie up some loose ends in their personal lives. It was nice to see how the characters exist separate from one another, as it allowed Corey to highlight how their personalities complement each other and how they've grown into a cohesive group.

The other level is the main, actual, plot, which becomes a major part of the story in the second half. I've seen (favourable) comparisons of this to The Empire Strikes Back, and I think that actually undersells the moment when it happens. The Big Moment™ hits like a cross between the Red Wedding and Adrian Veidt's “I did it 35 minutes ago” speech, and seeing how all of the individual storylines were dovetailing into it was phenomenal. New life has been breathed into the series, and I can't wait to see where they take it next.

The Expanse, as a series, has seemed like a masterclass in how to balance an engaging plot with in-depth characterization, and this novel in particular is a nigh-perfect example of that.

Great book. Much better than book #4. A lot of my favorite characters coming back.

Issues. Spoilers.

This books is only really a 1/2 book. It is a good 1/2 book and short so it is not that big a deal but seems like a book to give people more back story and to get people into place and to get the group back together.

One thing that really kept me from giving this 5 stars is how really bad the the setup was at the beginning. The ship is being worked on for a few months so everyone decides to leave or gets a call to leave at the exact right time to go to all the exact right places in the solar system. There they run into the right people at the right time to all save those people or to find out the exact same plot to destroy everything. Come on! The writers are better than this!

Even with than the story is great and a great read/listen.

I'll admit that the beginning of this one worried me, but the story won me over in the end.

Nemesis Games splits up the crew of the Rocinante and gives us every crew member's POV for the first time. It is a lot of fun getting to know Naomi, Alex, and Amos as more than just “Holden's Posse.” The situations that separate them are a little forced, however, and except for Naomi, the reasons they left never pan out into much of stories, meaning the central plot of the book is just trying to get the crew back together again. There's political turmoil and a couple alien issues, but for the most part it's just a family that wants to get back together, and there's the sweetness to that which has kept me attached to this series.

We have returning favorites, and I'm super excited to have Bobbie back on the story front lines. We also get Clarissa Mao returning, so the crew has a River Tam now. Did I read right that the tv show is changing her name to Andromeda Mao. Andromeda?! What the hell? We needed spacier names or something? Ugh... I'm digressing.

Naomi's plotline is by far the most exciting, and we get a real glimpse into how she became the woman she is. Naomi is an unconventional heroine to say the least, and the decisions she makes definitely don't coincide to any traditional archetype. At this point, she is the most interesting member of the crew, and honestly kind of an anti-hero at that. I think she is the best thing the Corey team has created, and I really hope the tv show does her justice.

The overarching storyline does not advance a whole lot in this book, and it feels a bit more like a filler/retrospective than it does the next one in the series, but the ending definitely shows that the protomolecule troubles are not over, and I'll be on board when the next novel comes out.

Executive Summary: Best one yet! I've always enjoyed this series, but I really loved this book. My only complaint would I don't have more to read! I can't wait for book 6.Audio book: Jefferson Mays is back! Huzzah! Don't get me wrong, he's not one of my favorite narrators or anything, but he is good. And the guy they got to replace him for book 4 was not. I was considering switching to text for this book if that narrator was used again. Thankfully I didn't have to. His accents for Avasarala and Alex are excellent as always. Everyone else isn't really anything special. He has good inflection and reads in a nice and clear voice. Hopefully they'll be able to get him for all the future books.Full ReviewThe Expanse books have been a lot of fun since I finally picked them up last year. However I was starting to feel like maybe it was running out of steam.I liked [b:Leviathan Wakes 8855321 Leviathan Wakes (Expanse, #1) James S.A. Corey https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411013134s/8855321.jpg 13730452] and thought [b:Caliban's War 12591698 Caliban's War (Expanse, #2) James S.A. Corey https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1407572377s/12591698.jpg 17606541] was even better. However I felt [b:Abaddon's Gate 16131032 Abaddon's Gate (Expanse, #3) James S.A. Corey https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1407572059s/16131032.jpg 17606564] and especially [b:Cibola Burn 18656030 Cibola Burn (Expanse, #4) James S.A. Corey https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405023040s/18656030.jpg 26109318] weren't as good.I've grown tired of the rotating POV's with new characters to follow around. Part of the problem is that Avasarala and Bobbie were so great in [b:Caliban's War 12591698 Caliban's War (Expanse, #2) James S.A. Corey https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1407572377s/12591698.jpg 17606541], everyone that followed was a disappointment.Not only that, but they didn't really feature in books 3 and 4 and I think that's a waste. Thankfully that's been remedied in this book. While they aren't POV characters again, they do feature fairly heavily in the plot, albeit Bobbie moreso than Avasarala.The other problem was I always found at least 1 or 2 of the POV to be less interesting than the others. The best part is that instead of forcing the readers to deal with some new characters they won't like as much, they chose to make the other 3 POVs the remaining members of the Rocinante. Not only do we finally get in the heads of characters I've come to love in the last 4 books, but we get more of their backstories as well, especially Naomi and Amos. In fact if you haven't read [b:The Churn 20981355 The Churn (Expanse, #0.2) James S.A. Corey https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397146232s/20981355.jpg 40358593] previously, I'd highly recommend doing so before this novel. I think you'll get a lot more out of Amos's storyline if you do. I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite plotline. They were all just so good.So apart from excellent choice for POVs what really makes this book so great is the focus of the story. The stuff with the protomolecule in the last 4 books has been interesting, but this book mostly takes a break from that.The tensions have long been bubbling between the 3 human factions of Earth, Mars and The Belt/OPA have finally come to a head. And just when I thought I was enjoying this book, BAM! It somehow got even better.This is a very different story than last four. That may upset some fans, but for me it breathed new life into a series that seemed in danger of losing its way.Some characters in this book made me so mad! Others made me scared or nervous. Just seeing Bobbie and Avasarala made me happy. I hated having to stop listening each day, and I couldn't wait to start listening again. To me that's the sort of thing that pushes something from a 4 star rating into the vary rare company of a 5 star rating. It also put it solidly on my favorites shelf. I will definitely be listening to this one again.If I had one complaint it's that it's over! I can't wait for book 6! If you found yourself not as happy with the last book or two, I highly recommend giving this one a shot, I really think it's best one yet!

I admit that I was sceptical at first, because this book seemed to deviate from the formula by immediately breaking up the crew, but each individual story thread that came out of that was gripping, and made the book impossible to put down. Nice meeting some of my favorite side characters from earlier books again, too.

“Zullen we anders eens een paar karakters wat uitdiepen?”, zal de ene helft van James S.A. Corey tegen de andere helft gezegd hebben, en zo gezegd, zo gedaan.

In deel vijf van de Expanse-reeks moet de Rocinante gerepareerd worden na de Spannende Avonturen van het vorige boek, en terwijl James Holden bij zijn schip in de buurt blijft en onderzoek doet naar mysterieus verdwijnende ruimteschepen, gaan de drie andere leden van het kernteam elk hun eigen weg. Naomi naar iemand uit haar verleden in The Belt ergens, Amos naar iemand uit zijn verleden op Aarde, Alex naar iemand uit zijn verleden op Mars. KUCH totaal niet geforceerd of niets KUCH

De drie bezoeken lopen alledrie anders af dan de mensen zelf het hadden verwacht of gehoopt, de drie bezoeken geven ons allemaal achtergrondinformatie waarmee de karakters wat uitgediept worden, en het is bij momenten spannend, en leest allemaal zeer vlot weg.

Wat té vlot, vind ik, want uiteindelijk gebeuren er op de achtergrond verschrikkelijk ingrijpende dingen, die bij mij nooit echt helemaal veel impact hebben gemaakt. Mutatis mutandis leest het als iemand die zijn oud lief gaat bezoeken en oh ja, ondertussen valt er een atoombom op zijn stad en staat het land in brand, maar hey, niemand uit zijn direkte omgeving gaat dood dus zo enorm erg is het niet.

De achtergrond, da's een soort rebellie / burgeroorlog / opstand / reeks terroristische aanslagen door (op het eerste zicht) radikale Outer Planet Alliance-mensen, die het niet pikken dat Aarde en Mars hen tot de schroothoop van de geschiedenis veroordeelt.

Op het eerste zicht, want MacGuffin van dienst is andermaal de protomolecule, en in een epiloog wordt nog maar eens ten overvloede duidelijk dat ja, we het volgende boek ook zullen moeten kopen, als we ooit hopen te weten wat er eigenlijk aan het gebeuren is.

Ik hoop alleen van ganser harte dat de heren James S.A. Corey (pseudoniem van Daniel Abraham en Ty Franck, FYI) weten waar ze naartoe aan het gaan zijn. Dat we hier met andere woorden te maken hebben met iets als The Gap Cycle (op voorhand gepland afgesloten geheel) en niet met iets als Lost (machtig interessante premisse en uitstekend begin, monumentale clusterfuck wegens “laten we het allemaal eens uitvinden terwijl we bezig zijn en mysteries en cliffhangers schrijven waar we zelf niet van weten wat ze betekenen”).

Zucht ja. Ik houd het op “pulp, maar leesbaar”.

I'm not shy about admitting that this series leaves me with some bias. It just hits me with everything I love about sci-fi. I've also shown that each installment seems to replace the last one as my new favourite. This is no different. In fact, I think this one takes it to a new level. Especially the perspectives that we now get to read. I mean, I learned so much more about the rest of the Rocinante crew! Something I've been desiring for a while, and it left me riding a rollercoaster of emotions. .
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AHHH! I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH! I'm not twitching, you're twitching! Anyway, back to my point. This one keeps the gut-wrenching action going, and really had me more invested in these characters than ever before. This is not an installment to miss.