July 6, 2021, – 100 days to offload countdown #82

I just finished reading the 8th novel in the expanse series. I have high hopes for the 9th, due to arrive in november this year. Whenever the authors have a chance to drift off into cliché action sequences, or build one character up to be the saviour/messiah, or just end with an overwhelming military success after which everything is solved and fine, they simply don’t. While there is a good measure of deus-ex-machina in the story told (the epstein drive, for one), it is not only very realistic in it’s depiction of space-travel and -habitation, but employs characters that feel like real people, and not one-dimensional stereotypes existing to further the plot.

My high hopes are two fold: The story should come to an end, not be prolonged further for commercial reasons – let them write tie-ins and spin-offs for that. And it should end as realistic as possible - with a new hope for a lasting truce between the factions, but not with a standard the ’galaxy is saved huzzah he/she was the hero all along’ stance, that would not be fitting.