Nemesis Games by James S.A. CoreyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Jacket Blurb: The fifth novel in James S.A. Corey's New York Times bestselling Expanse series--now being produced for television by the SyFy Channel!
A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.
Ships are disappearing without a trace. Private armies are being secretly formed. The sole remaining protomolecule sample is stolen. Terrorist attacks previously considered impossible bring the inner planets to their knees. The sins of the past are returning to exact a terrible price.
And as a new human order is struggling to be born in blood and fire, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante must struggle to survive and get back to the only home they have left.
November's book group selection.
This, was a awesome book. A bit of a departure from previous sections in the series (and way better than death slugs and eye fungus from the previous book) in that our crew of the Rocinante has dispersed to the four winds while the Rocinante is undergoing repairs. Each of the crew has something from their past that needs wrapping up. Each crew member says their goodbyes, but it's left open and unsaid if they are planning on returning. James Holden is left to his own devises, bumping around a station, purposeless until the news reporter Monica disappears after telling him about ships going missing. .
When the proverbial shit hits the fan (or the stealth rocks start falling on Earth), our merry crew is scattered across the galaxy:
- Amos is on Earth, deep underground chatting with Clarissa Mao when the lights go out.
- Alex is with Bobbie, and they find themselves zipping around the galaxy with the Martian Prime Minister while Avasarala throws her political weight around.
- Naomi becomes Marco's prisoner - someone she thought she had left decades ago - under the pretense that Marco wanted the mother of his child safe when the Belter's stand up and take their rightful place in the universe.
- Holden is left on station with the Rocinante when the last sample of the protomolecule is stolen from Fred Johnson's office. Fred and Holden begin to realize that nothing is safe and nobody can be trusted.
My least favorite story line was Naomi's - simply because it felt more like filler than the solidity the sub-plots had. I grew tired of her internal emotional tug of war regarding Marco and being shoved back into a situation she thought she had left behind. I wanted to smack her upside the head and say get over yourself already!
I loved that Avasarala and Bobbie were back in full force. Chrisjen is probably my favorite character in this series. I laughed out loud when Avasarala is bombasting the Martian Prime Minister in a message to Bobbie, knowing full well that the PM can overhear what she's saying, and when Bobbie apologies, he shrugs and admits that Avasrala didn't say anything that he hadn't already heard. Great scene.
And ultimately, the question becomes, how will all these plot lines return to the Rocinante. You know they will, so it's a matter of how. Which I won't tell you about here. Nemesis Games is just too much of a roller coaster ride to deny you the enjoyment of finding that out for yourself.
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