1y ago

Question for those who have read them: is the whole The Expanse series good?

I've read the first two books and enjoyed them both. I enjoyed the TV series. But I see there are nine novels and eight novellas in the series, and I know the book series goes on longer than the TV series. I'm curious: is the quality fairly consistent or, like a lot of longer book series, does it degrade over time?

Edit: Thanks everyone! Sounds like the vast majority of folks enjoyed all of the books - enough that I'll probably read them all. I have other books on my reading list, so I might take breaks and read some of those in between.

I really appreciate all the responses. Thank you all. Upvotes all around!

42 comments

Having read all of them, I think of these books as three different sets:
Books 1-6 of the main series basically cover the same time period as the TV show. If you enjoyed the first two books, it's extremely likely that you will enjoy books 3-6. The primary story arc started in book 1 comes to a very satisfying conclusion in book 6, broadly the same as it did in the show.
Books 7-9 are more like a sequel series than a direct continuation of book 1-6. The primary characters return but it's really a new story arc. Personally I read book 7 at release, then later bounced off book 8 when it came out however many months later. It was only when I came back to reread the entire series that books 7-9 clicked for me. For my money everything came to a satisfying conclusion in book 9, with answers to most of the bigger mysteries behind the entire series (i.e. who built the rings, how did they build them, who killed the ring builders, etc.).
The novellas and short stories focus on backstories and side characters. I particularly liked that they reveal where certain side characters eventually ended up; not naming any names for spoiler reasons. Memory's Legion collects all of these into a single book-length collection, which is probably the best way to get them.
TL;DR book 1-6 for sure for sure, books 7-9 probably, novellas if you go through books 1-9 and still want more.
- I read them all at once and it's been a while but overall I enjoyed them. Definitely felt like it went on longer than maybe it needed to which is probably why I didn't bother with the short stories. I would still recommend the books.

This seems like an unpopular opinion, but I quit after 3 books. The first book was great, the second not as good, the third confirmed some consistent discouraging writing patterns from the second.
My biggest complaint is that I started the series for the sci-fi concepts and plotlines, but it quickly became a standard political procedural, with action and drip-reveal mystery elements, and the actual sci-fi elements felt unnecessary and incidental. Or to put it a different way, with rare exceptions, there just weren't reliable sci-fi "big ideas" introduced after the first book, just a lot of human drama and plot that felt like it didn't require the sci-fi setting.
I also felt like some pacing was off and there was a ton of filler. What confirmed that for me was when I noticed the chapter dividers in my reading app and saw nearly every chapter was almost identical length. My guess is the authors worked backwards from a chapter outline with a planned word count for publisher deliverables. If that type of planning sounds more like a business then it does art, I'd say that's actually my experience reading it too.
Finally, one of my pet peeves for any type of believable drama is when conflict is created by people acting stupidly. Kind of the opposite of deus ex machina resolution, it's a transparently artificial conflict that is just meant to give the characters something to do, but lazy writing. I felt that many many times by the second and third books.
Again, I'm in a minority I guess, but I felt it just wasn't worth the time. Not as bad as Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson (my all time worst offender for filler and lazy plot), but lots of squeeze for little juice.
- I've been listening to the audio books when I do my 10 h drive home for vacations/holidays and I watched the show first. I'm on book 7 now.
  I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed book 1 and 2, but 3 through 6 I did find tedious to get through having seen the show and knowing what happens. I'm enjoying 7 again with a fresh story.
  Personally, one of my favourite things about the series is the realism of the sci-fi setting and the use as a setting for a political drama.
  Sort of agree on the filler and formulaic type writing as well, but I haven't noticed it as much with some fresh plot development
- Yeah I'd say that's unpopular, no one can keep the same amount of "new Sci fi" concepts continously. And for me it's still worth a read, because they created a universe with a set of rules (keep protomolecule aside for now) that apply to all humans everywhere. And they never forgot that, not in any books, no stupid gravity generators, no ships appearing magically from somewhere, and they were consistent with that to the end.
  That in my mind will always have a special place. And I'll always keep recommending expanse for anyone that cares about a bit sensible physics in their fantasy.
  
  Hey, that's great. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Different readers are looking for different things.
  I think a good example of sci-fi that can keep up the "new sci-fi concepts continuously" is the Three Body Problem trilogy, if you haven't read it yet.

Yes, and I loved the end of the series.

Yes, absolutely.

Read them all, with the novellas where the tin says they belong. It’s just unrelentingly good.

@AFKBRBChocolate Yes.
- 👆

Just finished last month and it's one of the best series I've ever read. I haven't read the novellas so after some time I will reread the series with them included.

oh heck yes it is a great series.

Could not set them down... except the last one. Jumping 25 years into the future was a strange choice and, for me, less entertaining.
- Spoiler warning maybe?
  
  That's not a spoiler

Reading book 8 right now. They're very, very good.
- I'm in the middle of book 7 and holy what a shift. I'm in the part where it's so overwhelming, you can't even begin to imagine how this will get resolved. Very excited to read the last two books.

The Expanse if the best books series I have read in years and might be the best science fiction series I've ever read. The quality does not diminish (in my opinion), and I am glad I didn't watch the show beyond the first season before reading the books. But there is a lot more than the show covers. I think you can come back to the Novellas later if you like. They are great but you don't need to read them alongside the main novels unless you are so inclined.

I loved the series
Some of the short stories are hit or miss but they are short and worth reading either way and only short
- Are they, by any chance, short?

it's a very interesting Sci-fi series. It's different to other more mainstream sci-fi shows. It has great Physics and gives a glimpse of what the future could be. There are some fictional developments as well , per all the sci-fi shows. Recommended
- They've already seen the show.

With most series of this length, towards the end I've tended to wish that the author would just wrap things up already so I could find out the ending and move on with my life.
With this series I actually got sad as I made my way through the last book because it meant that the story was going to end soon and I had been enjoying it so much that I didn't want it to end. (Having said that, I also absolutely loved the ending, which is also unusual for me for a series that is this long!)

I think the first half of book 4 dipped a bit in quality due to some weaker characters, but the bonkers second half more than made up for it (and the TV version improved on that particular book, IMO).
The show ends on book 6, which means you miss out on pretty much the entire third act of the series. I'd say it's worth finishing just to get some closure on some of the unresolved loose ends.

Yes. Very good. You can skip the novellas but they have some great stories in them. The quality is consistent throughout.

Yes! It's good all the way thru. They know what they're doing with these books.

I also really liked them, novellas included, except book 6. That one just didn't work for me (and apparently for quite a few people), and I ended up reading a summary.
Since books 7 to 9 aren't included in the show, they're worth reading just for the continuation and conclusion of the series.

I didn't even know there were books! Holy crap my world just improved!
- Yeah, based on books that were popular, then got really popular with the show

Yes, it's all very good.

Personally I group them into sets of 3 by release I.e. books 1-3, books 4-6... Each set is consistent with the others in its set, but the quality decreases as the sets go on. Which is alright because the first trilogy is amazing and the final trilogy is fine.
More than anything, I really enjoyed the found family in The Expanse and that's what pulled me through the series. I get actual homesick for the Rosinante after finishing a book. As for the writing, everything is "said" by characters if that's any indication, I primarily consumed them as audiobooks so maybe that's why it was so jarring,
Generally, I would definitely recommend the first three, would probably recommend the second three, and after that inertia will either pull you through or not.

I agree with the person who said there was a lot of personal drama as filler that didn't add to the story and dragged the pace of the books down.
I thought the books are mostly OK but I kind of lost interest after book 6 and it'll probably be quite a while before I go back to finish the last few books if I ever do.

I mostly liked the series. There were a couple of books which I might not have liked as much as the others (it's been a while so don't remember which ones). However, personally I found the ending of the series a little unsatisfying.

As others have said, yes. Oh I'm so jealous of you right now!
- I know i just want to read those books for the first time again. Second and third runs are nice, but not as great as the first one where your brain just explodes.

Some are better than others, but they’re all fairly high quality? I’ve definitely read worse than even the ones I’m not super thrilled about, so I’d say it’s worth reading them all if you have the time.

I think they were consistent, yes.

42 comments