TT: I Finished The Expanse and Now I Have a Life Again

You hear some vocalizing in a language you can't quite parse because it's futuristic... language drifts. And soft music swells along with the voice, cumulating into a triumphant Some Sorta Recap.

It then crash-lands into a planet, leaving this blog post in its crater. And no one had to die, get cancer, become traumatized, break reality, or threaten to kill you because you're harshing the vibe!

Today's rantsona is a personified Which Character of The Expanse Are You? quiz. My result is Bull, by the way. It's unnervingly probably accurate:

In every story there's an unsung hero. Unfortunately, that person is probably you. On the upside, if it weren't for you everyone else would probably be screwed. On the downside, very few people ever think to even acknowledge you, let alone thank you. Still, you'd do it all again in an instant. Somebody has to.

(They also really, really don't want to disappoint Naomi Nagata. Too much.)

How It Started

One of my Love Languages is "watching stuff together." With everyone's different tastes and moods, it's never boring– even if the thing we are watching turns out to be, because you can always dunk on it. While there's turn-taking, mutual interest, a recommendation, or just plain boredom, there is another criteria that supersedes all of those: You haven't seen this show?! We have to fix that IMMEDIATELY.

That's how I was introduced to The Expanse.

It all looks so good... so... plausible. The habitats, ships, cultures, and everything else appear to be something we could feasibly build, with brilliant triumph and risk. But, sadly, so are is the conflicts and consequences of our actions.

It can be beautiful and terrible and both at once. I see a lot of me/us in these people, and sometimes I loved/loathed what I saw. But there's a drive to be better, improve, build, not make the same mistake twice... That's all I ever want in science fiction.

The cast, story, world building, this particular mix of "hard" or "soft" scifi? I loved everything about it, down to the details that held it all together. All that made me want to curl up and keep experiencing it. Not live in it, mind you, because frankly that'd fucking suck (and honestly we probably already are, minus the fun space shenanigans and UBI), but let me tell you how many times I was like "one more episode" as my watch buddy hid the remote.

But they were right; binging doesn't leave much room for a work to settle in and breathe, and great shows deserve to be savored. So one ep, two, or at most three at a time if I behaved myself.

I'll try to keep this brief or whatever

The first few minutes yanks you in: someone, who seemed to have been shoved into a space locker like some sort of space nerd, manages to break out onto a now-empty and apparently abandoned ship. You... and her... are wondering how this happened. And then you both get hit with the what the fuck

Political intrigue, space stuff, interpersonal drama, space stuff, Amos shooting shit, terrifying science thriller things.

I didn't want it to end. So when the show did, I went straight to binging the books. Nine of them, and just as many novellas. I only took one break for The Hidden Girl and Other Stories before finishing the entire series in February.

And That Was a Good Call

Once the show ended there is a 20 year timeskip. Not to mention the major shakeup of the established Status Quo and... really? Okay, actually, fine, it is plausible that they'll leave GIANT SPOILER alone for twenty years, just gearing up to be One Helluva Problem down the line. Once you get over that, the rest is like "damn." But in a good way.

I really appreciated the novellas, too. A lot of questions answered, and if you really adored a side character they got their chance to shine here.

Final Thoughts... already?

Other than the same reasons that also had me delay my post about IchibanCon, I also asked myself: why am I telling you this now?

I just didn't know how to put it all into words. It's the biggest world I've inhabited in a long time and I just had to sit with it for a bit.

And being honest, I don't have it in me for a full recap/rundown of the entire series. A couple of installments at a time, or very short runs– the Robotech 2017 recap was almost Too Much for the Kid.

But I wanted to, at least, pen down my spoiler-free impressions and then implore people to check it out, because it's that good. So, yeah. I'll return to this, probably, in some way, with more detail– and with better notes; my recall isn't what it used to be.

If I don't get distracted by Foundation first.

The Not-Rating: Motivational Poster/5

In the 90s, these posters were all the rage: chunky black border, inspiring image, and some quip at the bottom that is supposed to energize you. Whenever Holden was like, "hey, maybe don't do this thing" I picture this in my mind:

It's an amusing deterrent for going postal. Like counting to ten, taking deep breaths, and reminding yourself that the paperwork just isn't worth it (and you don't look good in prison orange, or stripes).

...but they say nothing about you, you know, just knowing a guy...

No, seriously, Just Fucking Watch and/or Read It

High recommendation and all of that.

And maybe don't fuck with people; you never know who they're friends with.

P.S.

But wait, there's more!

Here's the comics. You could probably nab as an omnibus by now:

• Dragoon Tooth
• A Little Death
• Origins, a prequel

If you like your stuff more interactive– they got you covered, too!

• The Expanse: A Telltale Series came out in 2023
• Osiris Reborn is currently in closed beta (to be fully released in 2027)
• The Expanse, the board game
• The Expanse, the tabletop game with a short story only printed here.