This is the third novel in The Expanse series and it does begin to feel like it is settling in. The first novel, Leviathan Wakes, sets the stage for a densely populated and fast-paced sci-fi/adventure/detective story. These elements seemed to be a little crammed together until I had a realization about the series that I will come back to in a bit. That first novel was very satisfying and showed a lot of potential.
The second novel, Caliban's War, opened with a bang and started off very strong. It got a little logy and recycled some plot elements from the first novel in a way that was not quite as satisfying as it could have been. Familiar characters played their familiar parts in a satisfying way and the introduction of a few new personalities kept it fresh.
The third novel of the series, Abaddon's Gate, takes a bit of a turn in a way that helped to renew the series' direction. This book veered away from the lost-little-girl MacGuffin of the first two books to pursue a new course. In the first two books the reader is introduced to the protomolecule, a piece of alien bioware that was first weaponized by humans and then seemed to become sentient. At the opening of the third novel, the protomolecule has stationed itself as a gate among the outer planets and seems to react to a ship flying into it.
What follows is a three-way standoff between the forces of Mars, Earth, and the Outer Planets Alliance as they each attempts to cordon off and, ultimately, control the portal. Holden and his crew, having been framed for sparking a hot war, are the first to enter the gate in their attempt to evade the other forces. This is as far as I am going with plot summary.
The entry into the gate is the first major departure from a relatively realistic sci-fi world. So far in The Expanse, the alien protomolecule is the only thing to really push the boundaries of suspension of disbelief. There are the standard near-relativistic speeds that are currently out of our grasp and other space technologies, but these are part and parcel of most mainstream sci-fi and don't push credulity too much. I wouldn't go so far as to say that this is hard sci-fi, but it keeps things pretty restrained.
Here is the big difference for me: once the Rocinante passes through the gate, it experiences different physical laws of the universe. The protomolecule is able to alter laws of physics, and this is a major shift from the preceding books.
In this regard, this series reminds me of Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy in which humans make contact with alien civilization who are able to alter physics. That trilogy, like The Expanse, remains relatively realistic up to this point (Liu includes some medical/cryo tech that strains suspension of disbelief, but I mean this in a general way).
For both series, the turn from realistic, if still fantastic, sci-fi, also marks a turning point for the characters in the story. For Liu, this marks, literally, the end of the world as the characters perceive it. For the characters of The Expanse, the future is less certain. There are still a lot of books to come after this and this changes the nature of the world within this fiction. I leave this book more interested to see where the series will go than at the end of the second book.
So, here is the realization that I hinted at earlier. While listening to an episode of Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders' fantastic podcast Our Opinions are Correct about pulp fiction, I realized what it is about The Expanse that is simultaneously engrossing and a bit frustrating. This series, it seems to me, takes many of its cues from adventure pulp. James Holden, so far the central figure of the world of The Expanse, is a no-nonsense captain of a certain type. He is unflaggingly tied to his sense of ethics and is a steadfast friend to his crew. He plays a sort of moral center in this world that is largely built on his notions of integrity. He maintains this sense of morality even as he kills and steals. The books do recognize his flaws, but he persistently overcomes, and then reverts back to his own personality. This is an energizing narrative to read. He gets into jams with his crew, and they fight and cogitate their way out. The serial nature of the books lends itself to the pulp aesthetic, as well. I know that there are a lot of books left in the series and though I am not positive that Holden and his crew will continue intact through them all, I sort of suspect that they will, or that most of the characters will remain constant. At a certain point, I would think that the appeal of the characters and their dynamic is as much a part of the appeal as the sci-fi elements.
I have more books to go to see if this prediction bears out.
Of course, none of this is to say that the books are worse, or weaker for it. This just helps me to contextualize the world in a different way. The series has been good so far and I will continue to read these for as long as I enjoy them. In a way, I hope that I am wrong and that I will find in these books what I found in Liu's, but I am okay just enjoying the adventure for what it is for now.
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