So I just finished Nemesis Games, the fifth book in The Expanse series by James SA Corey. This book changes tactics in a couple of ways from the first four books. The dynamics are different and the story feels fresher for it. Before getting into that, though, I have to say that this series has been good keeping a forward momentum while also hitting a lot of the same beats. What I mean by that is that the first four books, and to some extent this book too, have hit a lot of the same narrative beats. Some disaster takes place in the solar system, Holden and crew get involved somehow, the original disaster turns out to be a part of something bigger that leads back to the government of Earth, Mars, Luna, or the Outer Belt Alliance, and then with some help from one of these factions Holden, et al. manage to resolve the crisis. The narrative paths differ somewhat within each of the novels, but they all tend toward this basic plot arc.
The first major difference that this book adopts is separating the crew. After the last adventure on Ilus, the Rocinante is docked at Tycho Station for some much-needed repairs. Aside from Holden, the crew are all drawn from Tycho to various points for their own reasons. Amos heads to Earth on a mysterious mission, Naomi heads out to try to help out a son that the reader discovers she has, and Alex decides to go to Mars to find closure with his ex-wife. Holden is left alone on the station, feeling unmoored for the first time in the series. For maybe the first time since the opening book, we are reminded of these characters' histories. In Leviathan Wakes, all of the characters aboard the Canturbury are there because of something dark in their histories. Holden was dishonorably discharged from the Earth Navy, same for Alex, Amos had something dark in his past, and we never really knew much about Naomi. Now these personal histories pop back up for the crew and it reinforces the idea that they have become a family by choice, that there is nothing in their past to tie them together. This adds some complexity to the characters that was not there before. It brings more depth to Amos and Naomi, in particular.
While the crew is separated, disaster strikes in the solar system. A terrorist attack on Earth leaves millions dead and changes the power dynamics of the entire system. Coordinated with the Earth attacks are strikes on both Tycho Station and on the Prime Minister of Mars' convoy. All of the important people live, but the alien protomolecule is stolen during the attack on Tycho Station.
Here I am going to gloss over big chunks of the book because, for a while, things will shake out as they do in most of these books.
All of this adds up to the next big shift from the preceding books. That is, we are left with an unknown at the end of the novel. Most of the pieces have been wrapped up: the crew is re-united, those in power have mainly figured out what happened and why these coordinated attacks took place, but the gap that we are left with at the end of the novel is what has happened to the protomolecule. For maybe the first time in the series, we have a cliff-hanger. In the first four books the end has always been left open and there may have been some lingering questions to follow, but this is the first time that it seems that a novel is purposely leading into the next one.
I'm not sure what this means for the series. I didn't mind that this happened, it just seemed to be an interesting change from what the series had lead me to expect from the books. I think that this left me a little more excited to get to the next book. The protomolucule was part of the inciting action in the first novel and it has been in the background of the story for the entire time. It will be interesting to see how it will re-enter the narrative.
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