Vin let me tell you. The books are very good semi-hard science fiction. there are some unbelievable moments (as in my suspension of disbelief was gone) BUT — I kept with the series.
Ultimately I like the characters so much and the general direction of the novels to stick with it.
Btw I am reading “Ancillary Justice” by Leckie atm. Strange, weird point of view, and completely wonderful.
Correct!
They lost me in book 3, in large part due to psycho-assassin girl and their attempts to rehabilitate her. Well, that and what I saw as a very uncreative and uninteresting direction to go with the protomolecule. It bugs me, though, because Leviathan Wakes is so good.
That entire series is singularly fantastic.
Finally watched this over the holidays and wow, it is good! The worldbuilding and visuals are delicious and I grew to like the characters a lot as well. Still miss Miller eventhough he kinda appeared in the third season.
I think I might just read the series now. Is the show faithful to it or do the storylines diverge a lot? Where in the books is the end of third season?
It is mostly faithful to the books. There are some changes to the relationship within the crew. Naomi Nagata is more of an active OPA supporter on the show than in the books. In the books, Naomi did not betray the crew concerning the Protomolecule to the OPA. (This change bothered me the most as a fan of the books). The Naomi I had come to know and like just wouldn’t have done that.
There are some differences in how the Rocinante crew deals with the researcher Dresden, and, ultimately, Jules-Pierre Mao. There are some changes in Meng and how that arc is resolved. Errinwright’s role as villain is expanded, lengthened into season 3 (instead of being defeated at the end of Season 2) and made more black/white on the show.
A lot of tiny changes here and there too numerous to count. The legal maneuverings of Mars in trying to get back the Rocinante is more explicit – which places more pressure on the Roci. There is some explicit reloading of the Roci’s weapon supplies by the Mars navy and a deal with the MCRN to explain how that is justified. Avasarala’s role is maintained and Bobbie is introduced earlier and stretched out longer as a regular character.
More time was taken to resolve all of the plot threads in Book 1 over Season 1 and 2, but by the end of season 3, it’s more or less on track and the story is at the end of book 3. Season 4 should start Book 4 – and presumably will resolve it.
It’s an adaptation - but a relatively faithful one. Certainly as close – and probably closer – an adaptation than is Game of Thrones to ASoIaF.
Thank you for such detailed reply. That sounds good. Will read.
I enjoyed the series to the point where I have progressed; but here I must confess, I have become “unsullied” as of Book 4. I have never progressed beyond Book 4. (I started listening to The Expanse after Season 1 aired.)
I prefer my “reading” over the past decade to be via audiobook. I actually have all of The Expanse from Audible, but what happened in the audiobook series is that for some reason, the narrator of Books 1-3 (Jefferson Mays) changed with Book 4. He resumed with Book 5, but Book 4 had a different narrator. The new reader is not as good and, more importantly, is a jarring and unexpected voice. You have to be a regular consumer of audiobooks to get how off-putting that can be (different and jarring = intrinsically BAD), but the end result is that I have never pushed myself through Book 4.
Looking now on Audible, it seems that the reader of Book 4 has changed back to Jefferson Mays!?! This is very odd. Hmmm. I will have to re-download the book and continue the audiobook series. Bizarre.
Ahh. Here it is in The Expanse Wiki: “Mays narrated the audiobook versions of the first three novels in The Expanse. The fourth book, Cibola Burn, was narrated by Erik Davies instead, due to scheduling conflicts, as Mays was acting on Broadway. **In March 2017, Hachette Audio re-issued Cibola Burn recorded by Jefferson Mays.”**
So I’m not crazy or mis-remembering things. Always good to know!
Avasarala shows up in the TV series much earlier and with way more presence than she did in the book. That’s not a bad thing though, they just kind of bump up her storyline, so that she is in the series more. Over all its a pretty good conversion from book to film. As Steel Wind states, its mostly true to the books but with liberties taken for dramatic flow reasons and to expedite the narrative.
Nobody mentioned how Space John Snow is much more annoying in the TV series!
I was fine with this because I adore her so, truth be told. Her, Miller, Amos and Bobby I feel have been the best castings so far.
And those are my favourite characters, hah
Fucking a, man.
That expression…doesn’t really work in text.
You’re right, I needed to add a comma.
Hyphens.
I also like Alex, Fred Johnson, Drummer, and Klaes Ashford (the guy wearing black leather in the OPA, was the old guy in Alphas).
Basically I don’t like Holden, Naomi, and that dickwad traitor in the UN council.
Drummer is awesome too. I thought she was gonna die but was pleasantly surprised when she didn’t. And David Straithairn is brilliant of course.
Just recently got hooked on this and was a bit dismayed to see Amazon only has the first two seasons free. I went to Syfy and they only have episodes 9-13. I really don’t want to buy episodes 1-8 for season 3. Do you think when season 4 launches they will stream 3 for free for Prime members?
I think this is the best science fiction TV series I’ve seen.
Edit. Found an answer. Not sure when season 4 will air but apparently season 3 will be free on Prime on Feb 8.
I tried jumping into Season 2 midway through the airing, but SyFy had already removed the first few episodes from their website (via my cable subscription), so I gave up. This was a long time ago, but I was really disappointed. :(
I will wait and see if Amazon Prime will let me watch all four seasons with one subscription.
Seasons 1 and 2 are on Prime now, and 3 will debut on Feb 8. Season 4 will be available sometime in '19 but they haven’t given a date yet. So to answer your question, yes, Prime will let you do that. Soon.
Imported the US Blu-Ray just a week before they announced all the old seasons would soon be up on Prime. Oh well.
I have to say, while I still really like the show, I like it much less now than I did at the start. I signed up for the relatively grounded sci-fi and the politico-cultural dynamics of the first season, not magic alien tech. And certainly not another fucking precursor race story if that is in fact where this is heading.