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A review by misterfix
Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I had my doubts that the series could sustain the incredibly high quality of the last few books (especially the prior one), and unfortunately I was correct. This book suffers from way too many non essential characters & story arcs, weird, ineffective pacing and often poor selection of which character to transition to/from, a moderately unsatisfying ending, and a wee bit of repetition on sentiments and reflective bits.
It's still an Expanse story so of course there's a lot of great moments, and it's always a joy to spend time with these characters. Fred's character arc was particularly moving. Yes, there were beautiful, moving and exciting moments and some excellent character building, but sadly this was squandered by what I mentioned above. I swear at the end there were characters I was struggling to place in the story because I couldn't remember who they were and why they mattered. At other times I would complete a character chapter in anticipation of returning to a specific character and then... not. But, I'd give the authors the benefit of the doubt and Even try to go with the for and get excited that they were ratcheting up the tension and they would get there next.... nope. By the time they would get to that person or that action (from another characters POV), I felt like I was watching a film where they skip ahead and don't show what happened but explain it and dang, this was often frustrating. I wanted to see the/read the action not just learn the outcome. This happened a few times too many for me to forgive them.
Oh well, hopefully the series gets back on track in the next book
It's still an Expanse story so of course there's a lot of great moments, and it's always a joy to spend time with these characters. Fred's character arc was particularly moving. Yes, there were beautiful, moving and exciting moments and some excellent character building, but sadly this was squandered by what I mentioned above. I swear at the end there were characters I was struggling to place in the story because I couldn't remember who they were and why they mattered. At other times I would complete a character chapter in anticipation of returning to a specific character and then... not. But, I'd give the authors the benefit of the doubt and Even try to go with the for and get excited that they were ratcheting up the tension and they would get there next.... nope. By the time they would get to that person or that action (from another characters POV), I felt like I was watching a film where they skip ahead and don't show what happened but explain it and dang, this was often frustrating. I wanted to see the/read the action not just learn the outcome. This happened a few times too many for me to forgive them.
Oh well, hopefully the series gets back on track in the next book