A review by amyc00per
Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey

3.0

I love a good Expanse novel as much as the next girl. But this one was... boring? Yes, it was. I found myself doubting this for the first third of the book, thinking surely I was reading it while distracted or something. Yet now after completing it I can confirm its fundamental boringness. Here are some of the problems of this book:

- nothing happens 90% of the time. Very little action. Disappointing because these books are usually actiontastic explodaganzas. The many scenes where people just talk to each other are themselves pretty slow.
- there is no character development of anyone except Filip, who is a deeply unlikeable character you just want to shake and tell to grow up. This is so disappointing because a strength of the fifth novel was all the character development of people like Naomi, Alex, and Amos. Here, they are all empty husks of characters. Even Avasarala, Bobby, and Clarissa have zero character development and they are all potentially very interesting characters. Also, nobody is funny in this book. Why is that?
- James Holden’s role as universe saver is pretty tired at this point. Can’t another character play the predominant role in saving the universe? Actually, bobby and Naomi both played integral roles in saving the universe this time, but somehow the authors framed the narrative as if Holden were the big man... again.

That’s about all I have to say about this book. More than it deserves I’m sure. This books disappointment wasn’t enough to stop me from reading the next one, though.