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jdrhodes 's review for:
Abaddon's Gate
by James S.A. Corey
Abaddon's Gate is the first Expanse book I ever read. I picked it up on a whim and somehow missed the big 3 on the spine. The best thing about the book is that it read perfectly well with zero pre-existing knowledge and introduced me to a series I've come to enjoy and think highly of, although it's not without its flaws. Ever since I started re-reading the series, I've wondered what I'd think of Abaddon's Gate as the third book in the trilogy.
Upon a re-read and a more objective examination, I think it's a bit of a sidestep. Some of it is better than the first two novels and some of it is worse. There are some good bits here and there but also some really bland or badly executed parts. Probably the most remarkable stuff comes to the newest members of the Expanse's ever-growing list of point of view characters of which none of them are particularly interesting.
The Holden chapters are fine, but the rest vary from bland to boring or flat out bad. Anna and Clarissa/Melba occupy somewhere along the spectrum of the first two. I liked Anna well enough and think she's realized better than many other characters in the series but the Coreys don't really give her the depth they think she has and she struggles to find things to do beyond having Big Thematic Conversations. Clarissa/Melba isn't terribly gripping but at least her revenge plot is intriguing given it follows on from events in the first two novels. Both of them feel half-baked, especially when it comes to Clarissa's mental state which ping-pongs around in a way that doesn't feel authentic.
That's still better than some of the other notable characters in the story, however. Bull was remarkably uninteresting even on my very first read when the universe was at its newest, most exciting stage, and he's much worse when seen as part of a third book in a series. He feels like he's somewhat repeating Miller's narrative. Meanwhile, Ashford ranks as one of the worst villains in the entire series with the exact title being a tough race between him and the antagonist of some of the later novels. Bull gets a touch more interesting at the halfway point -- but then you've spent half of the novel with him being kind of boring. As an aside, the absence of characters like Bobbie and Avasarala was really quite stark this time around.
If there's an issue with this book, it's that not much really happens. The novelty of the protomolecule and the weird effects it had carried me through my first read, but feels lacking when I already know a bit about how everything functions. The tidbits we get about the history of the builder species and so on are tantalizing but also fairly small for a book of this size. I'm sure the Coreys would remark that the book isn't about the protomolecule and other sci-fi elements, it's about the characters, but I'd argue that the sci-fi stuff is too omnipresent for that to be the case and the characters aren't deep enough to sustain, really, more than one book. Character studies, these books are not.
I think a lot of these issues stem from the fact that the series was intended to be a trilogy, and you can clearly see how this book would've ended everything, but I get the impression elements were rewritten when the call for three more books came through. Either way, Abaddon's Gate is a bit of a meandering story with too many words for the events depicted therein, with plot, characterization and socio-political musings all feeling far too similar to what came before. Even the epic mutiny climax with gun battles, dramatic executions, big redemptions and sacrifices feels like it overstays the welcome which is not an issue I'd say I thought the first two books had.
When I get right down to it, I feel like my re-read of Abaddon's Gate just left me thinking it's a book that is... kinda boring. It sits somewhere between two and three stars.
Upon a re-read and a more objective examination, I think it's a bit of a sidestep. Some of it is better than the first two novels and some of it is worse. There are some good bits here and there but also some really bland or badly executed parts. Probably the most remarkable stuff comes to the newest members of the Expanse's ever-growing list of point of view characters of which none of them are particularly interesting.
The Holden chapters are fine, but the rest vary from bland to boring or flat out bad. Anna and Clarissa/Melba occupy somewhere along the spectrum of the first two. I liked Anna well enough and think she's realized better than many other characters in the series but the Coreys don't really give her the depth they think she has and she struggles to find things to do beyond having Big Thematic Conversations. Clarissa/Melba isn't terribly gripping but at least her revenge plot is intriguing given it follows on from events in the first two novels. Both of them feel half-baked, especially when it comes to Clarissa's mental state which ping-pongs around in a way that doesn't feel authentic.
That's still better than some of the other notable characters in the story, however. Bull was remarkably uninteresting even on my very first read when the universe was at its newest, most exciting stage, and he's much worse when seen as part of a third book in a series. He feels like he's somewhat repeating Miller's narrative. Meanwhile, Ashford ranks as one of the worst villains in the entire series with the exact title being a tough race between him and the antagonist of some of the later novels. Bull gets a touch more interesting at the halfway point -- but then you've spent half of the novel with him being kind of boring. As an aside, the absence of characters like Bobbie and Avasarala was really quite stark this time around.
If there's an issue with this book, it's that not much really happens. The novelty of the protomolecule and the weird effects it had carried me through my first read, but feels lacking when I already know a bit about how everything functions. The tidbits we get about the history of the builder species and so on are tantalizing but also fairly small for a book of this size. I'm sure the Coreys would remark that the book isn't about the protomolecule and other sci-fi elements, it's about the characters, but I'd argue that the sci-fi stuff is too omnipresent for that to be the case and the characters aren't deep enough to sustain, really, more than one book. Character studies, these books are not.
I think a lot of these issues stem from the fact that the series was intended to be a trilogy, and you can clearly see how this book would've ended everything, but I get the impression elements were rewritten when the call for three more books came through. Either way, Abaddon's Gate is a bit of a meandering story with too many words for the events depicted therein, with plot, characterization and socio-political musings all feeling far too similar to what came before. Even the epic mutiny climax with gun battles, dramatic executions, big redemptions and sacrifices feels like it overstays the welcome which is not an issue I'd say I thought the first two books had.
When I get right down to it, I feel like my re-read of Abaddon's Gate just left me thinking it's a book that is... kinda boring. It sits somewhere between two and three stars.