Abaddon's Gate

Executive Summary: Not nearly as good as [b:Caliban's War 12591698 Caliban's War (The Expanse, #2) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407572377l/12591698.SY75.jpg 17606541], but still quite enjoyable for me. Eagerly looking forward to [b:Cibola Burn 18656030 Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405023040l/18656030.SY75.jpg 26109318] now.Audio book: The quality is about the same as the previous two. Mr. Mays is a good, but not great reader. One of the POV characters is Russian, but he doesn't read her that way. That'd be fine except that there are times when she interacts with other characters and he seems to deliver her lines with a bit of a Russian accent, so I don't really get the inconsistency here.I think this is a good series to be done in audio however, so I plan to continue listening to them this way, but it's certain not something where I think audio is the best way to go.Full ReviewI found myself a little disappointed at the start of this one. [b:Caliban's War 12591698 Caliban's War (The Expanse, #2) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407572377l/12591698.SY75.jpg 17606541] has some great POV characters with the addition of Avasarala and Bobbie. This book adds three new POV characters that I just didn't like as much.Anna I was pretty impartial to for most of the book, while Melba was just plain unlikable. Bull was a great character, but this series already has an abundance of strong male likable characters. I was really hoping they'd have kept at Avasarala as one of the POVs in this one.I think it can be a lot harder to enjoy a book when you're just not invested in the characters as much, especially POV characters.That said, I still enjoyed the book a lot. There were a couple of slow parts, and some murky motivations that I could probably pick apart if I spent a lot of time thinking about it, but that's not what this series is for me.These are just generally fun books. Popcorn flicks. Brain Candy. I think anyone who spends too much time picking apart the details of the book is sort of missing the point. But hey, to each their own I guess.There was fun new ideas introduced here like the slowzone or people who build cheap ships and slingshot themselves around stars for fun. Sort of the hot rods of space as it were.I haven't read news/interviews with the authors, but I kind of hope [b:Cibola Burn 18656030 Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405023040l/18656030.SY75.jpg 26109318] ends this series. That isn't to say I wouldn't like other Expanse books, because I would, but I'd like to maybe see some other stories unrelated to the protomolecule. I don't want to see things stretched out too long.Update: Somehow goodreads lost my original review. Thankfully I had a back-up. Interesting that I was originally hoping for a 4 book series. I don't think that way anymore, especially given how great the series got with [b:Nemesis Games 22886612 Nemesis Games (The Expanse, #5) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407524221l/22886612.SY75.jpg 42456264].I did enjoy this and the characters more the second time. I barely remembered Bull, while my opinions on both Ana and Melba changed. I think that has a lot to do with the show though.Overall this is a solid book, but still towards the bottom of my list compared to some of the others.