Nemesis Games

Nemesis Games is a mind-bending addition to the Expanse series. It's like the author took everything we loved about the previous books and cranked it up to eleven.

The novel starts off with a bang, as the Roci crew finds themselves scattered across the solar system. Alex is lost and alone, Amos is on a dark and twisted journey, and Naomi is grappling with the aftermath of a toxic relationship. It's a fascinating exploration of their characters, and it's both heartbreaking and exhilarating.

Meanwhile, Earth and Mars are losing their grip on power, and the Belt is on the brink of chaos. A rogue OPA faction launches a devastating attack on Earth, and the repercussions are far-reaching.

But the real heart of the story lies in the relationships between the characters. The bond between Holden and Naomi is as strong as ever, and the dynamic between Bobbie and Avasarala is always a joy to read. We also get to see some unexpected character developments, like Amos's surprising vulnerability and Alex's newfound strength.

Nemesis Games is a masterclass in world-building and character development. Corey's ability to blend hard science fiction with thrilling action and emotional depth is unparalleled. If you're a fan of the Expanse, this book is a must-read.

3.5/5

Pros: splitting the characters up into their own interweaving arcs is good to learn a lot more about them; finally seeing all the different characters on the board at once is fun and feels like an appropriate payoff for the size of series and how far we are into it; still more smart than most fun books and more fun than most smart books (I.e. the politics have a lot of reasonable depth in them and the scenarios feel quite realistic in how people and people groups react to things); Naomi's backstory in particular adds a lot of depth to her since she didn't really have any apparent flaws

Cons: a whole book without the most interesting part of the series (what do we do when we face an alien thing and have no clue what it is or how to interact with it safely?); we're jussssst starting to stretch the credulity of “wait, is every main character linked somehow to every important person in the galaxy?”

WOW, best book in the series so far! So many peaks into things I had been wondering about and holy crap what a journey

The weakest of The Expanse novels I've read so far. I think its mostly moving some pieces around to set up for more interesting stuff down the line. But it does just kind of drag on and on. The story does pick up towards the end and I quite like the Amos/Clarissa relationship.

Still a very good book, but so far it's my least favorite in the Expanse series.

I liked the main story and plot but these books are starting to feel too long.
Too much time spent on character backstory and what people call the characters arc.
I am way more interested in the Belter war and the weird stuff happening in the Ring than I am in some guy named Erich that Amos knew.

4.5/5 stars

My review: https://mattstein.com/books/nemesis-games

The biggest reason I'm giving Nemesis Games 3 stars is because I just cannot bring myself to care about Marcos Inaros. I know WHY he's a bad guy, and we certainly see proof of that, but after dealing with the protomolocule and everything that came with that it just seems like he's not as scary. Sure, at the end of the book we DEFINITELY have a reason to fear him and his stunts but uhh...most of the book I just found myself wishing we were looking at someone else as the villain.

The almost-near destruction of Earth was fucking terrifying though.

In this expanse episode we get to learn more about the main characters and their past lives. This really gives them more depth and follows their character development.

This was probably my favorite since the first book. I rather dislike the large chapters in the other books in the series that aren't involving the Roci crew. Nemesis Games was ALL them. It was more personal and I enjoyed it.

Unsurprisingly another 5 star rating. I feel like this book stood out a bit more than the previous ones. Can't put this series away... Thankfully they wrote plenty of books

The Expanse

Again a great book in The Expanse saga. The writers know how to make us addicted more and more to this masterpiece

Nemesis Games est le cinquième volume de la saga de science-fiction The Expanse signée James S.A. Corey, le nom de plume du duo composé des auteurs Daniel Abraham et Ty Franck.

Après un quatrième tome qui m'a semblé un peu en-deca, j'espérais retrouver avec celui-ci toutes les qualités démontrées dans les trois premiers volumes du cycle.

Contrairement aux romans précédents qui donnaient la parole à de nouveaux personnages, celui-ci revient aux bases : les quatre points de vue présentés sont en effet ceux des quatre membres d'équipage du Roccinante, qui prennent des chemins différents pendant les longs mois nécessaires pour que leur vaisseau soit réparé après leur périlleuse expédition dans Cibola Burn :

- Naomi part sur Ceres après avoir été recontactée par une vieille connaissance de l'époque où il menait des actions clandestines pour l'OPA

- Amos retourne sur Terre, vingt ans après son départ, après avoir appris la mort d'une femme qui a semble-t-il compté pour lui à l'époque

- Alex se rend sur Mars en espérant renouer ou en tout cas s'expliquer avec son ex-femme, qu'il avait abandonné pour suivre son envie d'espace et d'aventure dans la Navy

- Jim Holden choisit d'abord de rester sur la station Tycho pour surveiller la réparation du Roccinante et attendre le retour de ses amis, avant d'être lui aussi entrainé dans de nouvelles aventures

Cela commence plutôt doucement, c'est plutôt plaisant à suivre, sans être totalement passionnant. Après un bon tiers du roman, je voyais déjà converger certaines histoires, je m'attendais plus ou moins à ce qui allait se passer, quand un événement majeur est venu tout bouleversé au milieu du roman. C'était plus fort que ce à quoi je m'attendais.

Je dois encore une fois saluer la capacité des auteurs à nous surprendre et surtout à ne pas attendre la fin du roman pour proposer des scènes fortes. C'était déjà le cas dans les romans précédents et c'est encore plus vrai ici : on ne s'ennuie pas et contrairement à certains romans de science-fiction, il n'y a pas vraiment de creux au milieu du récit, c'est plutôt le contraire ici.

J'ai dévoré la deuxième moitié du livre et j'y ai pris beaucoup de plaisir. Ce qui s'annonçait au début comme un roman de transition, un retour aux bases de la saga, s'est transformé en véritable révolution de l'univers de The Expanse. Autant dire que mon enthousiasme, un peu entamé avec le tome précédent, est remonté en flèche !

Comme à la fin du troisième tome, les cartes sont rabattues à l'issue de celui-ci et je suis impatient de découvrir la suite dans le sixième tome, Babylon's Ashes.

My favorite to-date. A nice mix of one of my favorite story lines, families of choice, and action.
At first I was thinking this was going to be a really slow story, wondering if we were about to see what a day in the life of boredom was and then the author kicked in the afterburners.

The authors change pace by splitting the party and finally reveal a lot of the various baggage the crew was carrying. But all within a fast paced story with lots of action and, again, some momentous changes in the fictional universe.

Keeps Getting Better!

Another excellent story in The Expanse series and the crew of the Roci. Most “series” books have ups and downs but this series is always top notch.

I'm not shy about admitting that this series leaves me with some bias. It just hits me with everything I love about sci-fi. I've also shown that each installment seems to replace the last one as my new favourite. This is no different. In fact, I think this one takes it to a new level. Especially the perspectives that we now get to read. I mean, I learned so much more about the rest of the Rocinante crew! Something I've been desiring for a while, and it left me riding a rollercoaster of emotions. .
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AHHH! I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH! I'm not twitching, you're twitching! Anyway, back to my point. This one keeps the gut-wrenching action going, and really had me more invested in these characters than ever before. This is not an installment to miss.

In Cibola Burn, the crew of the Rocinante spent most of their time on one of the planets opened by the gate constructed by the protomolecule. In this one, they return to space, but due to damage done to the ship in CB, the crew is grounded for repairs in the first half of the book. For differing reasons, all of the crew members take leave in different parts of the solar system, leaving Holden back on Ceres station overseeing repairs. Then all hades breaks loose. There's really not much else I can say without major spoilers.

I will say, if you've enjoyed the series up to this point, this book does not disappoint. There is a ton of action, intrigue, and more than a little mystery.

In my opinion, the key of this series is the masterful way in which the authors mix all of the action and yet fantastically build characters. In this novel in particular, you really see huge character development in all of the major characters you already know.

(As an aside... I've not watched any of the TV show, though I've generally heard good things about it. Anybody care to comment on it based on having read the books? Is it worthwhile?)

Der bisher beste Teil der Reihe. Statt auf Nebencharaktere setzt dieser Teil komplett auf die Perspektiven der StammCrew. Dazu ein Wiedersehen mit den besten Nebenfiguren der Serie.
Die Geschichte ist dieses Mal nicht, wie zuvor in den anderen Teilen abgeschlossen, aber wenn der nächste Teil auch so gut wird wie dieser, bin ich schon sehr gespannt.
Achja... Und der Mechaniker Amos ist inzwischen eine Comicfigur, einem SinCity Marv nicht unähnlich.

Oooooh this one was really good! It might be my second favorite after Caliban's War (2). I loved how much we got to dig into everyone's backstories and the focus on the crew of the Roci. Plus Bobby snd Avsarala and Pesches - some of my favorite minor characters!!!

Excellent! I enjoyed the abundance of Bobbie Draper, learning more about Naomi and her past with Marco and Filip, along with Amos's ‘adventures' on a newly devastated Earth.
This series is excellent sci-fi.

short and sweet, the best right hand turn in the series. a turning point for the series into something more concrete, the previous books felt like they were all just story-building up to this.

From the outset (and without giving anything away) it was apparent in the first few chapters that the central conceit of Nemesis Games would be that each member of the Rocinante's crew would have their own fairly isolated storylines. Because of this, I was looking forward to learning something about each of their back stories. While all these seemingly disparate journey's end up being interesting and significant to the overall story, and while there are some truly big, dramatic moments in the plot - they are flanked by a fair number of passages that seem to drag. I'm leaning toward giving this one a 5 star rating, especially because of the final chapter, which was eloquent and poetic... but I feel like Nemesis Games is just a very strong 4, and is set to introduce a (possibly) great 6th book. Let's find out!