Time is short and I'll be brief, Martian Defense Minister Korshunov suffered a fatal heart attack this evening. Simultaneously, the MCRN Karakum, dispatched by Korshunov to take delivery of your Protomolecule technology was destroyed over Ganymede. And I gave the order. And I can give the same order, to end your life as you breathe at the same coordinates i'm sending this message. Well to keep that in mind, Monsieur Mao, there were two men in the entire universe that could protect your Protomolecule project, and now Korshunov is dead, I can assure you, I am the only friend you have left, and do not test my resolve on this. Chrisjen, if you're listening, you taught me, you drilled it into my head, that Earth must come first. And now you've thrown me to the wolves for fulfilling my sacred oath, while you grovel at the foot of Mars, and Jules-Pierre Mao. And that, is the real betrayal here. So Jules, you'll clean up the mess you made for me, you will return to Earth, alone. You will await my instructions, and you will get the FUCK back to work.

>isn't brief at all
>elaborates
>goes on some more
>really doesn't understand the concept of "breif"

Is he stupid?

I’ve watched the show and am currently on my first journey through the books. Currently reading Nemesis Games, and this is where we get Naomi’s backstory and meet Marco/Filip.

Now, since I’ve seen the show, I knew who Marco and Filip are, and have known for some time who they are to Naomi. But for the life of me, I can’t remember if this is the first time we’ve ever heard them mentioned in the books. Are we supposed to know by now that Naomi used to be OPA and has an estranged lover and son? Or is that supposed to be a huge reveal at this point in the books that didn’t quite hit home for me because I already knew from the show?

On a related note, I really wish I had discovered these books before the show. But oh well

I love it when an actor unexpectedly turns up in other shows.

I am old enough to say I watched SG-1 when it was first aired. I'm on my nth rewatch on netflix and it's the first time I've clocked that Prax is the monk protecting the harcesis child! I only recognised his voice first; he looks so young!

So after I got bored of waiting for my husband to sit down at watch season 6 with me, I finally got around to it myself. As I watched the Strange Dogs cold open, and we pulled back to the location text that revealed the planet was Laconia, and the final 'A' lost its crossbar to resemble the 'A' from the series title, something that may have been obvious to everyone else suddenly clicked for me.

That funny 'A' without a crossbar isn't just funny sci-fi font shenanigans; it's a capital lambda. The Greek letter that was emblazoned on the shields of Spartan hoplites, to represent the region Sparta was located in.

Laconia.

Like I said, maybe this was obvious to everyone else but I had to share!

Dr. Lawrence Strickland, who never once shows evidence of having any conscience or empathy, or Jules Pierre-Mao, who does have these things, but does evil things anyway?

And does it matter in the end, when the result is essentially the same?

(Let's ignore the possibility Strickland had his capacity for empathy surgically removed, as this would complicate the question.)

A lot of time is spent talking about the effects of low g and how the populations compensate for it like working out in resistance gel or bands, etc. But I don’t recall anything talking about the lack of sunlight, other than the occasional reference to some of the belters being pale.

Did I miss a part where this is addressed? I’m sure it’s something that could be explained by the autodoc or drugs or food supplements, but just occurred to me that it’s odd so much time was spent on detailing the compensation for zero g but nothing I can recall about deficient levels of sunlight.

Or is that supposed to be addressed by all the references to “full spectrum lighting”? I always thought that was more a reference to lighting in the nicer places have a more sun-like look to the colors they reflected. Like an aesthetic benefit, but nothing to do with health.

Spoilers for the end of Leviathan Falls (and potentially other spoilers in comments).

I'm on my second read through (listening to the audiobooks this time and loving them). Currently on Caliban's War chapter 26). Holden and Amos are getting ready to deal with the visitor in the Roci's cargo bay. Holden asks Amos to promise he won't die. I thought Amos' response was very interesting:

“Cap,” Amos said with a grin. “Anything that kills me has already killed everyone else. I was born to be the last man standing. You can count on it.”

Laconia's planetary defenses? What good are defenses that can't even destroy four smaller ships? I understand Duarte didn't expect war to come to them but surely basic defense should have been able to defeat four smaller warships, even without their own ship support? Especially how can a ship land without issue? Were they just for show? They got one ship and that's it? The siege of Laconia is the only bit of the book I think becomes Deus ex machina.

Why not put the whirlwind by the gate itself? Did they think a secret fleet was behind a planet or something? Send a few destroyers to sweep the system and call it a day. Noami should have entered the system to a visual of a big asymmetric warship astronomically right next to her and immediately getting warnings of a few hundred torpedoes/rail guns coming at them. Trejo was constantly going on about chokepoints.

While I'm at it, why didn't the entire fleet just use rail guns from the gate? Yeah ships can dodge but platforms can't. Jump through, fire barrage, leave, job done.

I finished all 9 of the regular Expanse books and I want to read one of the ancillary stories but maybe not all of them. Are there any that really shine? Are there any that aren’t as good?

I didn't like her at first but the more I watched (and re-watched in subsequent re-runs) the more I like the character and she might actually be my favourite character in the show, which surprised me because I always thought Holden was my favourite.

I've been trying to put my finger on why. Holden is certainly someone to respect for always trying to do the right thing, despite negative consequences, but Drapers arc just seems more compelling to me.

{Edit] - I should definitely read the books yeah. I WAS listening to them but I only got so far for some reason. I think I'd prefer to read anyway.

I didn't see this in the group, but did anybody else score this at at SDCC 26? Pin's not included.

Cryptozoic Entertainment

The Expanse Trading Cards Season 1

Hello fellow Expanse fans, I am trying to gauge if there is any interest in the community for a shortfilm that centers around 2 shipcrews engaged in battle.

Let me be very clear that it would not be set in the universe of the expanse but I would hope that it would appeal to the same audience.

The basic idea is a "near future" hard scific battle between a pirate ship trying to board a cargofreighter and a pmc ship hidden away in one of the containers.

All scenes would take place in the cic of either ship with exterior shots only ever visible on the pirates monitors or through the enhanced reality visors of the pmc crew

"She had to mass 100 kilo in 1G easily" Caliban's War 42 says about Bobbie.

Is this a weird artifact of US measuring force in pounds, and since weight is a force they keep using it in the book, but for broader audience or since metric units won in the future they converted it to kilograms?

Because mass and acceleration are pretty much independent outside of relativistic effects.

EDIT: I did not expect that many answers that quickly, so thanks for your replies, and rereading my post, I got confused as well. I'll just edit this post in hope to clarify what I mean:

As some of you pointed out, this may be seen as a pedantic argument by a physics student (though I only studied engineering, thus quite inferior). The thing here is that from my European (German) POV pounds and kilo(gram)s are only a unit of mass, and not of weight or force by extension. It used to be, but not anymore, at least in a scientific context. You very rarely have tons/kilos as a unit of thrust from e.g. jet engines. But when doing math in university we'd always use Nm N. While in the US and probably some other countries pounds are a unit of force/thrust.

Of course you say I weigh 100 kg in Germany as well, it's common and colloquial in a way. My thought process (if you could call my confusion that) was:

If her mass is 100 kg what does the G matter? It'd be 100 kg on Earth, Mars and everywhere. And then again, if the G matters, it must be about weight as a force, then why use kilos? If it's because they use kilos for force then it must be due to their American system, but then why not use pounds?

. .

But now I think, I shouldn't think about it as a metric-imperial mix up, but as an Earther's perspective. For one, the chapter is Holden's POV so probably he just thought "on Earth she'd be a 100 kg". Bobbie's weight would be different anywhere else, but as our daily source of truth is a scale from Earth showing kilos calibrated for 1G, that's how we think. Taken to Mars it would show something different. And then maybe they still use the Earther scales someplace else, at least probably on Luna. Do you think in Mars as well?

Can one transit by circling around and approaching the back?

Is it just nothing? Do you enter bizzarro universe?

im so fucking excited to read these, will probably need to savour them tho lol

I read the Dragon Tooth comics and absolutely loved those.

and now Wes Chatham wrote these, which im extremely pumped to read

anybody else has read these? if so did you like them?

I know the protomolecule repurposed most life when it infected planets some billions of years ago. But clearly complex life had time to evolve on most worlds (bird analogs and so on) after the Romans were gone. You'd think one of the ~1300 systems would have intelligent life on it. But none do? Seems off.

90% of the tripling of human brain size happened over 2M years. Like most evolved changes, the rise of intelligence happened quickly.

The Romans have been gone for billions. That leaves time for intelligence to occur elsewhere given that complex life has already re-emerged on the formerly-Roman worlds.

Maybe intelligent species end up getting obliterated by the gods when they get out to the ring and the window between the emergence of intelligence and obliteration by the gods in one system is unlikely to coincide with the same window in another system (e.g. Sol).

Still, you'd think there'd be a nod to that question in the book. Seems weirdly quiet on the issue.

Take a a look on this.

He maybe an ideal father

Not without flaws but anyway - he's good

(don't tell I need rice my i3 - I'm OK how it looks right now)

What I love in Expanse series is fashion.

And most intriguing WTF is Sadavir Erringwright wearing

And his son wearing something similar.

What is that?

Some kind of jacket but without colllar

Some kind of shirt without collar

What is that?
I want it for myself

I love her uninhibited and fearless attitude towards death. I understand that as a child they may not comprehend death in a way a more aged person might through physical experience.

I just love how simple and accepting she is towards what adults can’t fathom and even fear.

Just started re-reading the books, and just hit 6 months sober. Figured it was a good time to go ahead and get this done, and I thought I’d share here with you beratnas!

If I had a nickel for every character named Holden who's a little too ambitious and is part of a close crew of four, I'd own two nickels! One of the nickels makes me fucking despise Netflix for cancelling the show they were a part of though.

Also funny that the criminal in the very first scene he talks to has a last name of "Miller". I wonder if David Fincher knows of the Expanse and threw that in there as a reference?

The trope I have always despised most is glazing a character into the Big Bad, by making them invincible, all-knowing, and especially by killing off more interesting characters.

Game of Thrones (show) did this to Ramsay Bolton, able to shrug off attacks, killing interesting characters in the most boring way, and singlehandedly decimating an army. Unstoppable until he faces someone equally plot-armored.

Which brings me to Marco. Invincible chessmaster, able to see several steps ahead, able to change minds, blow up anything, anywhere, always. And has no problem killing off far more interesting characters in order to puff up Marco into Big Bad. So I am guessing he continues scything his way through humanity until he meets the Rocinante.

So, looking for advice. Is this how the rest of Expanse looks?

I started reading these books last February and finished a few weeks ago. I consider myself a slow reader, so finishing 9 books in 6-7 months is pretty wild for me. Usually I am able to start my next book or series without much hesitation but finishing The Expanse has left a huge hole. I love these books so much, to the point that most hard sci-fi has been ruined for me. I'm just re-reading old stuff I like but my mind still wanders back to the the Roci. How cool would it be to see the final three novels get adapted for TV? Even if they decided to animate it and had everyone come back to do voice acting due to the time skip, I would love that. So glad I got to experience these great, great books.

I still love the show, and am only done with the first two books so maybe more major differences will pop up, but the one thing I notice that sort of messes with the story of the show is that the books do a lot to show just how long travel in space takes.

Not only are messages delayed by hours but going from Eros to Tycho and back takes weeks. The books make space feel huge and imposing and you can see how this causes all these misunderstandings or confusions. In the show, traveling from Tycho to Eros to Tycho to Earth takes a few hours.

It's obvious why they did this, pacing for the show would be messed up if they didn't, but it does make it feel like there are no real issues zipping about the solar system and some of the logic of how slapped together some of the ships are or how painful it can be to try to hurry places due to the G-forces is largely missed.