The Vital Abyss (The Expanse #5.5)

Cortazar, the one surviving Protogen scientist whom you may remember from after Eros, who drew things on the glass of his enclosure, speaks.

The writing is dense and scientific, and properly chilling.

Amazing, the different voices in which the authors can write. The book Strange Dogs is great, and written from a child’s POV. James SA Corey is great. Are great. Whatever :^)

I won’t say that this isn’t well written, and if you’re hungry for more of this universe and have read the others, this may be a lot more interesting. Cortazar, one of the many scientists who studied Eros as it lay dying, isn’t really that interesting a character for me to want to spend that much time with.

Collected by the Belters during the raid, along with other survivors, the group is kept in isolation and given no information on how things are unfolding through the years of their incarceration. Which, while reading, didn’t make any sense to me. Yes, they killed a whole station for study, like lab rats, so that the Belters left any of them alive is a miracle in itself. But the Belters had the station, they had what was left of the records, and you’d think that the scientists would have been fed various bits and pieces of their own research to them so that the Belters could come away with some knowledge of what was going on, what had been done, and use it to their own advantage.

They may have been monsters, but their knowledge had a huge amount of value. I just couldn’t see letting them live, yet letting all their knowledge slip away through the years by inactivity and disuse. It also didn’t make sense that they’d throw in a bit of tech and let the prisoners slug it out, so to speak, for it, just to see who came out on top?

They’d know who did what. The prisoners themselves could tell them that. They’d know who could unravel what was going on, and who couldn’t. Who was worth a trade, and who wasn’t. Tossing in a scrap and letting them fight for it made no sense.

So, really, none of this worked for me.

All through the Expanse series behind the protomolecule wrecking havoc on civilized space are parties dedicated to the development of the molecule as a tool for profit and power. Even further back in the shadows lie the rogue scientists who have given up so much to work with the protomolecule. This is their story. Warning:this is not a pleasant read,it is inhabited by sociopaths who have given up many of the traits we would define as human. No heroes here. However for hardcore Expanse fans(guilty)it is serious back story and who knows…..it may even have a hint as what to expect in the next full length novel. Written with the depth of craft I’ve come to expect from Abraham and Franck. Recommended.

This novella in the midst of the epic saga of The Expanse fills in some interesting blanks. It explains the missing years of a relevant characters life and how he eventually ends up where Our Heroes encounter him again. It also shows the evolution of the character and his history on Earth, accomplishing some interesting world-building about life on Basic that contrasts with what we learn in The Churn.

However, it does absolutely nothing to humanize this character. And thats okay. Were probably never meant to sympathize with him, not knowing about his actions in the main series installments. As usual, the writing makes this a worthwhile read for any fans of the Expanse.

As a young man, Dr. Cortazar watched his mother slowly die from Huntington’s disease. After his death he went to the university and studied nanoinformatics. These studies led him to a position with Protogen where he worked with a group doing research on the protomolecule. Because of treatments given by Protogen, the employees he worked with did not see it as immoral or unethical to do research on humans. And their choice to do human testing led them to Eros.

This novella fills in more pieces about how Protogen came to have the protomolecule, what led up to the infection of Eros and what happened to some of the people responsible.

This is a must read for anyone following the Expanse series. For those that have not, I highly recommend the series.

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