Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse #8)

Clearly the directors of the show had a hand in writing this latest book. All white males have been relegated to roles as extras (yes, even Holden). The non-white males that are left are caring, soft and great supporters of their super-strong and powerful warrior women. Gender neutral language is used and as per requirement if you want to be on tv, a completely misplaced and irrelevant (but obligatory) gay love story is thrown in.

I don’t have any issues with all these causes but i read books to escape, not to be educated on what is considered the burning issues of the day. These issues you all fight so passionately about in the US, don’t matter to most people people in the rest of the world.

The book has two male characters that get some space, all of the rest (and i mean all) is women who act and think like men. Ridiculous.

I didn’t even finish the book. Should have checked a sample before i bought it.

I just finished Tiamat’s Wrath and gave it 5 stars. I never give anything 5 stars, and maybe after I detox I’ll want to drop it back to 4 stars, but really, it was great. Writing, characters, plot, sciencey stuff, galactic politics. All really well done. Thoughtful but accessible, not a combination we often get in SF.

Also, not the place to start the series or even this three-book arc.

Like Nemesis Games, this is a story where the crew of the Roci are all off doing separate things, which is how we left it at the end of the previous book, Persopolis Rising. If you read that, then you’ll remember that the black fleet that disappeared through the ring gates early on has come back with newer bigger ships and rolled Empire all over the 1300 worlds humans have access to. Naomi, Alex, Amos, and Bobbi are all back in the underground game, and Holden is prisoner to High Consul Duart, man who would be emperor, or as Jim puts it, his “Dancing Bear.”

Bobbi and Alex are off running another captured ship, the Gathering Storm, which they took away from the Laconian Imperial fleet at the end of the last book, and Naomi is doing deep thinking and strategizing for the new resistance while hiding out in an elaborate shell game of cargo containers and shipping vessels. Amos went off on a high-risk mission to get Jim back and has gone dark, and Jim’s wandering around chatting up the emperor, the mad scientist that’s been cooking proto-molecule since book 1, and Teresa, the girl who stands to inherit the empire if her now proto-molecule-immortal father ever falls. Meanwhile, Duarte has scientists (played by our old friends from Cibola Burn, Elvi, and Fayez) off looking for a solar system empty enough that he can do something to poke the bear on the other side of the ring, the one that makes ships disappear if too many go through too often. What could go wrong?

As Holden says, “…the problem with thousand-year Reichs. they come and go like fireflies.”

I haven’t liked all the Expanse novels equally, and the previous one made me worried that the series would end on a whimper rather than a bang, but Tiamat’s Wrath makes me think that it’s going to be something to remember.

Ernest Lilley
SFRevu – Editor Emeritus

UPDATE 2 – They still have not fixed the audible sync to Kindle book via Whisper sync but having finished the story, I rate the story itself 5 out of 5 for entertainment and quality. I cant wait for the last book in 2020!

UPDATE – Rating relates to technical details of Kindle – Audible integration – Not the story, which I love.

I think it is helpful for prospective Kindle and Audible purchasers to know that this feature is not implemented. It makes switching between reading and listening modalities so easy and frankly, I was surprised it was missing.

Unfortunately, reviews require ratings. If it did not require a rating, I would have given none.

I will say, if the physical books people received were missing an expected feature such as the back cover or several pages, I would think that would be worth noting as well.

I am sure I will love the book as I have the prior books and I have looked forward to this for months! I purchased the audible and kindle version as quick as I could today.

My one disappointment is that whispersync features that allows syncing of your position between the Kindle version and the audible version is not enabled. Is this planned to be enabled soon? This technical issue reduces enjoyment of books for me and I hope it can be added soon.

I understand the one-star review! Everybody who loves this series is very invested in all its characters, and it is hard to say good-bye to any one of them. Yes, lots of tears shed during the reading of this book, tears of joy and sadness. But you know what? At the end of book nine, we’re going to have to say good-bye to all of them. So maybe it is fitting that we get to say good-bye one at a time. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Back to my headline: this book is packed with everything I love about The Expanse. Fantastic people (yeah, people, not characters) living through extraordinary events.

If you are new to this series, I envy the hell out of you: you have 8 great books just waiting to be read.

If you know the series and are wondering whether to buy this one or not, the answer is a resounding YES!

4 words in and I hate the authors.
EDIT: Finished, and seriously, this is the best narrative of the series. Dropped a star because they learned Martin’s lessons a little too well

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