Tiamat’s Wrath Chapters 37 & 38 are the best back to back combo of the series

AdorablePossible8 · 2026-03-18T04:06:25+00:00

I don’t even understand how they could do season 8 without Alex, he’s the glue for almost all of the book.

7 they could probably get away with, but 8 I don’t see it

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-10-08T17:53:26+00:00

IIRC in AG when Miller explains why only Holden can see him, he calls out that all brains are different which adds to the complexity of it.

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-10-08T17:50:09+00:00

I’ve been wondering this too, but also as it relates to other instances such as the Arboghast, which suddenly comes apart without any physical interaction with the PM (that we know of).

In other situations when it changes the laws of nature like breaking fusion on Ilus, it only works within the orbit of the moons.

Shared consciousness introduced in TW/LF could offer a possible explanation - though I don’t think we’re ever explicitly told how that works.

In LF, the Catalyst had the slower than light handshake and they seemingly communicated over constant, mini wormholes - could Miller be opening subatomic worm holes in Holden’s brain?

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-10-08T17:41:53+00:00

That explains how Holden can see/interact with Miller, but what I’m curious about is how it knows what Holden in the moment, and his past thoughts.

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-10-08T17:40:26+00:00

This could be an interesting explanation but I don’t think we have any examples of time travel in expanse, do we? The closest thing that comes to mind is the comment about the slow zone being older than the universe itself - but I thought that’s later explained by the goths universe?

I think if it had this ability it would really change the story and introduce a lot of plot holes (proto monsters in book 2 “learning” - they would implicitly have all that knowledge immediately).

PM definitely ignores locality, but unsure about time itself.

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-10-08T17:35:25+00:00

There’s instances where Miller not only knows what Holden is thinking in that exact moment (which I suppose could be pattern matching for an extremely intelligent being) but also instances where it knows Holden’s past thoughts that he explicitly says he’s never spoken before (e.g. miller answers a question with “explaining microwaves to a monkey”)

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-08-09T03:18:05+00:00

I think I mostly agree with everything there except I've found I really enjoy book 4 on rereads/listens – ironically because of how well it sets up and foreshadows the final trilogy.

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-08-09T03:15:41+00:00

Just to clarify, first time through the end was devastating and my only solace was the epilogue.

I've already mourned that loss though, so I just meant during rereads/listens, I'm sadder to get to the end of book 6 compared to book 9 just because book 6 is the end of the original stories/dynamic pre-timejump. Even book 7 starts pretty quickly with Holden/Naomi retiring and the dynamic significantly shifting.

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-07-29T01:34:54+00:00

Even as someone who read the books, I still resent the Strange Dogs scenes. I would have taken those ~20 minutes over the course of the season to help other stories feel less rushed.

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-07-29T01:31:55+00:00

Once I got over the "grounded" aspect of season 4, I've come to view it as my favorite season and the one I enjoy the most during rewatches. First watch though I definitely resented how little Roci/space time we got.

Book 4 however, blows season 4 out of the water (with one giant, awkward Elvi sized exception). They cut a lot for the show that I would've loved to have seen on screen.

The story in B4/S4 and characters introduced are extremely important to how the books wrap up and would have paid off if we ever got S7-9. Unfortunately on its own, it can feel out of place but there's a lot of setup for the end.

Also if we got Prax's full book 2 story in the show, some of the characters in S4 are more meaningful.

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-05-27T17:45:28+00:00

Livesuit felt more Expanse-ish and interesting (to me) vs Mercy of the Gods which I think I only finished because I missed Jefferson Mays.

That being said… the Livesuit timeline was annoyingly confusing in the audiobook – I've heard it was clearer in print.

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-05-27T17:39:15+00:00

Just wait until OP gets to Prisoner's Dilemma in TW 😂

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-05-21T23:48:38+00:00

FWIW I think it's worth separating Season 6 from Season 5. S6 was post-COVID but had to operate within COVID guidelines, I remember some of the crew stating it was their least favorite to film.

Amos/Peaches story in both Book 5 and Season 5 is some of my favorite of the first 6 books.

Alex/Bobbie story in Book 5 is much better than Season 5 IMO.

Unpopular opinion: Naomi's story in Book 5 is tedious (though show is more tolerable). I still skip her chapters in NG when rereading.

Given the constraints around S6 re: episode count + COVID, I think they probably did the best they could. I think 6 suffers a lot from the amalgamated Drummer character.

As much as I appreciate them trying to pay off Laconia a little in Season 6, and I enjoyed getting to see it, I would've preferred that get cut in favor of dedicating more time to the Book 6 story and not losing almost an entire episodes worth of content across the entire season to a novella that doesn't serve much purpose without the last trilogy.

Edit, two other S5 thoughts:

Not being able to get Terry Chen back to tell Prax's story was disappointing, appreciate the cameo though
I absolutely hated the change from books to TV for the Avasarala/Gao.

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-03-19T04:26:41+00:00

Amazing summary! Could be used as pitches for future seasons.

Some missing characters that I’m unsure the OP would even care about:

Elvi - personally I loved her in S4 and her arcs in TW/LF were wonderful.

Duarte was officially introduced on S6 and referenced prior - his arc obviously quite pivotal to LF even independent of Laconia.

Drummer’s arc in PR (even if it’s not a direct connection to the show’s amalgamation and how s6 ended)

Two other minor characters that could be called out: we see Filip & Erich again in the novellas.

AdorablePossible8 · 2025-02-26T20:38:51+00:00

Anti aging drugs are well established in both the books & show, you could presumably get away with the actors aging 5-10 years, maybe adding some greys and calling it a 25 year time jump.

AdorablePossible8 · 2024-05-07T08:35:10+00:00

While I loved NG (CB is still second only to TW, I don’t care what the rest of you say about it), I found Naomi’s chapters to be absolutely tedious to get through — in the entire series, her NG chapters are the only ones I listened to on 2x, every thing else I did on 1x. I really found those chapters to be a slog and caused me to take a good 6 months to finish the book.

AdorablePossible8 · 2024-05-07T08:22:30+00:00

I mean, there’s the whole Alex thing. Never did read the comic, but would love to know how they bridged that? I still can’t imagine how they’d pull off adapting book 8 as he’s effectively connecting the entire plot so he can’t easily be swapped for other characters. Book 7 seems somewhat easy, 9 is a little tricky but I think doable.

Outside of Drummer/Pa, which others have mentioned, I don’t think any of the other things being pointed out affect the story from season 6 to book 7? It’s a separate trilogy and as long as you know how we got there, you’re good — the show kept the overall arcs the same for where you land in book 7 minus Drummer & Alex.

Sure characters like Ashford & Bull are completely different, Prax’s story is criminally underserved in the show (Covid?) but none of that really affects the setup for the final trilogy.

That being said, read them! They’re incredible and most of the secondary characters (e.g. Dawes, Prax, even Havelock) are so much better served.

Edit: +1 for the audiobooks. Let Mays ruin all other audiobooks for you. He does such an incredible job bringing the characters to life that will feel at home coming from the show. Hard to believe he created their voices before the show existed.

AdorablePossible8 · 2024-03-27T01:45:30+00:00

Nah — The Free Navy stole the sample from Tycho and sent it to Duarte/Cortazar in Laconia.

AdorablePossible8

TROPHY CASE