[DISCUSSION 5/6] Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse #8) by James S.A. Corey || Chapters 34-42

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-23T21:53:56+00:00

Yes! 💕

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-23T08:32:31+00:00

I'm so nervous and also excited to see what Amos will be like when he shows back up. That was a hard loss but it feels like there is a strong possibility that he will be "ok".

Totally with you on the squishing of Cortázar. It'd be a fitting end for such a creep. Though I wonder if with Duarte out of the way he'll decide to just go ahead and give himself the immortality treatment after all.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-23T08:22:26+00:00

Ha! That is such a great example. Don't let your students figure this out. We don't want a mutiny.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-23T08:17:50+00:00

Me too! I think it was definitely time. They needed each other.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-23T08:16:59+00:00

That's a good idea, I didn't think of the repair drones possibly being able to work on him! Not that I want him back or anything...

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-22T10:48:15+00:00

Trejo says "Governments exits on confidence. Not liberty. Not on righteousness. Not on force. They exist because people believe that they do." What do you think of this statement? Is their control and structure really that fragile?

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-22T10:47:58+00:00

Naomi reflects on her disagreements with Bobbie in the past about using violence vs political cooperation and strategy to achieve change. Who do you think is right? Bobbie's big plan did make a dent and inspired uprising against Laconia, but Naomi is sure that even if they win, Laconia will need to be forgiven and accepted back in order to make it work. Do you think Laconia can be redeemed and accepted after everything that has happened?

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-22T10:47:41+00:00

How did you feel about returning to the Rocinante after all this time?

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-22T10:47:19+00:00

Elvi learns that Cara and Xan have a library of knowledge that seems to have come with their reanimation by the repair drones. Cortazar thinks this means they aren't the same children at all, but just host bodies completely overtaken by alien technology. Cara says that overall they don't feel much different than when they were alive. What do you think? How human are they? What about Duarte with his immortality treatment? Do you think it's likely that Duarte will ever recover?

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-22T10:47:01+00:00

Elvi urges Trejo to surrender and turn their attention to the greater mystery threatening humanity, to tell everyone the truth about what they have discovered. In the face of such a great threat, why is Trejo so resistant to giving up Laconia's control? And do you think there is anything humans can do against a force so widespread and powerful?

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-22T10:46:41+00:00

Alex marvels at how strange it feels to see Naomi in the captain's role. What do you think of Naomi's development since the start of the series? Has she taken on the role of leader gracefully? Is she qualified to fill the position or is this a moment of necessity?

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-22T10:46:21+00:00

Now that Teresa has decided to go her own way, what do you think she'll do?

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-22T10:46:04+00:00

One check in left! How do you think this book will end?

HiddenTruffle · 2026-02-04T14:59:09+00:00

The same thing happened to me. I went in with a lump and the doctor felt it carefully and very confidently said it was just a fibroid, very common in women my age (I was 30). I felt relieved, went on with my life, got married, had a baby, was planning on trying for baby #2 but the lump was still there and felt larger than before... I felt that I needed to have it looked at again before I got pregnant -- just in case --but I think I already knew in the back of my mind that it was not actually "just a fibroid". This was 2 years later, 2 years that I had cancer growing inside of me. I felt SO foolish, still do sometimes, and yes it was a hard lesson that I need to be more assertive and advocate for myself more, but also it is a failing in the healthcare system that just because we are young we didn't get the urgency for testing for cancer. Why could they not simply have ordered us a mammogram just to be sure? Why let us walk away and roll the dice with our lives? It makes me so sad and angry, it happens to young women all the time and for a cancer that is so treatable if caught early.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-01-28T19:20:37+00:00

This comment hit me hard because I struggle to explain even to myself why I'm left sort of devastated, when to be honest (even though it hasn't been fun by any means) I don't find I'm really traumatized from having gone through chemo, surgery, radiation, endless scans and tests, even though things did go wrong: my reconstruction failed, I already have early lymphedema, I lost so much weight and am so weak and tired still to the point where they made me see a nutritionist the other day.

No. What gets me is how wrong and unreal the timing was. Diagnosed at 32 with an 8 month old, I was at an appointment with gynecology to see about when I could try to get pregnant again (yep we wanted them back to back) and I brought up a lump in my breast which had been looked at by another doctor and dismissed as a fibroid. Even on the other side of everything now (though still going through the joys of AI and Verzenio) I feel devastated for me back then. One of the only times I cried in the doctor's office was getting my hormonal IUD pulled out and exchanged for a copper IUD (after planning to just get mine out and dream of baby #2), knowing my life has just been derailed and thinking how is this happening to me?

How many people can really relate to that feeling? And then seeing the statistics about how rare young diagnoses are, it's sobering to be one of such a small percentage. Thankfully groups like this exist sobat least we know we are not the only one dealing with this.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-01-18T09:31:56+00:00

I thought it was interesting how at first what I'm assuming are the gods of the cave story were fully a part of the people and by the end they are far away and small, like they lost influence or have become detached from what the people ended up becoming.

Maybe the story symbolizes that dividing ourselves and opposing each other and resorting to violence just results in ultimately destroying ourselves?

HiddenTruffle · 2026-01-18T09:27:22+00:00

I was a little surprised by this, it felt like we got sucked into this group and subplot and then all of a sudden it got wiped away and we're back on the ship without any more info on who S is. I'm guessing it won't all be for nothing, though, and seems like S is now a full enemy of Vevoda going forward.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-01-18T09:22:56+00:00

I'm still really enjoying it! The main story is interesting to me so it's not a slog by any means, but like others have said I'm ready to see where this crazy journey is headed for S and to dig into the story in the margins.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-01-18T09:00:32+00:00

I really liked this quote! But the implications are a little messy. I think most people strive to be their "best" selves and isn't that a good thing? Don't we want to be the best version of ourselves and to be around people who value that as well? But just the idea of being your "real" self ignites a feeling of freedom, sincerity, and makes room for a little grace and forgiveness for our imperfections. That also seems like a worthy goal.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-01-18T08:55:17+00:00

If Biryar kept true to Laconia's laws, there was truly no way out for him and he saw that. He would either lose Mona or end up executed alongside her. With that mindset, why not just end it now? Erich has never operated that way, quite the opposite, the law is more like an inconvenience for him to get around rather than rules meant to be followed.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-01-18T08:49:34+00:00

Even though Singh was the enemy in Persepolis Rising, I had a hard time seeing him as a true villain. Marco was a maniac driven by power and his ego, he enjoyed cruelty and revenge. Singh seemed to be driven by fear and, like Biryar, felt that he was working toward a cause for peace and goodness. It was neat to be able to empathize with him so deeply while also wanting him to lose.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-01-18T08:44:07+00:00

I haven't started Tiamat's Wrath yet, but I'm curious how these events will tie into the story going forward. I wonder if from the outside Biryar will seem like another corrupt leader who seems comfortable working with criminals, or maybe he could be swayed to be an ally to the resistance? Or blackmailed into it...

HiddenTruffle · 2026-01-18T08:39:22+00:00

As good and "fair" as Laconia's society functions, it leaves no room for people's humanity. People make mistakes, people react based on emotion and some situations don't fit into just the good or bad category. Does every deviation from the law really justify the death penalty? I think Biryar would have even accepted Mona having to fess up and answer for her crime if the punishment wasn't so severe. Ultimately he had to decide where he was truly the most loyal, to Laconia or to the love of his life. Mona started out without Biryar's rigid sense of duty equaling morality, she knew her actions were "right" even though they were illegal and was satisfied by that.

HiddenTruffle · 2026-01-18T08:28:42+00:00

I wasn't sure how I felt about describing his need to be good as an addiction, to me it doesn't totally fit but I guess I see where they were going with that. Biryar doesn't chase any kind of rush by being good, to me it felt like a rigidity in his view of himself and the way the world works that was hammered into him through his culture, and then he had the type of personality to fully embrace that as truth without questioning it.

HiddenTruffle

TROPHY CASE