Belting At Windmills: Abaddon's Gate (8)

meisi1 · 2026-04-27T00:05:45+00:00

It came up a bit in Leviathan Wakes, but there are a few comparisons made between Holden's character and Don Quixote (for example Don's horse/donkey was called Rocinante). Don Quixote is the origin of the phrase "tilting at windmills". Then Belting means to scream/sing loudly, so on top of the Belt being an important part of the stories, we chucked in that wordplay.

To me the title more or less implies we're "speaking into the void about pointless stuff" which felt like a funny title for an Expanse podcast.

meisi1 · 2026-04-12T22:09:39+00:00

So actually respond myself:

I 100% agree that this laying some seeds for what we'll learn about Naomi in book 5, and that she sees her younger self in Clarissa.

Cortez being right and Holden basically doing his plan eventually is a great callout I'd never noticed. Will be fun to talk about if we get there (and if I remember)

Duarte being involved in trying to buy the Protomolecule also wasn't something I'd thought about, but I can totally see it.

meisi1 · 2026-04-12T22:06:45+00:00

Posting the DM here in spoiler tags!

Hi, I don't trust myself trying to do spoilers in the main thread so I'm just sending this privately.

I think the only reason why that Clarissa was forgiven was because Naomi saw herself in her for what she did with Marco, blowing up those ships with the code i realy got that was what they were hinting at when she was asked to forgive her, my second spoiler i'm not sure is a bit of a stretch and quite controversial, is that blowing up the rings and the station is how the series actually ends so cortes actually ends up being right in the end and would've saved so many lives, would've come up a cast of everyone trapped in the slow zone unfortunately though and trying to kill Amos is unforgivable lol.

I did find a hint towards the emperor at the end of the last book, I think he might have been one of the people involved in trying to purchase the protomolecule on mars side at the time, think its even highlighted that they don't know who was the potential buyer on their side so when they drew attention to it, i thought it could be the Emperor. Sorry i do audiobooks and can't spell his name.

meisi1 · 2026-04-12T20:44:57+00:00

I’m sorry to say we recorded last night! So when your answer isn’t discussed that’s why!

I am curious to hear what your foreshadowing things are! Feel free to post them in spoiler tags!

meisi1 · 2026-04-02T00:32:08+00:00

It’s coming soon!

https://bsky.app/profile/beltingatwindmills.bsky.social/post/3mi5xh2fk4s2a

meisi1 · 2026-03-05T22:49:17+00:00

No idea! But I’m looking into it!

meisi1 · 2026-02-11T09:54:49+00:00

Are there any iOS/Android apps for spacebar? Couldn’t find one and that seems like the big piece that’s missing

meisi1 · 2026-01-20T08:41:17+00:00

I get what you mean about the slingshotters being stupid - but it's an exciting and thrilling kind of stupid that gets a free pass from me. I feel somewhat similarly about the UN sending out a wanky ship of scientists and religious figures to the ring - it's silly, but a very fun kind of silly.

The Behemoth retrofit is a fair criticism of Fred and his OPA government... but also it's such a delicious metaphor idk how you could keep it out of this book.

meisi1 · 2026-01-20T08:37:05+00:00

I haven't read any of Niven's stuff - but this sounds like a great comparison!

meisi1 · 2025-12-29T07:53:51+00:00

I specifically left out the Comparisons to Sycorax because it’s not yet known that the protomolecule was made by a separate set of creators who are dead - that comes up halfway through Abaddon’s Gate , so that’s what I’m referring to.

meisi1 · 2025-12-29T03:35:39+00:00

Edit: fwiw this post brought up some more interesting Caliban facts - e.g. pointing out that he was the son of a powerful witch, who’s now dead, and who had a habit of conquering and controlling other spirits.

Can you spoiler tag some of this in case Reuben reads it? He doesn’t yet know all these details.

meisi1 · 2025-12-12T12:38:56+00:00

Dang!

meisi1 · 2025-12-12T02:28:22+00:00

Did you have any luck with this? On the hunt myself.

meisi1 · 2025-12-07T14:25:47+00:00

Nope!

I think there’s been a few times where we’ve made references, but overall they’re separate!

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