Review: Babylon's Ashes

Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Somehow, I feel the further along the Expanse universe gets, the more backwards it seems to fall. The first introduction showed us a dazzling, living solar system populated with factions, personalities, nations and technology, coexisting, fighting, exploiting, and most of all, alive. The interstellar distances were too huge and too immense for a convenient plot device to navigate; Epstein drives were a necessary evil but one that made sense. The introduction of a protomolecule to Julie Mao was an instance of first contact so strange and frightening, it felt truly alien.
Then the books progressed, the Gate opened, and all of mankind's struggles seemed tiny and pointless in the face of something far greater, a whole new universe, a chance to discover and explore something on a far greater scale.
Then the Gate closed.
That's what it feels like now - there's still stuff happening, but by focusing on the struggle between humans, still caught in the same system, might be an ode to humanity's, ah, humanity, but compared to what was opened up earlier - feels small, pointless, and petty.
In the face of what could be happening, it feels very precious.
And I hated the deux ex machina added on to complete the story - it was stupid, improperly and incompletely explained, and just felt like a cheap cop-out compared to everything else that had happened before. It's still a fascinating universe, just the storyline sucked.

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Review: The Shadow of What Was Lost

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's interesting, and pretty good in terms of being a coming-of-age story on it's own with plenty of twists and surprising revelations, but somehow the whole hero's journey aspect of fantasy is beginning to wear a little thin - mostly with me, I've just read too many of those types of stories, I guess.
That said, it has a very interesting presense in terms of dynamics of time; unlike most others where events happened in faraway, mythological past followed by a frozen, unchanging present, this world feels more dynamic, with causes and effects creating the society, politics, and economy of the place.
The band of companions also is an interesting mix, brought together in ways that are fairly unlike - and better - than most other standard novels, though it does use one of the most-abused cliches of the magic school - but I'll forgive that in the light of not just the world, but a magic system that almost approaches a Brandon Sanderson level of complex simplicity.
I'm not sure why I felt it didn't grip; all the ingredients are there, it's just not baked right. Some parts feel raw and meandering, others repetitive and unnecessary.
Anyway, the stage is set; look forward to the next one, hoping it improves.

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