Posts Tagged: The Expanse

Gods of Risk by James S.A. Corey

Publisher: Orbit - Pages: 69 - Buy: Book/eBook
"Gods of Risk" by James S.A. Corey

In support of the Expanse trilogy, James S.A. Corey, a pen-name for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, has been publishing a series of novellas set in the same universe (or, perhaps a more apt term would be solar system… get it?) as their popular inter-solar series, which began with 2011’s Hugo-nominated Leviathan Wakes (REVIEW), and was joined by 2012’s Caliban’s War, to be concluded in 2013 with Abaddon’s Gate, ‘Gods of Risk’ is the second of these novellas.

Though ‘Gods of Risk’ is set during the same time period as the Expanse trilogy, and featuring cameos by both characters and conflicts from the mainline novels, knowledge of the series in unnecessary. ‘Gods of Risk’ is an intimate story about a young martian (meaning, ‘born on mars,’ not ‘alien from mars’) man, Daniel Draper, a brilliant, but somewhat troubled student and drug manufacturer. The obvious comparison here is to television’s Breaking Bad, though Daniel’s insertion into the drug dealing community isn’t the result of desperation or need, but through social pressures and because, well, as a top-level chemistry student, he’s good at it and has access to the materials, making him an easy and obvious target for Hutch, a volatile drug dealer and tentative friend. Read More »

"Gods of Risk" by James S.A. Corey

Cover Art for “Gods of Risk” by James S.A. Corey

As tension between Mars and Earth mounts, and terrorism plagues the Martian city of Londres Nova, sixteen-year-old David Draper is fighting his own lonely war. A gifted chemist vying for a place at the university, David leads a secret life as a manufacturer for a ruthless drug dealer. When his friend Leelee goes missing, leaving signs of the dealer’s involvement, David takes it upon himself to save her. But first he must shake his aunt Bobbie Draper, an ex-marine who has been set adrift in her own life after a mysterious series of events nobody is talking about. Set in the hard-scrabble solar system of Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War, Chemistry deepens James S. A. Corey’s acclaimed Expanse series.

Let’s just cut to the chase here: it’s a new James S.A. Corey novella; it’s probably gonna be awesome. Seems like a no brainer, to me.

Caliban's War by James S.A. CoreyDaniel Abraham revealed some exciting news today:

Your friends and mine at Orbit have signed on for the three more Expanse books that we’d hoped they’d take and surprised us by asking for five novellas (!!) in the same universe to go along with them. So the big arc story that we only hoped to tell when we started Leviathan Wakes is going to get told.

Good news for fans of “Corey’s” work, like me. From the sounds of it, the third book in the current series, now called Abaddon’s Gate, will conclude the general storyline started in Leviathan Wakes, and the following trilogy will pick up from there and continue on a larger story-arc. Yum. Five novellas is just icing on the cake.

Congrats to both Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the two authors who, together, form Voltron James S.A. Corey.

'The Butcher of Anderson Station' by James S.A. Corey

A new story set in the world of The Expanse. One day, Colonel Fred Johnson will be hailed as a hero to the system. One day, he will meet a desperate man in possession of a stolen spaceship and a deadly secret and extend a hand of friendship. But long before he became the leader of the Outer Planets Alliance, Fred Johnson had a very different name. The Butcher of Anderson Station.

This is his story.

Well this is just music to my ears. Leviathan Wakes is one of the best novels I’ve read this year (REVIEW). It’s sequel (COVER ART) is one of my most anticipated novels of 2012. And a short story, completely out of the blue, revolving around one of the first novel’s most interesting characters and events? Sign me right on up.

A quick excerpt:

When Fred was a kid back on Earth, maybe five or six years old, he’d seen a weed growing in the darkness of his uncle’s cellar. The plant had been pale and thin but twice as tall as the ones out in the side yard, deformed by reaching for the sunlight. The man behind the bar looked just like that: too tall, too pale, too hungry for something he’d never had and never would. Belters were all like that.

The music in the bar mixed Punjabi rhythms with a high-voiced woman rapping in the polyglot mess of languages that made up Belter creole. The battered pachinko machine in the back rang and skittered. Hashish smoke sweetened the air. Fred leaned back on a bar stool meant for someone ten centimeters taller than he was and smiled gently.

“Is there a fucking problem?” he asked.

‘The Butcher of Anderson Station’ is 9,000 words long and available on all the major eBook platforms and costs as much as a bad gas station latte. Go buy it now. I already have.