After what I considered the most lacklustre entry in The Expanse series (Babylon's Ashes) I was thoroughly surprised and delighted by the 7th book, Persepolis Rising. Jumping ahead in time (significantly) the story begins by dragging the slightly older crew of the Rocinante back into the center of a new conspiracy that has been brewing in secret for a long time. The story takes some unexpected turns, and sets up what feels like a potentially wonderful and ambitious arc to take us toward the end of the series. If books #8 and #9 are anything like #7, we're in for a fine ride. ( )

As usual the book was great. The series takes a dramatic turn as it steams towards the finish line. ( )

Having been a fan of the TV adaptation for a while, I was excited to delve into the books that it's based on. The first book absolutely does not disappoint. The characters feel a lot more fleshed out, the crises just as deadly, and the politics far more in depth. You get a much greater sense of Belter life and culture. What the authors have accomplished in this first book alone is awesome. ( )

Even seven (not counting the novellas) books into this series it still has me hooked. I burned through Persepolis Rising and had to force myself to put it down and actually get some sleep. The authors continue to produce amazing work and I'm going to be eagerly awaiting number eight! ( )

One of the best entries in a series that's always held a very high quality. The moral greys Expanse excels at are very present, as is a real sense of peril and danger for the protagonists (something which has on occasion been a bit of an Achilles' heel, even during the most devastating circumstances). The plot itself is a very satisfying fruition of the seeds placed throughout the earlier volumes, with the preceding six novels in many ways now being revealed as simply an awe-inspiringly elaborate setting the stage for this final set of books.

The thirty year time jump is a bit surprising, but handled tolerably well. I could have liked the realism of a bit more references to these decades in the dialogue, it seems a bit odd for the characters to (with a few small exceptions) only reference events that happened half their lives ago, but I get that this is a balancing act with not boring the reader with needless vague hints at things we won't ever know. The well-established sci-fi innovations on personal health and aging makes their relatively spry actions more easily believable, and I like that some of their personalities have matured considerably, while others remain largely like they've always been.

As some of the earlier volumes have as well, this novel does end on a bit of a cliffhanger (this felt fairly likely very early, due to the nature of the plot, so it is not a disappointment or shock when reading ,or at least wasn't to me), so if the final two volumes do not deliver, it might retroactively make me feel less happy with this installment. But for now, this is, as I wrote at the start, one of my favourites in an already top-tier series of novels. ( )