Books: Persepolis Rising by James S. A. Corey (2017)

“In the thousand-sun network of humanity's expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way. Every new planet lives on a knife edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship Rocinante have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace. In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance still haunted by a history of wars and prejudices. On the lost colony world of Laconia, a hidden enemy has a new vision for all of humanity and the power to enforce it. New technologies clash with old as the history of human conflict returns to its ancient patterns of war and subjugation. But human nature is not the only enemy, and the forces being unleashed have their own price. A price that will change the shape of humanity -and of the Rocinante- unexpectedly and forever.”

With Persepolis Rising, author James S. A. Corey (Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham) begins The Expanse endgame. There is a significant time jump from the last book, Babylon Ashes, and now it’s been thirty years since the events of the first book, Leviathan Wakes. While the six previous books formed an overreaching arc through two sets of trilogies, the issues that began the series –the battle between Earth, Mars, and the ‘Belters- have come to a somewhat of an equilibrium here. OPA, the Belter’s dominant political faction, has transformed into the legitimate Transportation Union, which helps supply 1,300 human-colonized planets across the galaxy. Earth and Mars have put aside their adversarial relationship to form the Earth-Mars Coalition, and protagonist James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante is still doing the odd jobs required of them.

The final trilogy begins with return of an empire called Laconia, originally formed by a group of Martians who abandoned the solar system mentioned in earlier books. Laconia has thrived in the three decades hence, under the leadership of the immortal High Counsel Duarte and has become brutal and has acquired some technology advanced ships and weapons. Duarte’s goal is pretty simple: dispatch a fleet back through gate system and take over Medina Station that controls those gates, which will plunge the Sol system into another conflict that they may not be able to recover from.

This is perhaps the most fast-paced book of the current seven book series, moving swiftly between events and introducing new characters. I was taken back, at first, with the narrative time-jump, but a lot makes sense considering that the authors are moving towards a conclusion. We see Holden and his crew aging (with James and Naomi beginning the process of retirement), and seeing that there can be a tenuous relationship between all the factions that once kind of hated each other. 

We also get a deeper understanding of the protomolecule, which for long stretches of this series, was never truly explained. The villains, Duarte and Santiago Singh, are less cartoonish this time around and the authors make it clear that Singh is very conflicted –he believes that everyone can live under Laconia rule, even if some must die. It’ll be interesting to see what direction Duarte goes in with the next two books.