Low-Budget Cyborg's Hobby Corner

I have finished the 3rd book in The Expanse series, and started on the 4th.

Caliban's War (the 2nd book) corresponds to season 2, episode 6 until season 3, episode 6. The remaining 7 episodes in season 3 correspond to Abaddon's Gate (book 3). It feels like they had to rush the wrap up of the Caliban's War plot and the entire arc of the Abaddon's Gate plot in order to get the number of seasons back in line with the number of books. The book Abaddon's Gate has some really interesting characters and moral dilemmas that didn't feel quite the same in the show. Pastor Anna was way more fleshed out in the book, and I liked that version of her much more. Also, the whole situation of the command structure issues on the Behemoth felt way different and more coherent in the book.

I continue to like the books better overall, and I really wonder about some of the choices the creators made when writing the show. I'll still watch the 4th season though, largely in case they include Bobbie Draper or Camina Drummer (who doesn't exist in the books and is my favorite show-only addition).

One thing I'm really hoping for in the books is for Naomi and Holden to have a real conversation about their conflicting desires for the future. Book!Holden wants to have kids with Naomi and book!Naomi does not want to have kids. That is such a fundamental conflict! A well-written exploration of it would be amazing.

I'm also hoping that sometime one of the Rocinante crew besides Holden will get to be a perspective character. I'd love to know how things look through Naomi's eyes.

It definitely seems like book!Amos is meant to be older and not as pretty as show!Amos, but I still picture him as the blue-eyed gutter angel he is in the show. Book!Amos seems to be more... um, okay with himself? than show!Amos. I don't miss the "do I or don't I want to try and have a moral compass of my own, IDK, what do?" angst that show!Amos went through, but I don't entirely not miss it either.

I'm up to chapter 37 of 55 in Leviathan wakes and it was only yesterday that I thought to check how the timeline of Season 1 of The Expanse compares to the book. Turns out Season 1 is only about half of the events of Leviathan Wakes. No wonder it dragged like a mofo, a bunch of it was filler!

I like both Miller and Holden better in the book, though Holden's righteousness still bugs me. I like that the Holden/Naomi thing had some actual build-up (is still building-up, in fact) rather than Suddenly Boning in the airlock. I get the sense that Amos is not supposed to be as pretty in the book as he is in the show, but one can't have everything.

The last scene I read had everyone cooking and eating dinner together, and it was a great Found Family In Space moment.