The Expanse - My #1 Sci-fi Series
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ม.ค. 2025
- Welcome to the Expanse!
This is a spoiler-free introduction to my personal favourite sci-fi series. However I will not pressure you to read it! You and I might have different tastes. So this in an objective look at the Expanse to help you know if it's the right series for you.
We'll look at all 10 books, talk about the 'hard and soft' science and technology on display, and the brilliant character work. (Avasarala is queen!) We'll also discuss the social commentary and some deeper philosophical themes on display here. Hope you enjoy!
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rainbowspaceun...
Shoutout to the youtube channels I referenced in this video.
@GenerationFilms check out their video The Most Complex Character in Science Fiction | Amos Burton from The Expanse
@JustWrite every video in his amazing 5 part breakdown of The Hobbit is great. Specifically I referenced his video Why The Hobbit Sucks Part Two: Tensionless Action.
I had never read a sci-fi book before 2015, I was 31. I worked at an airport and someone left Leviathan Wakes in the terminal so I took it. I've never read such a big book so quickly. The Expanse is the greatest story I've ever read. I remember my hands shaking and actually getting emotional many times. I tell anyone who'll listen about it.
That is extremely cool! Glad you found a book that you connected with so deeply!
@@cronkthebookguy Your video was great. Id never thought of hard vs soft science before but you were spot on. I've read them all twice and listened to the audiobooks probably 4 times all the way through. You talk about world building, last time I finished them I was thinking about the few characters who made it from just Earth, Mars, and the Belt, through the rings, through the wars and occupation, and ended up right back where they started. Alongside that, all the major players who died at big points in history and everything they missed after that were so much bigger. Now thanks to your videos I have new series to check out; I couldn't find a worthy series after to fill the void.
Your clear explanations, production quality and puns/pop culture inserts are so great. Thanks for another great video!
One critcism: I wouldn't call soft magic systems "wishy washy you can do whatever you want". It's more about that this kind of magic is more mysterious and unexplained. Great examples of well-done soft magic systems are in A Song of Ice and Fire and the Ghibli movies!
Great channel though, I'm lying sick in bed and been binging your content ❤
It really is a fantastic series. I'm so happy they nailed the ending. I read on Ty and Daniel's recent AMA that they've handed in the first book in their new series as James S.A Corey to the publisher, so that is for sure coming out next year!
I love this story so much, that even though I have a severe social anxiety disorder, I will recommend this to anyone willing to listen.
Your videos are awesome!! Currently rocking our newborn to sleep which makes it hard to read, but listening to you talk about your favorite books is the next best thing 😅
Omg congrats! ❤
I hope you can still read from time to time. But be nice to yourself if you're a bit time poor for a while!
The serie is so good, the tv show is also really good ! Some great women character and the ending is just so good ! Great video !!
Ah, The Expanse, my second favourite sci-fi series (first is Red Rising). Loved every second of reading it. The only part about it I didn't like was that it ended. Definitely a series anyone who claims to like sci-fi should at least try.
Great video, as usual!
Nice!!
Haha I think Red Rising is my second favourite! Hmm...
*civil war* 😂
Then you had best prepare for an Iron Rain!
@@cronkthebookguywould love to hear you do a video about Red Rising!! I just stumbled upon your channel. Great videos and content!
I'm reading the expanse now (almost done with book5) I want to read red rising but after ASOIAF i'm nervous about starting anything that isn't finished. Do you think the author will get the final book done is reasonable time?
I hope I love it too and that it rekindles my love of sci-fi. Just picked up book 1! Thanks so much for the fun review!
One of my favourite book series of all time!! Great review.
Been thinking about reading this for a while, I watched the show and I loved it. After watching this video, I'll start the first book. Thanks Mike 😍
You randomly popped on my home feed and I am so glad you did, loved the way you articulate things. No drama no bs straight to point. Loved your work. Half hour video felt like a 10 min one. Keep up the good work ❤
I was blown out of the water by this series. I DNFed after the first few chapters on my first readthrough because I wasn't in the right mindset for it, but when I returned to it, it was incredible!
I work construction and have a lot of commute time, read leviathan wakes as a hard copy and listened to it, and i listened to the rest of the main novels and absolutely loved them and loved all the novellas as i listened to them in the Memories Legion book
Your channel is phenomenal
I've watched TV series and watching your video has me interested in the books.
Loved this video so much! Such a great recommendation!
And heck yes if you start with LoTR! Lol
Could listen to you talk forevermore 😊
Thanks for being a educational, interesting, and hunky sci fi guy !
I love the Expanse for many of the reasons mentioned, but my number one is that i think it stuck the landing. While some series lose focus or spin out of control (I'm looking at you, Dune), the Expanse is solid from beginning to end.
Ok, you definitely got me interested. This sounds like a really cool series
Just finished book 5 and the algorithm put this video in front of me. Love the series so far and look forward to the rest of it!
I really enjoy your book reviews. The Expanse is already on my TBR and I guess it just jumped ahead on the line up.
I might give these a go on audiobook :) have added the first one to my audible wish list. I don’t usually go for science fiction but want to give it a try. Thanks for doing this video, been interesting to hear about the series!
Excellent review. I read all books, including Memory's Legion, and saw all seasons of the show (and cried when it was not continued...still waiting Amazon, Netflix, someone). Regarding the ending, I was waiting for details on who the ring builders were. That was left kind of ambiguous...or maybe it's my faulting in thinking that was a mystery the book was intending to resolve. Anyway, excellent review. Never heard which authors wrote which characters, or the editing process, so that was new info for me.
Another amazing sci-fi book series is The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson; three books and a collection of short stories covering an incredible range of subjects, from hard science to economics, sociology and politics (also, if you've played the Terraforming Mars board game, the Mars Trilogy was definitely an influence!)
Yay! I'm so glad you did this one!
The Expanse is my favourite Sci-Fi series as well!!! I love it so much.
And the Sci-Fi September opening is great!
I love the books and I love the Tv show, both are amazing.
Books 7 8 9 are absolutely fantastic
Great description of the series. I love the Expanse. It's one of my favorite series from all genres.
Awesome video, I am picking up the sci-fi genre again after a few years and this series sounds fantastic! Will have to try book 1. Also very knowledgeable and clear explanations, thank you!
You have great insight man! And I love the little pop culture cutaways 😂.
The Expanse is probably my second favorite show ever.
I couldn’t get into the show, but your explanation of the books makes me interested.
Excited for next week and Octobers videos. Always look forward to your videos! I really love your format and keypoints you go over to help everyone decide if these series are going to be a good fit.
I tried reading the first book, or, rather, a sample of the first book, but the point-of-view character's dire and claustrophobic situation at the beginning freaked me out too much for me to continue. Given the content warnings you listed, that was definitely for the best.
Also, I've noticed this for several of your videos now, but the subtitles don't match up with what you're saying most of the time. Trying to lip read and read the subtitles messed with my head. 😅
bought Leviathan Wakes a couple years ago but only started reading it about a month ago, nearly done with it. Already ordered Caliban's War. The Expanse certainly makes my 2h of bus on workdays more bearable!
4 months later... Blasted thru Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War in November, Abaddon's Gate in about 2 weeks this month and now onto Cibola Burn. Yeah, I love this series. I'm going to finish the entire thing. Excited to see what The author duo's new trilogy 'The Captive's War' has to offer in august!
awesome video - thank you!
i absolutely loved the tv show! 💜 and i’ve been planning to read the books ever since.. maybe this will be the month i start 🤞
happy reading!
6:22 Speaking of series with clashing magic systems, I saw that you have a full set of the Powder Mage series behind you. Do you have any plans to make a video on that? Obviously it doesn't fit the themes of September or October, but I'd love to see more Powder Mage content on youtube
Great question! I love powder made and I'm trying to schedule time to do it! Maybe a Flintlock February? 🤣 hopefully soon!
@@cronkthebookguy Flintlock February rolls of the tongue seriously well, that's a great idea. Or perhaps Military March
I enjoyed this review. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I really did miss not having Drummer in the books like she was in the series.
I'm on book 4 now :D great video!
A. Reasonable. Thing. To. Expect. 🙌🏻 Could not be rolling my eyes harder when every woman a “cool guy” character interacts with wants to sleep with him.
Man i gotta say i loved the intro!
I cant wait for the author's next series with the series debut novel "the mercy of gods", by the description of it it sounds very intriguing.
You gotta do the Three-body Problem Series next year!
Brilliant! I admit, I did stop around book six. Maybe I'll get back to it. But I'm only three books into Robin Hobb just now. Obviously I want to be Christen when I grow up.
Thank you!
Well books 7, 8 & 9 are incredible! Hope you get to them. But Robin Hobb is a more than worthy alternative. ❤
Lol right? Becoming Chrisjen is my life goal.
If you haven't seen the series yet, you should give it a try. It's one of those rare cases where it does some things (obviously not all) better than the books. I personally think the Abaddon's Gate and Cibola Burn stories are much better in the show, and Avasarala and Amos are seriously enhanced by the performance of the actors
8:24 Earth shattering revelations :)
Thanx, I may try SCI FI and start with this one
I have Leviathan wakes lying here but I haven't got to reading it jet! But its definitely the most beautiful book i own (its the 10th anniversary edition) I Love the TV Show and i guess i'll love the books once i read them. I wanna know how the story goes after season 6! I still hope they adapt the last books some day with the original crew but Ty said in his podcast they want to let the actors get a bit older because there is a time jump in the books but if this will ever happen isn't sure.
OMG. Love the series. But.... The tv series are even better. Best tvshow ever. You have to see it.
I would love to see your video on Django Wexler's _Shadow Campaigns._
> there is general belief that the books 4,5,6 are the boring ones
I wouldn't say that book 5 is considered boring; in fact, it has been the fan's favorite until book 8 came out (it literally has "The Red Wedding of The Expanse" and _very_ action-packed).
As for book 4, it's very polarising: some readers absolutely love it and the others hate it, there is nothing in between; but no matter what is your opinion on the first read, it becomes much better with each subsequent re-read (because it has a lot of foreshadowing and groundwork for the books 7-9).
As for book 6, in my opinion it suffered a bit because of having too many POVs; still, Anderson Dawes' chapters are ones of my favorite in the whole series.
Hi thats nathan fillion next to g r r martin. Love cap. Mel so much.
8 minutes in and I am now a dedicated subbliber
When he goes to do the cringy lightsaber move BUT THEN HE NAILS IT i grin real wide.
Great video!!! Have You read the stormlight archive?
Haven't read Expanse yet but I've read Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet and that's a really underrated Fantasy series.
Hi
Love your reviews, I think they are great. I was wondering if you had read the Black Complany series by Glen Cook and if you had considered doing a video on it.
Thank you!
Haven't read Black Company yet. Sadly the first 3 books have been on my to-read shelf for nearly 3 years! Very eager to get to them asap.
How bad is the body horror? I got a little freaked out in the prologue of the first. Is this continued, or should I try a bit more?
Oooh good question! I'm pretty sure the only body horror is in book 1. Book 2 does have some monsters, but not really the body horror type. I'm thinking hard and really can't find any other example of it.
@@cronkthebookguy thanks! Thé séries sounds amazing and I’d be sad to miss out. Maybe I’ll give it another go and at least I have an idea of what is coming up in book 1 and won’t be as surprised
Yeah, alright, this is on the list. Won't be getting to it any year soon, though.
old people getting fooled by AI and im over here getting fooled by a picture of books printed on paper. My face when you pointed at it and said that lol
If you want an even harder view on the science of space living go watch Issac Arthur. There are some really interesting points where reality and the books break. There is a lot of O2 in the belt just in the form of oxides so they wouldn't need to import air.
I’m reading the first book now. I watched the entire series, which I’m actually glad I did, having faces to put to characters. As always, book is WAYYY better. I’m using this as a springboard to get back into reading and away from video games…ruined my dopamine uptake for too long 😂
Wonderful! I love hearing about people getting back into reading. Expanse is so perfect for that. Enjoy!!
My best friend (that I've known for 16 years) couldn't convince me to try "The Expanse." You just did :)
Hahaha!! Please tell your best friend I said 'You're welcome'. 😜 and that they have great taste.
@@cronkthebookguy haha will do! Your channel is amazing btw! Please keep doing what you do, we need more readers 🤘
yay! a sci fi book! by the way how do you read so fast? I can't keep up!
Don't feel bad! These videos come from my last 5 years of reading. I'll run out of content eventually! 😅
Just read at your own rate. Tolkien once wrote, 'little by little, one travels far'. You don't have to read everything all at once. ❤
thanks, that's a good quote from a good author.
The more you read the faster you'll go. Variety and degrees of difficulty helps too. But don't start on like Gravity's Rainbow or Malazan. Maybe Neal Stephenson would be good. One of his will stretch your brain without the dedication to a series
Haha I was hoping you were going to say horror October, I guess that is a little predictable. Gotta keep them guessing!
The TV adaptation is what Firefly could have been, if it had the support of the producers. A shame they didn't have 3 more seasons to develop and complete the story from the books.
32:00 th-cam.com/video/yCdfYkUPvTs/w-d-xo.html
You know, if they bring it back in 15 years the actors will all be about the right age for the last 3 books 🤔 maybe that's the plan
BELTALOWDA!!!!
So, in that comparison, one side of the battle is DND magic, which is understandable, and everyone knows the rules, and on the other side is lovecraftain magic, which starts off understandable, but then Cthulhu eats everyone
To give them credit they did it in the first few episodes.
Like the belter she was torturing in the beginning was like tall and skinny but I believe they said they couldn't find that many actors that are that tall and skinny.
So they gave up.
as an anime fan, i was confused what fantastical beasts movies you watched, that they had fan service. Cuz in anime, fan service means naked ppl. but then i remembered, that there is a secound meaning…
@@morfrikel7472 🤣🤣🤣
Can I recommend Expeditionary Force series (18+ books) by : Craig Alanson.
One of the most interesting series as it sets Earth as total underdog in a very very dangerous believable universe where the main characters are trying to keep an unaware Earth from destruction.
I think better to listen to rather than read because R.C. Bray narrates it so good.
The time jump deflates everything that follows…. 😢
Say no more, I’m reading it
I didnt know it was 2 authors 😳
man I just wanted to know who is the enemy is this about aliens or what? Really liked the 3 body series
Oh fair question. I couldn't answer that cause it's a spoiler. But you do find out in book 1.
But the 'true' enemy is always humanity and human nature. Hope that helps.
per the authors its actually 3 duologies and a single triology
Wow! I hadn't heard that before, but it makes SO much sense. :)
Just to get context, but are you from UK, USA or Australia?
He’s from Australia 😊
The series was amazing. The first episode was a bit boring, Miller is a rather boring anti-hero (in my opinion), but I made it to the end and was drawn in. I can't hide the fact that my attention was caught by Holden, an imperfect paragon. As for the books, I didn't manage to read any of them. Maybe because I liked the series too much or maybe because I have no desire to read in a foreign language and the translation into my language had some annoying elements for me. Overall, however, I agree that Expanse is one of the best that sf has seen.
And in case anyone was curious, my mother tongue is Polish. I'm not saying the translation is bad, it just annoyed me that the name Rosinante was changed to Rozynant. I would have preferred that they kept the original name, as was done with the names of the characters - James Holden not Jakub Holden.
No exaggerations detected.
Original star trek has naval based combat. New trek cobies star trek and has nothing with old trek in commen. That made star trek so unique and great. Best is star trek 6, the shakespeare one.
Being poor doesn’t give you a free pass to do crime
I agree but sometimes you have no choice