The Expanse (novel series)

The Expanse is a series of science fiction novels (and related novellas and short stories) by James S. A. Corey, the joint pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. The first novel, Leviathan Wakes, was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2012. The complete series was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2017. It later won, following its second nomination for the same award in 2020.
The book series is made up of nine novels and nine novellas compiled in Memory's Legion. The series was adapted for television by the Syfy Network, also under the title of The Expanse. When Syfy canceled the TV series after three seasons, Amazon acquired it and produced three more seasons; all six seasons are streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
The book Memory's Legion is a collection of all eight short stories and novellas, except for "The Last Flight of the Cassandra" (which remains exclusive to the RPG). The collection includes authors' notes, and the final novella The Sins of Our Fathers, which is an epilogue to the series.
The series totals 5062 pages across the nine novels, 467 across the other nine short stories and novellas, and a total of 5529 pages in its entirety. The audiobook collections are approximately 178 hours, 17 hours, and 195 hours long respectively.
All novels and short works except the RPG exclusive short story have been released as audiobooks, with Jefferson Mays as the narrator for the novels and short works that include Drive, The Butcher of Anderson Station, The Vital Abyss, Strange Dogs, Auberon, and The Sins of Our Fathers. Erik Davies was originally the narrator for the novellas The Churn and Gods of Risk; but both have been re-released with Jefferson Mays narrating them as of December 28, 2021. While most of Memory's Legion is narrated by Jefferson Mays, the author's note portions are narrated by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.
The Expanse is set in a future in which, after the creation of the Epstein Drive, a fusion engine capable of producing continuous acceleration, humanity has colonized much of the Solar System (but does not have interstellar travel). The series initially takes place in the Solar System, using many real locations such as Ceres and Eros in the asteroid belt, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and small science bases as far out as Titania around Uranus, as well as well-established domed and underground settlements on Mars and the Moon, referred to as Luna.
At the series beginning, the governments of Earth (led by the United Nations) and Mars control the solar system in an uneasy military alliance, although substantial tensions exist between the two superpowers. Residents of the outer planets, living in stations built in the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, are referred to as "Belters". Due to the lack of gravity, they develop thin, elongated bodies, and have developed a creole language due to their physical isolation from Earth and Mars, with heavy influences from German and Chinese. Belters perform much of the gritty labor work to mine resources for the inner planets, which in turn control access to most necessary biological resources. As a result, substantial tensions exist between the Belt and the governments of Earth and Mars, proliferating itself through the existence of the Outer Planets Alliance, a fractured government and militant group that fights for Belter independence (labelled as a terrorist organization by the inner worlds).
As the series progresses, humanity gains access to thousands of new worlds by use of the rings, an artificially sustained wormhole network, created by a long-dead alien civilization. The ring in the Sol system is a thousand mile diameter structure located two AU outside the orbit of Uranus. Passing through it leads to a hub of starless space approximately one million kilometers across, with more than 1,300 other rings, each with a star system on the other side. In the center of this hub, which is also referred to as the "slow zone" after the third novel, a highly defended alien space station controls the gates and can also set instantaneous speed limits on objects inside the hub as a means of defense.
The story is told through the points-of-view of many main characters. There are two POV characters in the first book and four in books two through five. In the sixth and seventh books, the number of POV characters increases, with several characters having only one or two chapters. The eighth book returned to a more limited number with five. In the final ninth book, there is an increase in POVs with some chapters having multiple POV characters. Every book also begins and ends with a prologue and epilogue told from a unique character's perspective, who will occasionally interject in the main body of the novel.
The central characters of The Expanse are the crew of the Rocinante, a salvaged Martian naval gunship.
The main crew, present in all nine books, consists of:
Throughout the progression of the series, several additional members join the crew for various lengths of time:
The Expanse primarily tells the story of the crew of the gunship Rocinante over more than three decades as they navigate criminal plots, galactic politics, wars, and an alien mystery.
Leviathan Wakes, the first novel in the series, begins with the destruction of the ice freighter Canterbury by unknown forces, and the surviving crew, led by captain James Holden, ends up in possession of the gunship Rocinante. Together with help from Ceres-based Detective Joe Miller, who is searching for the missing Julie Mao, they uncover a complex plot by the Earth company Protogen to draw the inner planets and belt into a war to distract from a criminal operation where they experimentally infect residents of the asteroid Eros with an extrasolar biological hijacking organism they have discovered, known as the protomolecule. The protomolecule was launched at Earth from Phoebe by an alien civilization 2.5 billion years ago with the intent of hijacking Earth's early biosphere and repurposing the primitive life for their own mysterious purposes, but was unexpectedly captured by Saturn's gravity. With help from the Outer Planets Alliance, the crew of the Rocinante brings down Protogen, but the protomolecule assimilates Eros and launches itself at its original destination of Earth. Miller manages to redirect Eros to instead crash into Venus, dying in the process. The protomolecule promptly begins assembling a vast, mysterious structure.
In Caliban's War, while assisting Ganymede-based biologist Praxidike Meng with finding his missing daughter, the crew of the Rocinante discover a criminal plot by the Mao-Kwikowski company, in league with rogue elements in the UN government, to manufacture protomolecule-enhanced super soldiers by deliberately infecting immunodeficient individuals with the protomolecule to turn them into weapons. With help from Martian marine Bobbie Draper and UN politician Chrisjen Avasarala, they find Meng's daughter, destroy the protomolecule soldiers, and bring those responsible to justice. The protomolecule's structure launches off Venus and travels outside the orbit of Uranus, transforming into a large ring shaped womhole. Holden begins experiencing visions of Miller.
In Abbadon's Gate, the Rocinante crew is framed for an attack by Clarissa Mao, heir to the Mao-Kwikowski company, who is seeking revenge for the crew destroying her family. They flee through the Ring (and are followed by Earth, Mars, and OPA forces), finding that it leads to the hub of a massive wormhole network consisting of 1300 gates, termed the Slow Zone. Led by the vision of Miller to an alien station at the center of the Slow Zone, Holden experiences a vision of the history of the alien civilization that built the protomolecule and the gates, seeing that they were attacked by mysterious forces and had shut down the gate network in a vain attempt to prevent their extinction. After the crew of the Rocinante violently defeats a group that intends to destroy the Ring in a foolish attempt to protect humanity from its evils, the network of wormholes is reopened and humanity begins colonizing the stars.
Cibola Burn is a book heavily influenced by westerns which tells the story of one of the early colony worlds through the Ring Network, Ilus, experiencing a confrontation between refugee settlers and the corporation that has been granted rights to it. The crew of the Rocinante is sent to mediate the situation, but they find that the world's alien ruins are reawakening. An alien reactor explodes, creating an extinction level event on the surface of the planet, and reactivating an alien defense network that strands the ships in orbit. Working together to survive, the crew of the Rocinante and the settlers overcome the tremendous odds stacked against them, and demonstrate the feasibility of extrasolar colonies to persevere through disaster.
In Nemesis Games, sometimes referred to as the series’ Empire Strikes Back, a rogue Martian group led by Winston Duarte sells warships to a radical faction of the OPA headed by Marco Inaros, who creates a fleet known as the Free Navy. Seeing that with the new colony worlds humanity will no longer need the belt's resources and thus it will die, Inaros launches a massive, multi-pronged terror attack across the solar system, including launching asteroids at Earth and killing billions. Although he attempts to kill the Martian Prime Minister and the crew of the Rocinante as well, both of these plans are foiled. The Free Navy takes control of the Slow Zone and prevents any travel to the colony worlds. The rogue Martian fleet travels through the rings to the Laconia system and it is revealed that some ships traveling through the gates are disappearing, being consumed by a force within them.
Babylon's Ashes tells the story of the final confrontation between the navies of Earth and Mars and the Free Navy, working with the remaining factions of the OPA, including a massive battle to retake the Slow Zone from Free Navy control. Eventually, the crew of the Rocinante figures out how to trigger the ship disappearances while traveling through the gates and uses this to cause Inaros and the rest of the Free Navy to vanish as they attempt to retake the Slow Zone. With the various governments of the solar system realizing that Inaros wasn't wrong that the existence of new colony worlds inevitably would mean the death of the belt, the OPA is transformed into a Transport Union, giving the Belters a new role as traders between the various solar systems. Meanwhile, Duarte's rogue Martian fleet that traveled to the Laconia system cuts off contact with the rest of humanity.
In Persepolis Rising, set three decades after the Free Navy was defeated, the Laconians reemerge out of their gate with advanced, protomolecule-powered technology, including three incredibly powerful dreadnought battleships. Duarte has also been using the protomolecule on himself to make himself essentially immortal. The Laconians easily take control of the Slow Zone and the solar system, controlling the hub between worlds and creating a vast empire under Duarte's rule. The Rocinante crew becomes part of the resistance movement on Medina Station in the Slow Zone and successfully manages to stage a revolt that allows them to escape to the various colony worlds. Holden is captured, but the remaining crew of the Rocinante scatters.
In Tiamat's Wrath, Duarte attempts to attack the creatures that sometimes consume ships traveling between gates, which are realized to be the same forces that killed the protomolecule's creators. This backfires, leading to attacks on all of humanity by these "dark gods." One such attack leaves Duarte catatonic and the empire in disarray. Meanwhile, the fractured crew of the Rocinante successfully destroy the Laconian dreadnought in the Sol system and a dark god attack decimates all ships in the Slow Zone, including the second dreadnought. Realizing they will never have a better chance to destroy the Laconian empire, the crew of the Rocinante lead a massive siege of the Laconian system by the resistance forces and successfully destroy the alien construction platforms that allowed Laconia to build their advanced technology, in addition to recovering Holden.
In Leviathan Falls, Duarte reawakens from his catatonic state with new powers and realizes that his tyrannical ambitions have been "too small," and to defeat the dark gods, he needs to transform humanity into a hive mind. In a massive final confrontation, the crew of the Rocinante fight Duarte and his forces in the Slow Zone. Holden injects himself with the protomolecule in order to reawaken the vision of Miller, who helps explain the history of the gate-builders. After successfully killing Duarte, Holden realizes what he must do to save humanity from the dark gods. He connects himself to the alien station and, after allowing all ships to escape, destroys the Slow Zone, shutting down the wormhole network between worlds. The crew of the Rocinante, after an emotional goodbye, splits for the final time. In an epilogue set 1000 years later, humanity invents their own form of faster-than-light travel and uses it to finally reconnect the colony worlds, with the epilogue showing the reconnection to Earth.
Ty Franck began developing the world of The Expanse initially as the setting for a MMORPG and, after a number of years, for a tabletop role-playing game using the D20 Modern system. Daniel Abraham, who had authored a number of novels on his own, suggested, given the depth of the setting, that it could serve for the basis for a series of novels, noting: "People who write books don't do this much research."
The authors have stated that the series gets some of its inspirations from Frederik Pohl's Gateway and the other Heechee Saga books. It has also been observed that there are similarities in the political and social setting of the series to Alfred Bester's classic science fiction novel The Stars My Destination. Ty Franck has also stated Ridley Scott's Alien as having "the single largest influence on The Expanse."
The authors have suggested that The Expanse might well take place in the future of Andy Weir's novel The Martian. In support of this, they created a ship named the Mark Watney after the titular Martian. However, Andy Weir has publicly clarified that the reference was solely a fun reference.
Franck wrote the first drafts of the Holden, Bobbie, and Anna chapters, while Abraham did the Miller, Melba, Avasarala, Bull, and Prax chapters, writers meeting weekly to discuss upcoming chapters and swap completed chapters for the other to edit, at first. The process changed and evolved over the years.
The novels are written in third-person limited. Each chapter is told from the point of view of a character central to the story, while the prologue and epilogue are told from the point of view of a recurring character or a one-off viewpoint. Most of the books employ four point-of-view characters (plus the prologue and epilogue viewpoints). Leviathan Wakes features two, Babylon's Ashes features sixteen, Persepolis Rising features eight, and Tiamat's Wrath features five. James Holden is the only character to be used as a viewpoint character in all nine novels.
The series overall has been well received. Caliban's War was praised by both Wired.com's Geek Dad and Publishers Weekly. GeekDad cited the book's "believable human personalities and technology that is easily recognizable" as a highlight. Publishers Weekly gave Abaddon's Gate a starred review saying "series fans will find this installment the best yet." The same publication gave Cibola Burn a starred review and called it "splendid" and it "blends adventure with uncommon decency." Leviathan Falls won the 2022 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. The Expanse won the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Series.
Alien technology from The Expanse inspired an electrical engineer Jennifer Hollenbeck at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to develop a shape-shifting antenna that dynamically adapts its shape based on temperature, allowing it to handle multiple frequencies and perform the work of several fixed antennas.
The American television channel Syfy announced a straight-to-series commitment to a television adaptation of The Expanse in April 2014, ordering the production of ten hour-long episodes for a first season which premiered in December 2015. As of 2022 six seasons consisting of a total of 62 episodes have been produced, with the final episode of each season sharing its name with the respective book. The series stars Thomas Jane as Josephus Miller and Steven Strait as Jim Holden. As for the other crew of the Rocinante, Dominique Tipper was cast as Naomi Nagata, Cas Anvar as Alex Kamal, and Wes Chatham as Amos Burton. The other major cast members are Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala, Chad Coleman as Fred Johnson, and Florence Faivre as Julie Mao. In season 2, Frankie Adams joined the cast as Bobbie Draper.
Four digital comics based on the books and tying into the television series were published by ComiXology. The comics were written by James S. A. Corey, Hallie Lambert and Georgia Lee and illustrated by Huang Danlan, Triona Farrell, Juan Useche and Rahzzah. The Expanse: Origins reveals the untold backstories of the crew members of the Rocinante before the start of the series. All four comics were also released in print as a compilation titled The Expanse Vol. 1: Origins by BOOM! Studios, which also featured a new story about Detective Miller.
A second series of four issues was also published by BOOM! and written by James S. A. Corey and Corinna Bechko, and illustrated by Alejandro Aragon, Francesco Segala and Ed Dukeshire. This miniseries is set between Seasons 4 and 5 of the television show.
In January 2023, it was announced that the continuation of the TV series, set between Babylon's Ashes and Persepolis Rising, would be adapted into a 12-issue comic book series, The Expanse: Dragon Tooth.
An Expanse board game, designed by Geoff Engelstein and published by WizKids, was released in October 2017. The authors of the book series collaborated with Engelstein on its development. The game focuses on politics, conquest and intrigue similar to the board game Twilight Struggle, although with a shorter playing time. Players represent Earth's UN forces, the military of Mars, the O.P.A., and Protogen Inc., each struggling to become the dominant power in the Solar System. They use cards and action points to move and place Fleets and expand their Influence in contested areas. The cards represent characters and events from the universe of The Expanse, each bearing key images from the show. Each character has special abilities that must be correctly exploited in order to gain the upper hand in the struggle for control.
The Expanse: Doors & Corners Expansion was announced for release by WizKids in February 2019. It contains five new modules that can be used independently or in any combination together with the base game.
The Expanse Roleplaying Game uses the AGE (Adventure Game Engine) system designed by Chris Pramas. The core rulebook and Gamemaster's Kit launched on Kickstarter in July 2018 and gathered over $400,000 from their campaign. The book was written by game designer Steve Kenson and is published by Pramas' company Green Ronin Publishing. The game allows players to create their own character of the various Solar System factions and adventure through the Solar System and beyond at the various settings or even on their own ships. It includes a bonus short story by James S. A. Corey titled "The Last Flight of the Cassandra".