Sometimes you need to spend time thinking about what reasons there are for doing things. Those reasons are not always terribly simple. For instance, I knew I wouldn’t care too much for this book, but I read it anyway. Why? I like science-fiction. Loads of other people like this novel, and I want to get an idea of what people are working on as I write my own science-fiction.
Reading this, in other words, is homework.
Abaddon’s gate is the third novel in the series by James S.A. Corey which follow (and by the way, here be spoilers if you’ve not read the previous novels) the political intrigues of humanity as they slowly inch towards becoming a type two civilization and begin to discover their place in the universe, that the place is not so unique, and that humanity wasn’t even the first race to get there. This particular story follows humanity reacting to a massive structure left by another alien race, and how the various nations and group all attempt to make a claim on it or otherwise act towards it. There is in the middle of this a secondary plot line of another character who is plotting the revenge against the Rocinanate and her crew, particularly captain Holden.
I am not sure I can review this book. All I can do at this point is review this whole series. That sort of feels like its cheating a bit, because I would never stop and write a review about just the middle bit of the Count of Monte Cristo. That too was serialized when it first came out, and so I am starting to wonder if it would not be much more fair to the writer if I stopped and waited for this to be finished. But at this point I am started, and I might as well continue.
Another reason why this review isn’t entirely fair is time. It had been so long since I read the previous ones that I almost entirely forgot what the hell they were about. I encountered character names and, while there was some familiarity, I had to wonder who the hell they were and their place in the larger storyline. I might need to get at these books with faster intervals.
But there was certainly some good news. I was very happy to not encounter a single ‘vomit zombie’ in this whole book. I am guessing (or hoping) that someone figured out how much of a massively stupid idea that was! In fact, even writing that last sentence gave me a chuckle. I must also admit that I do remain intrigued as to where the story is going. I am enjoying watching the universe of these characters get gradually bigger and bigger.
Failures in Polymathy 