inally, it’s over.

This final chapter from the series known as The Expanse on streaming comes at the end of a long road for us fans. We followed the series from the inception, when James Holden and his mismatched crew had the Canterbury shot out from under them. After taking a Martian frigate (or gunboat, or whatever) from a doomed Martian battleship and renaming it the Rocinante (a ship as much loved as the Millennium Falcon by fans), the crew begin working on a thread of causality involving a blob of alien goo shot at our system and captured as the moon Phobos. They ended up being involved with a live corporate test against Eros, an asteroid station that gets completely taken over (it’s population used as raw building materials), and flung by means unknown towards the inner system (diverted by the heroes into Venus).

And then we see that same protomolecule form a ring far out in our system. And then there is the whole range war in the strange sphere of space in the ring gate, which opens up 1300 new systems with living worlds. And then we have an epic colonial failure on one of them, then we find out that the Martians are using alien tech for their own purposes, then we have their eventual invasion and take over of the ring system and its planets, then the defeat of one of their capitol ships and the brain-lock of their leader. And, whew, now we are at the final book.

I’m not going to say what happens, not a spoiler, not a hint of it. But I will say this – it was a very satisfactory conclusion to this nine-book set, an epic that sees some of our heroes compromised, as well as a full explanation of who the “builders” of the ring gate were, what were their plans, and who killed them. In the end, it all comes down to a nail-biting cliffhanger, very satisfactory, very thrilling.

So, yes, what a ride.

If you haven’t latched onto The Expanse yet and you like a well-written tale in an evolving and expanding universe, the characters likable and the gees hard, you’ll love this series. But if you take the short cut and watch it on Amazon Prime, note that the series ends with the sixth season / book. Danger. Dead End. So no, pick up the first of the series and give it a page-flip – you’ll fall in love and hang on to the last word and last breath of this vivid universe.

And, oh yes, Memory’s Legions (a collection of short stories by the creators, generated along the way) will be available March 15th, so expect my review shortly after that.

Five ring gates on this one. Read it!

>>>OR MY BOOKS, RIGHT HERE!<<<