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Persepolis Rising - James S.A. Corey (Review)

 

Persepolis Rising

Contains minor spoilers for The Expanse series

By - Karl Vu


Persepolis Rising is the 7th book in The Expanse series, and the start of the Laconia arc in the story. 28 years after the events of Babylon's Ashes. Since the end of the Free Navy conflict, the Transport Union was founded unify the various factions of people living in the asteroid belt and give the lower class citizens of the belt a purpose. The Transport Union has established itself as a superpower in the Sol system, controlling most trade within the Sol system, and all trade between every ring system. Earth has fully recovered from the Free Navy's attacks, and the Sol system's economy has been re-stabilized. The crew of the Rocinante are contracted by the Transport Union to deal with the people of the Freehold system, who have been violating Transport Union regulations. After the crew finishes up and goes through the Freehold ring to start heading back to Sol, the Laconia system broadcasts a message to everyone outside of their borders: they are taking control of Medina Station and every ring system. The Laconians are defectors of the Martian Navy who took a third of the navy's ships at the beginning of the Free Navy conflict, departed through the Laconia ring gate, and had closed the gate off until now. 2 ships come through the Laconia gate, which seem to be the only attack force sent through. This should be an easy victory for the Transport Union and the Rocinante, but something is off about these 2 ships. They're glowing like the protomolecule... 

Persepolis Rising is such a huge step above the previous 3 books, which was quite surprising for me. The series seemed to be getting worse and worse, with Cibola Burn being slightly flawed, Nemesis Games being somewhat boring, and Babylon's Ashes being a bit of a train wreck. The plot is clear and concise, has just the right amount of points-of-view, and has some amazing action. The authors stepped back from the ring worlds after Cibola Burn, and went from ancient alien planets and structures that can completely turn off nuclear fusion as a source of power back to mainly conflicts human ships and technology. Now the authors are finally back to exploring new technology with a conflict between old human ships and ships infused with protomolecule technology.

I did not notice any flaws with Persepolis Rising, and I give it a 9/10. Hopefully the authors can keep up their newfound momentum and make the last 2 books in the series amazing.


 

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