With a hefty volume released every year, in James S. A. Corey’s Expanse series, the pace has become somewhat relentless; by the eighth installment, you might think the whole thing has turned into a soap opera. Well, it hasn’t; it’s actually SPACE OPERA, with the soap opera motifs more characteristic of the first few books, where characters whined about “emotional” stuff, but then events expanded so much that whining was no longer necessary.
However, after the two previous, chillingly brilliant books, you realize that many of the viewpoint characters in Tiamat’s Wrath seem completely uninteresting (led by Teresa). They seem to exist just to fill space. Then suddenly, the characters in the book also recognize what you, the reader, have been realizing for some time: they have no chance against Laconia. From there, the plot becomes even more weightless.
And indeed, in the Wrath of Tiamat, some completely lame plot twists occasionally appear. (The friendship between Teresa and her best buddy, Timothy, is the least believable moment in the entire series.)
But then Duarte, the enlightened dictator – who more or less lets things go as they would naturally, but occasionally orders a few heads bashed in – starts poking the sleeping lion. But he does it without anything in his hands that he could use as a weapon against him, except his own, protomolecule-enhanced, mere dick. Yes, it’s called hubris, and it NEVER ends well.
From this point on, everything becomes much more interesting, and you realize that the beauty of James S. A. Corey’s series is that you never have any idea where it will ultimately turn. Nevertheless, Tiamat’s Wrath still feels a tad unnecessary, despite containing a huge space battle, great loss, and a character who becomes a GIANT. Overall, it’s still just filler (much like the fourth book of Game of Thrones) while you wait for the big, grand twist and the emergence of those intergalactic and interdimensional bastards who took down the creators of the protomolecule.
Although, upon further reflection, it wouldn’t be such a bad solution if this epic story ended around here. No one will write better or more authentic space sci-fi for the next hundred years. Not to mention that compared to all kinds of space dangers, humanity’s cruelest enemy – as usual – is still itself.
7.9/10
Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse #8) by James S.A. Corey
534 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2019 by Orbit Books