I love sci-fi. Or, maybe it’s more accurate to I love the potential of sci-fi. Most of it falls very short. But when it hits, it hits hard. The TV series The Expanse was that for me. It’s one of the best sci-fi series ever. Not as good as Firefly, but not much is.

With the old adage, the book is always better than the movie, I bought the first book in the series. I’ve actually held off reading it for a while because if I get hooked on a book I ignore everything I should be doing. I ignore everything I should be doing most of the time anyway, so I didn’t want the extra help.

I’m about 40% into the book. When I was 15% in, I had to start over. I think my head might have been in too many places to concentrate on the story. That happens a lot. I’m actually working on my own sci-fi novel right now as I’m trying to plan for a book release party and a motorcycle trip. So my head might not have been into it. When I started over, the story started sticking.

As I’m reading, I remember that the first season was very different than the later seasons. And, if I think back, my cloudy memory allows me to say I didn’t like the first season as much as the later seasons. My cloudy memory of the first season seems to be tracking pretty well with what I’m reading. Once I finish the book, I’ll go back and watch the first season.

But, right now, it isn’t grabbing me and pulling me in. It isn’t giving me an excuse to ignore all the things I should be doing. James S. A. Corey’s writing style isn’t my favorite. There is a lot of telling instead of showing. That’s a struggle for all writers so I give a lot of grace but this is getting to be a lot.

It is worth finishing, and I’ll move on to the second book because I loved the TV series so much. But right now, the main goal is to get through it. That is never a good feeling about a book.

Conclusion

Yep, it didn’t get better. I struggled to get through it. Even at the end, where the action and conclusion were happening, all I could do was wonder how long they could drag it out.

I went back and started watching the first season again, and was enjoying it. I think the TV show pulled much more personality out of the characters. Amos was an especially interesting character to me because of his moral complexity. In the book, he swore a lot and was gruff. Very one-dimensional.

In the previous section, I said I would move on to the second, but this was bad enough that I won’t waste my time.