What self absolutely loves about The Expanse (she’s talking just about the book series, not the show: she’s watched all of Season 4 and a few episodes of Season 1 but stopped watching when she got into the books) is how good the authors are at describing the technology in a way that doesn’t seem clunky, that makes it seem like a natural, evolutionary thing. And then, all the things that go wrong — when things go wrong, they go wrong spectacularly. And you have to fall right back on human ingenuity. Decision-making is always key.
p. 12:
… just as her squad got to the firing line, her suit squealed a jamming warning at her. The top-down vanished as she lost contact with the satellite. Her team’s life signs and equipment status reports went dead as her link to their suits was cut off. The faint static of the open comm channel disappeared, leaving an even more unsettling silence.
This particular marine eventually locates her CO:
She ran up and placed her helmet against his. “What the fuck is going on, El Tee?” she shouted.
The economy of the language is so very efficient. Of course, with technology going on the blink, the marine has to put her helmet against her CO’s helmet and shout in order to be heard at all: yet the gesture feels so very intimate. It also feels true.
It is details such as this that have made of self a convert to this series. She’s seriously considering ordering Book # 4, which she has never done in her life — she has never before wanted to rip through all the books of a series (there are nine), in one go.
Stay tuned.
