The Expanse (Book 3)

Good. But a bit long winded at timesI found this novel in the series, to be another good choice. I really enjoyed it. I do find that the authors drag things out a bit too often though. I believe you could have tightened up the writing and only had it 3/4 of the current length and had a much better book. I realize my review could potentially shortened as well, but then I’m not an author of an exceptional series, soIll use that for my excuse.It’s great to have so much back history and development but you don’t have to overly explain every single little concept. This is the third book not including short stories, and there might be a few people who read only this one, but you don’t have to fill in so much just for that reason. Once you hear how gravity or the lack of it affects your actions, it doesn’t need to be explained every time it occurs. Fewer words would suffice and would make this novel so much better.I do think the foreshadowing and ‘hand of fate’ concept gets a little heavy at times too. It was obvious early on that the the Clarissa/Melba character would become important and that she would eventually have her savior moment in the end that allows the heroes to finally achieve their desires. It also was obvious, early-on, that Doctor Anna would be her instrument to salvation.With the computers and facial recognition, the Thomas Prince, should have been able to recognize the image of Clarissa long before they even thought to look. I would think that automatic computer systems are in place running facial software often, not just when it was activated. Even if it was on a run as needed basis, some enterprising person would have run the comparative analysis as soon as they had the 3D sketch from the camera man. This is a military run ship, they probably have a checklist for processing potential evidence. No corners skimped.I don’t know if they meant to do this, but it almost seemed that the Miller/Holden early interactions were just Miller saying stuff to Holden when he finally arrived on the Ring Station. Maybe somehow the earlier conversations were pushing Miller back in time. Especially since Miller said he wasn’t even aware of those conversations. Many of the same words and phrases appeared in the Ring Station dialogue as he had said them in the past. He is in an Einstein-Rosen bridge, who’s to say that it doesn’t impact a temporal component. It is considered a space-time conduit, after all.I think if I had been one of the people who were killed in the Ring, I would have wanted my body to be left with the protomolecule. Who is to say they couldn’t get another lease on life if they could be converted into something the ‘alien software’ could utilize. The more humanity infects the alien system, the more likely the alien system would look at humans as a favorable item. Bull especially would have been a great add-on to that system. You’ve got the investigator, Miller and the security bad-ass with Bull, and could even add in Sam for engineering and the humanity touch. That we haven’t seen or heard from Julie Mao seems surprising. Though maybe that only works with Miller because he was created after the nucleus of the alien system was already coalesced into being from Julie and the people of Eros.Shouldn’t Doctor Cortez be held accountable as well as Ashford? Just because he’s a man of God, doesn’t exempt his actions. He helped with an unlawful mutiny and assisted in getting Ashford and Clarissa out of prison. Yes in the end, he may have done something to stop Ashford, but that doesn’t excuse his initial revolt.To me, the best characters in this novel was Amos. His nicknames for people are awesome. Red and Peaches were quite humorous for those characters to be called. Though I don’t think we got to see enough of him. I look forward to finding out more of each of the Roci’s crew and their back history that originally got them aboard the Canterbury. Naomi, Alex and of course Amos’s pasts are going to be enlightening. I hope more is revealed sooner then later.