Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey

Abaddon's Gate (Expanse, #3)

by James S. A. Corey

NOW A PRIME ORIGINAL SERIES

Abaddon's Gate is the third book in the New York Times bestselling Expanse series. 

For generations, the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt - was humanity's great frontier. Until now. The alien artefact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark.

Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artefact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.

The Expanse series has sold over two million copies worldwide and is now a major television series.

The Expanse series: 
Leviathan Wakes
Caliban's War
Abaddon's Gate
Cibola Burn
Nemesis Games
Babylon's Ashes
Persepolis Rising

Praise for the Expanse: 

'The science fictional equivalent of A Song of Ice and Fire' NPR Books

'As close as you'll get to a Hollywood blockbuster in book form' io9.com

'Great characters, excellent dialogue, memorable fights' wired.com

'High adventure equalling the best space opera has to offer, cutting-edge technology and a group of unforgettable characters . . . Perhaps one of the best tales the genre has yet to produce' Library Journal

'This is the future the way it's supposed to be' Wall Street Journal

'Tense and thrilling' SciFiNow

Reviewed by adastra on

2 of 5 stars

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{mild spoilers ahead}
After the great first two novels, this was a pretty big disappointment to me. While the overall story arch (Holden) is interesting, the other three narratives ranged from boring to aggravating, at least in my opinion. The whole revenge plot seemed at times really ridiculous, like a desperately bad plot device turned deus ex machina. The whole priest plot aggravated me because it is so utterly Christian, which I am just not a fan of - at least not in my sci-fi novels. Even the Bull plot was full of mentions of God, giving me the feeling that this whole series might turn into a ridiculous search for God or something. It's the future and we've colonized space, do we really need religion?! And WHY does it have to be Christianity, when it's foreseeably not even the biggest religion on the planet in 200 year's time? Why not Hinduism or Buddhism, if the authors so desperately want religion? Well, they're American, of course, what else do they know. That's pretty apparent in Anna's plot as well. First of all why is she a Methodist from Russia, when the largest religious group in Russia is orthodox and protestants make up 1% in Russia? Second of all, why does she have a "college fund" for her daughter, which is like the most American thing ever? Feels a bit poorly researched this book, on top of all the annoying "God" content.

Other than that, I think the whole plot was dragged out way too much. I think it could have been told much better in just half the time. Anyway, I'll start book 4 soon, but if it's full of God again, I might just throw these out the window.

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  • 2 December, 2017: Reviewed