The objective side of me liked several aspects of Abaddon's
Gate: it was a continuation of the main "super powerful aliens" storyline
of the Expanse series, it had many fast adrenaline-filled moments, it was
logically sound, and it was very quotable. Plus, it reached a good point in the
overall arc of the series.
But the subjective side of me missed Bobbie and Avasarala. I
could not see any reason for completely omitting the two best characters of the
Expanse series in the book 3. And I didn't manage to bond as well with the new characters,
with the exception of Bull.
In particular, I found Melba's story to be uninteresting.
Usually I am a great fan of redemption arcs, but somehow Melba's journey felt predictable
and contrived form the start, and because of that her chapters felt tedious to
me. I kept thinking: "I know where this is going".
And even overall, I found Abaddon's gate to be predictable.
As soon as the purpose of the Ring was established and the new characters were in
place, I guessed the ending in good detail. This can be a plus or a minus for
different readers. I usually find predictability to be a minus.
I give Abaddon's Gate 3 stars out of 5. This is still the
series I love, but the book 3 felt like going over the hill after the book 2. I
hope for better things in the book 4.
i haven't read this yet. So skipping the review. But I'm sad to hear you didn't like it as much as the others
ReplyDeleteI tried not to be spoilery. Generally, these are open reviews, I will try to steer clear of spoilers.
DeleteMy main "beef" is non-spoilery - NO BOBBIE OR AVASARALA in this book. ;(
BTW, you do know there are 3 more books to come,, right?
WHAT? WHAAAAAAAAAAT? I didn't know any of that!
ReplyDeleteAre you sure? Cos I thought it was just a trilogy? Please don't get my hopes up and then there's nothing
I am positively positive. Wiki lists 3 more books and 5 novellas. The twitter James.S.A.Corey said something about sending a new novel to editors just the other day.
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