In reply to Duke :
I've read neither of those series, but none of the Expanse books are that overwhelming and they flow well both internally and between them (except where they don't :P). You should be fine regardless of how you read them. I think that it likely helps that the writers appear to have had The Expanse fairly well mapped out from the get-go and there were no large breaks between any of them (the first came out in 2011) so there's no 'I've not written anything on this for like a decade and need to dump a massive amount into this for it to still work.'
There are a lot of people who thing that some of the later books are actually the best of them, and while I honestly don't have my own ranking of them I do think without a doubt they stuck the landing in the final book.
Wow, did not expect them to start with what they did... the repair drones look far less mechanical than I was expecting them to. I'm kind of surprised they didn't keep Bull on as the pilot and Holden is flying the Roci himself. They're definitely changing things up a lot from the books... but with the differences in what has happened so far that's not surprising. I was kind of expecting the new series to start with the assault on the Azure Dragon since that would have jumped right into the action without missing that much.
Today's the day! Season 6 LET'S berkeleyING GO
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
I was surprised too. It isn't relevant unless they take the Laconia story to the series. Still 'Strange Dogs' is concurrent on the timeline with what is happening in the episode. For anyone interested who has not been following with the books, Strange Dogs is a short story set on one of the planets through a ring gate. It provides some background for characters and events in the last two books.
In reply to AAZCD-PorscheHoarder-Jon (Occasional Forum Supporter) :
Yeah, I was thinking, "There's no way that can be who I think it is..." until she said Xan's name and I was like "Oh E36 M3!"
I am really curious how they're going to handle things in so short of a season and still wrap it up at the end of book 6. They've obviously pulled a few things forward (Filip's shooting someone) but other things are moving a lot more slowly. I was really expecting Bobbi to start the series on the Roci with them assaulting the Azure Dragon, but it seems like they're not going to have her on the ship for that at all. I wonder if they're going to cut out a lot of the cat-and-mouse from the middle of the war against the Free Navy and race toward the final assault (which we know is coming since Marco had made reference to the construction this last episode and from the promo shots for the season).
It's also quite interesting seeing how different Michio Pa is at the moment- it will be interesting to see whether or not she matures over the course of the series to step into her role after the war or if they just write her out and have Drummer take that role.
Interesting... the assault on the Azure Dragon definitely went differently, though in some ways worked better with Bobbi not being sidelined during it. It's just weird seeing Holden flying the Roci... I suppose it works for now- and to a decent extent I think it will hold up through the rest of the series- but if they do make more of the books (perhaps as movies) they will definitely need a new pilot...
Reading the final book now. Watching this final season, I'm not sure how in the heck they're planning to wrap up all the loose ends. I mean we have like... three major antagonists to tie up, and we're only worried about Marco.
Beer Baron said:
Reading the final book now. Watching this final season, I'm not sure how in the heck they're planning to wrap up all the loose ends. I mean we have like... three major antagonists to tie up, and we're only worried about Marco.
I don't expect them to get past the end of the 6th book in this TV season (and with just 4 episodes left they're going to have to skip a -lot-, which is why I'm shocked they're spending the time on Cara & Xan). I think if we see Persepolis Rising, Tiamat's Wrath, and Leviathan's Fall on-screen it will be in movie form.
After being away for the last week and a half finally got the chance to watch the two newest episodes. Seeing Bobbi's 'Golden PDC Storm' maneuver on screen was great, though somehow it just lacked the gravitas of it happening in the books. Interesting that they've shifted the 'humanize the Belters' video campaign off of Holden/ it makes sense given how they're compressing things and how Holden doesn't look to be spending much time on a station like they did in the book- I expect that the next episode will be setting up for and staging for the final assault and the last will be the assault on Medina & the ring station. Sucks that they're almost done already, but looking forward to seeing Bobbi kicking ass on the Station.
Kinda interesting that they haven't shown anything with the ring space yet in this season. Makes me wonder what the ring station is going to look like with all those railguns strapped to it...
sobe_death said:
Kinda interesting that they haven't shown anything with the ring space yet in this season. Makes me wonder what the ring station is going to look like with all those railguns strapped to it...
Seems like they're building up for a big reveal of it since they've been mentioning it frequently but not shown it. I'm guessing we'll get at least a glimpse of it next episode though as with just two episodes left they're going to have to at least start the operation to take back Medina & the Slow Zone and they'll need to know about the defenses to plan the assault...
Don't forget to watch the Extras- each episode has a 5-ish minute short that goes along with it.
Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:
Don't forget to watch the Extras- each episode has a 5-ish minute short that goes along with it.
I hadn't seen those- they're definitely interesting.
Having had a bit more time to think about it, I think I finally figured out what wasn't sitting right with me about the force-a-dodge-into-PDC-rounds maneuver in the TV series: on-screen, it comes off as a spur-of-the-moment, 'let's just see if this works' gamble that happens to work out. In the books though, Bobbi notices the consistent dodge of the railgun and then looks up the data on the velocities of the different weapons (missiles, PDCs, railgun round) to figure out how to make it work vs. just 'fire the PDCs and hope they dodge into them'.
I feel like this sort of thing has happened several times this season. They take something in the book that is mostly someone thinking about something in the moment, and just kind of show the couple seconds of action where it plays out because they can't stick you in their head to follow their train of thought. It works in a book, but not on the screen.
It happened with the capture of the Azure Dragon where Clarissa uses her implants to take out the guy before he shoots Bobbie, and it was really tough to follow. That could have just been bad directing though.
Yeah, I had to re-watch the azure dragon scene a couple times to actually understand it. I think they're cramming a lot of stuff into six episodes and it makes it less enjoyable and harder to follow. I get it, there's a lot of ground to cover and this show has to be expensive to make. But I'd rather they covered less ground or took longer to cover the same ground.
In reply to dculberson :
Yeah, I think a whole lot of ths problems come from how short this season is and how little screentime they have to cram everything into. Honestly I'm not sure how they're going to pull some things off at this point with the changes they've made.
(warning, book spoilers impending)
- They may not get to establishing the Space Guild (may just get to Marco going 'poof' and end things there), but if they do- how do they resolve the Drummer/Michio Pa convolution? I can see them still trying to put Michio in charge with how she does what needs to be done with the medical emergency in the last episode (something which I believe was not in the books and took a lot of time, so I have to guess that it will be important), but Drummer is likely going to be the one who brokers bringing the resources Marco ferettted away back to help the Belt and that act (by Michio) was a lot of what went into Michio getting tapped to take the big chair
- Filip- there are only two episodes left, and at the moment he seems to be firmly back in supporting Marco after Drummer's broadcast. In the books what showed him the hypocricy of Marco's leadership was the dichotomy between Marco blaming him alone for not destroying the Roci but then taking all the credit for Fred Johnson having died of a stroke as a result of that battle. In the TV series though, there wasn't any 'win' to be found in the fight with the Roci- they got their asses kicked and didn't do any real damage to the Roci or the Inner's alliance & leadership. I'm not seeing what is going to happen to force him to really confront his father's true nature.
- They've now got 2 episodes- likely less than 2 hours- to find out what's going on in the Slow Zone, put together the plan to assault the railguns, get out there to the Ring (I'm guessing they may scrap the fight with the Free Navy just before assaulting Medina), and then all of the assault the ring station's railguns. They also have to start mending things between the Belt and Inners, likely through Drummer/Michio Pa bringing the resources Marco hid back to help Ceres and the Roci defending them from the missile attack on the defector's ships.
I really think things are going to be spread pretty thin to get everything together and wrapped up in 2 episodes- and while I don't doubt they are going to do it, I think it's probably going to be kind of unsatisfying to those who know what happens in the books...
Ok, I officially have no clue how they're going to wrap everything up in just one more episode unless it's going to be like twice the length of a normal one.
Not unless they radically change what happens, like not having them assault the railguns and just engineering it so that when Marco & his ships go through trying to get to Medina that they get eaten. I really hope they don't go that way though, it would suck to not get to see the station assault on screen.
EDIT: Thinking about it a bit more, it seems a lot like they're setting it up so Filip abandons ship and leaves Marco before he takes a one-way trip through the gates because of how Marco is betraying the Belters' trust instead of because of how Marco treats him as it happened in the books. I don't hate the change, but at the same time it feels wholly unnecessary since Filip plays so little of a role following this book's events.
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
I've read the last episode is supposed to be 1.5 hrs, so I guess we'll see. I agree it doesn't seem anywhere close to enough time to wrap up all of the story lines.
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
I want to say, "That's still a whole hell of a lot to cram into 90 minutes," but at the same time that's the runtime of some full-blown movies at this point- so I suppose it's possible for it all to work out. Though the first what 10? minutes are likely to be on Laconia with Cara & Zan, but I suppose 80 minutes is enough to handle them coming up with the plan to take on the railguns & Medina, some of the battles as the Combined Fleet attacks en-masse to try and distract Marco from the Roci & its mission (I'm wondering if they don't kill off Drummer in those fights, with her having left instructions if anything happened to her that Michio should take over her responsibilities and leading her family) and maybe lose the skirmish on the Earth side of the ring, the assault on the station and taking Medina, Marco's one-way-trip, and then setting up the Space Guild at the end.
EDIT: Oh, and they have to get Filip off of the Pella. The changes to Filip's story, specifically not having the raid on Callisto at the beginning of Nemisis Games to get the stealth coating, are going to make where he gets off the ship a lot less important than it was in the books. It would make the most sense to have him end up back on Ceres making peace with the bartender, but the Pella isn't going to be going there anytime soon I imagine, and it's a big enough station that the Roci would likely be stopping there every so often and at least through the end of the current books (there's speculation that the new novella that will be in Memory's Legion, "Sins of the Fathers," may involve Filip after the end of the final book) Naomi still thinks he died along with Marco.
Preview for the final episode is up on twitter! Looks like it should be good- I can't wait!
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
Can you share a link? I'm twit-less
I'm reading the last book right now and almost done. It isn't what I expected. Not bad, mind you, but not what I expected.
In reply to sobe_death :
Here's the link- I haven't seen it elsewhere, but you don't actually need Twitter to watch it (I haven't actively used it for years now).
https://twitter.com/expanseonprime/status/1480709687527952384?s=21
In reply to stroker :
Yeah, LW takes a very unexpected turn from the get-go...
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
You mean LF?
