SOJALS rating:

Very good (4/5)

I first read this on the 15th August 2019.

This is the fourth novel in the Expanse series.

The UN, Mars and the Belt governments are in uneasy agreement on blocking passage through the Ring. They know that there is a profound danger in the universe opened up by the Gates. Holden reported that gates and entire solar systems had been destroyed by the protomolecule gate-builders in a failed struggle to destroy a deadly invading menace. They have to assume that the menace is still there and they have no idea what sort of menace it is or how it may manifest.

But, of course, not all of their citizens necessarily feel the same way.

• With 1,300 new worlds now accessible through the Ring, Martians no longer see any point in remaining on Mars and continuing the multi-generational terraforming. They might just as well head off through the Ring to an Earth-like planet
The Belters have been exploited long enough by both Earth and Mars and now many of them just want to escape to somewhere they can live in freedom
• Then there are the Earth-based corporations that see 1,300 systems as incredible resource for exploitation

Something is going to break. In the end it is Belter's who will run the government blockade and make it through the ring to their chosen world "Ilus". It's got the mineral resources to make them very rich indeed. But it also has the protomolecule.

But don't worry, Holden and friends will sort it out, hopefully. It's what they do.

I'm working through this series just as fast as I possibly can. The pressure to finish the series is immense. There's no time to eat. I'm sustained only by shots of my faithful Tequila. This would be a two-pack novel of Delicious Marlboro lights, if only I hadn't given up smoking (and what a good decision that was). Anyway I probably couldn't spare the time to light them up. My concentrating is entirely on this series of novels. They're just fabulous.