Took me a lot longer to read this one compared to other Expanse novels. Wasn’t due to lack of enjoyment though, as I liked this book quite a lot again.

However I have always treated Expanse as a fun side read mainly due to knowing major plot points already from having watched the show (maybe that changes later into the series). This time though I just enjoyed my other read that much more that Expanse just took a spot way in the backseat.

This book centers around a conflict between a group of settlers and a somewhat greedy company (although they do have the rights by law) on a newly discovered habitable planet. 

As our new POVs we get Elvi, a scientist for the company, Basia who is a father of a settling family and Havelock who is a security officer and second in command for the company ship.

Out of the three I liked Elvi and Basia and how we got to discover and experience the different sides of the conflict through their eyes. Although Havelock was a necessary POV character to show us the full scope of the story I really disliked him in the beginning and his chapters just felt boring for the most part. I warmed up to him a lot during the later parts of the book though, especially when he started interacting with one of the crewmembers of the Roci.

Speaking of the Roci. In this book they are immediately involved within the main conflict as they are sent out as mediators between the factions. And that just gives those beloved characters already way more “screen time” than in the previous novel which was very much appreciated. 

There is a fifth “Mystery POV” but I think it gets pretty clear from the get go who it belongs to, so the cryptic writing of it didn’t really add anything significant for me. 

I already knew that I liked the plot since I also much enjoyed this season in the TV show so no big surprise there.  

The setup for the next novel in the Epilogue was great and I am already excited for that and I think this could be a highlight of the series. It also gives me hope for some favorite POVs to be returning as it is just a slight bit annoying getting three new POVs each book. I can’t see this continuing throughout the whole series, right? Some more repeat POVs would be appreciated.