Science Fiction

Having read all of them, I think of these books as three different sets:

• Books 1-6 of the main series basically cover the same time period as the TV show. If you enjoyed the first two books, it's extremely likely that you will enjoy books 3-6. The primary story arc started in book 1 comes to a very satisfying conclusion in book 6, broadly the same as it did in the show.
• Books 7-9 are more like a sequel series than a direct continuation of book 1-6. The primary characters return but it's really a new story arc. Personally I read book 7 at release, then later bounced off book 8 when it came out however many months later. It was only when I came back to reread the entire series that books 7-9 clicked for me. For my money everything came to a satisfying conclusion in book 9, with answers to most of the bigger mysteries behind the entire series (i.e. who built the rings, how did they build them, who killed the ring builders, etc.).
• The novellas and short stories focus on backstories and side characters. I particularly liked that they reveal where certain side characters eventually ended up; not naming any names for spoiler reasons. Memory's Legion collects all of these into a single book-length collection, which is probably the best way to get them.

TL;DR book 1-6 for sure for sure, books 7-9 probably, novellas if you go through books 1-9 and still want more.

Read them all, with the novellas where the tin says they belong. It’s just unrelentingly good.

This seems like an unpopular opinion, but I quit after 3 books. The first book was great, the second not as good, the third confirmed some consistent discouraging writing patterns from the second.

My biggest complaint is that I started the series for the sci-fi concepts and plotlines, but it quickly became a standard political procedural, with action and drip-reveal mystery elements, and the actual sci-fi elements felt unnecessary and incidental. Or to put it a different way, with rare exceptions, there just weren't reliable sci-fi "big ideas" introduced after the first book, just a lot of human drama and plot that felt like it didn't require the sci-fi setting.

I also felt like some pacing was off and there was a ton of filler. What confirmed that for me was when I noticed the chapter dividers in my reading app and saw nearly every chapter was almost identical length. My guess is the authors worked backwards from a chapter outline with a planned word count for publisher deliverables. If that type of planning sounds more like a business then it does art, I'd say that's actually my experience reading it too.

Finally, one of my pet peeves for any type of believable drama is when conflict is created by people acting stupidly. Kind of the opposite of deus ex machina resolution, it's a transparently artificial conflict that is just meant to give the characters something to do, but lazy writing. I felt that many many times by the second and third books.

Again, I'm in a minority I guess, but I felt it just wasn't worth the time. Not as bad as Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson (my all time worst offender for filler and lazy plot), but lots of squeeze for little juice.

Yes, and I loved the end of the series.

Just finished last month and it's one of the best series I've ever read. I haven't read the novellas so after some time I will reread the series with them included.

@AFKBRBChocolate Yes.

Could not set them down... except the last one. Jumping 25 years into the future was a strange choice and, for me, less entertaining.

The only regret about any of that is the show didn't do the last 3 books any justice. Otherwise, you are in for a treat.

After you enjoy the experience, try Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series. If you liked Amos and Bobbie, you'll be rooting and cheering for Scorpio and Nevile Clavain in no time.

Reading book 8 right now. They're very, very good.

The Expanse if the best books series I have read in years and might be the best science fiction series I've ever read. The quality does not diminish (in my opinion), and I am glad I didn't watch the show beyond the first season before reading the books. But there is a lot more than the show covers. I think you can come back to the Novellas later if you like. They are great but you don't need to read them alongside the main novels unless you are so inclined.

I think the first half of book 4 dipped a bit in quality due to some weaker characters, but the bonkers second half more than made up for it (and the TV version improved on that particular book, IMO).

The show ends on book 6, which means you miss out on pretty much the entire third act of the series. I'd say it's worth finishing just to get some closure on some of the unresolved loose ends.

I loved the series

Some of the short stories are hit or miss but they are short and worth reading either way and only short

Yes, it's all very good.

Yes! It's good all the way thru. They know what they're doing with these books.

As others have said, yes. Oh I'm so jealous of you right now!

I also really liked them, novellas included, except book 6. That one just didn't work for me (and apparently for quite a few people), and I ended up reading a summary.

Since books 7 to 9 aren't included in the show, they're worth reading just for the continuation and conclusion of the series.

I didn't even know there were books! Holy crap my world just improved!

Yes. Very good. You can skip the novellas but they have some great stories in them. The quality is consistent throughout.

With most series of this length, towards the end I've tended to wish that the author would just wrap things up already so I could find out the ending and move on with my life.

With this series I actually got sad as I made my way through the last book because it meant that the story was going to end soon and I had been enjoying it so much that I didn't want it to end. (Having said that, I also absolutely loved the ending, which is also unusual for me for a series that is this long!)

Personally I group them into sets of 3 by release I.e. books 1-3, books 4-6... Each set is consistent with the others in its set, but the quality decreases as the sets go on. Which is alright because the first trilogy is amazing and the final trilogy is fine.

More than anything, I really enjoyed the found family in The Expanse and that's what pulled me through the series. I get actual homesick for the Rosinante after finishing a book. As for the writing, everything is "said" by characters if that's any indication, I primarily consumed them as audiobooks so maybe that's why it was so jarring,

Generally, I would definitely recommend the first three, would probably recommend the second three, and after that inertia will either pull you through or not.

I mostly liked the series. There were a couple of books which I might not have liked as much as the others (it's been a while so don't remember which ones). However, personally I found the ending of the series a little unsatisfying.

I agree with the person who said there was a lot of personal drama as filler that didn't add to the story and dragged the pace of the books down.

I thought the books are mostly OK but I kind of lost interest after book 6 and it'll probably be quite a while before I go back to finish the last few books if I ever do.

Some are better than others, but they’re all fairly high quality? I’ve definitely read worse than even the ones I’m not super thrilled about, so I’d say it’s worth reading them all if you have the time.

I think they were consistent, yes.