Your mean hard science system?
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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The authors I've seen talk about / teach this all call it magic regardless because the rules are the same.
Sounds a bit like a lecture from B. Sanderson
Yup!
Also Naomi Novik and Steven Gould have used similar language when talking about it. But I'm mostly paraphrasing Brandon's lectures.
Similar.
I read a bunch of the books but before the series was complete, so I figured I’d give the TV series a shot while I waited. The changes in the televised version were too jarring, so I quit and waited for the books to finish. The books are awesome.
I waited a while and then watched the TV show, that made it tolerable. It’s pretty good, but they don’t do some of the characters justice, and unfortunately had to cut it short and get rid of one of the characters early.
They got rid of that character because the actor was a creep in real life. Started preying on underage girls.
Yeah, I know. Too bad, the book character was good.
I'm reading it for the first time. I'm on book 4. Really is a great character.
That's not surprising. That's a normal trade when covering mediums. Sometimes it bothers me too much but normally I'm okay with it as long as the spirit is there.
Occasionally the medium switch makes the book better. Jurassic Park for example. The ending in the book is just bad and the author didn't do nearly enough to get me to care about the characters. The movie fixes all of this.
Though the book opening is better than the movie IMO.
Never have I been so excited to read. This series is top tier!
It really is! After I'm done with it I'm going to see what else the author has written and see if it's this good.
James SA Corey (which is actually a pseudonym for two individuals) got their start with the expanse series, so there isn't much beyond that yet. There are a few novellas in the expanse universe so check those out for sure, and then they released the first book in a new series in 2024 called "The Mercy of Gods". It is quite good! Very different, but quite good. It reminds me quite a bit of some of Adrian Tchaikovsky's stuff so if you like his work you'll definitely enjoy it.
Thank you! I had no idea. Saves me a step
I watched the show and enjoyed it all the way through, never really got the complaints that it starts slow, but idk maybe I just started watching at the right time. Currently finishing up the first book now and it's great too!
I quit after book 3 which was a whole bunch of soap opera on a spaceship. I heard book 4 (as far as the series had gotten at that point) wasn't much better and never went back. I remember enjoying books 1 and 2 enough. I should give it another shot now that's it's finished.
It's great to have on as an audio book while you're doing something else. I did get pretty disinterested at a good few slower parts, but overall I still liked them
Haha! Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
If you've read the books, don't bother with the show, in my opinion. They just liberally sprinkle scenes in where they want. Case in point was moving amos' scene mocking the trooper from book two over to episode one...
It was all flash and so little substance, that I didn't even finish the second episode.
I cannot help but to disagree very strongly with this opinion.
Wait, so you haven't actually seen the show? You watched 1 episode and then are saying it has no substance? I would argue it's one of the best sci-fi shows I've ever seen. Has incredibly well written characters and does a great job of staying grounded throughout most of its six seasons.
I would hope the characters are well written, seeing as they just crib them from the books that are already written.
And I saw the show. I watched the first episode. If they screw it up that badly on the first one, that's all that's needed to know.
That's fair enough I guess. I would say you are, and I mean this quite literally, the FIRST person I have ever seen that read the books and think the show is awful. So maybe you should give it more than one episode to hook you. It took me 3 episodes before it truly grabbed me and I couldn't stop.
Book series is 10/10 for me.
I started watching the show originally and it was just so slow that I quit watching and picked up the books.
It's one of my my favorite book series ever.
It's been several years since I tried to watch the show. So I'm doing my first watch through currently. It's still slow. Lol but I know the material so I'll stick it out.
It doesn’t stay slow.
Agreed. I think it's just slow till they get the roci..
I'm on the gas hauler episode and it's a lot better.
But I'm glad I read the series first.
I just finished book 9 tonight actually. I admit that I wasn’t super hooked with the show right away, but I stuck with it and it got really good. The books are definitely better at drawing you in right away. I have to say though, I very much see the actors in my mind for all of the characters. Even the ones who were summarily dismissed because of bad behavior, sigh.
I’m so jealous. That is the one series I wish I could wipe from my memory and read for the first time again.
I watched the first 2 or 3 seasons of the show before I read the books. I’m glad I did, it helped me visualize the characters because I don’t see images while I’m actively reading. The show is great, but I really do hope they eventually get to film the last 3 books. I went back to the show after reading a few books and I enjoyed the show more with the additional perspective. At one point, I was scrambling to finish a book before the new season started.
The books are better than the show, but I am obsessed with both. I hope you enjoy the final trilogy arch as much as I did!
I look forward to being obsessed with the show as well.
And I'll just leave this here if you're a gamer: https://youtu.be/pIQifuOTTe8
Oh I’m super aware of and excited for that game, but thank you for linking the trailer, I watched it all the way through even though I’ve already watched it 50 times lol
I’m not a big gamer, but I do have specific games I get obsessed with and that will definitely be one of them.
Lol I watched it again too!
And if it's half as good as it looks I'll play it though multiple times. Hopefully we get good ship to ship gameplay as well. It's down in the cut scene but I want to shoot down some torpedoes with my rail guns before raiding the station myself!
How have I missed this?! The algorithms have let me down, so thank you kind internet stranger!
I'll also add Telltale Heart's "The Expanse" game. It's more a multipath interactive movie. Warning though: it's... not fun in the standard sense. The game centers on Drummer, which is awesome. So many gut-wrenching emotional hits in that game, I keep having to put it down and think about it.
It's in your line of sight now, and that's what's important.
Just starting book 9; it really keeps the quality high all the way. I'm more of a fantasy fan myself, but lately I've been finding a lot more sci-fi that is really high quality (this, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Vernor Vinge) than fantasy. The last fantasy book I read was The Scar by China Mieville (fairly steampunky actually) which was decent but not on their level, and before that some kinda meh book by Laurell K Hamilton.
I wouldn't really call it "hard magic" though.
Oh I'll look into all of those, thank you!
I’ve read them all. I almost put the series down. I thought books 5 and 6 were awfully slow and could have been combined. But like most people say, the last three are really good. In my opinion, you have the best part right in front of you.
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I really only liked Leviathan Wakes since it was basically a sci-fi hardboiled detective story. I couldn't get through the other books
I can see that. Particularly if you like detective writing.
I'm watching the TV series right now. Its not the best acting but I'm enjoying the story. I'd love go read the book after. I didnt know there was one.
I read the books first, but I thought the show did a great job of capturing the feel and the story beats with only minor character rearrangement. I believe I read that the authors (they're a duo who originally wanted to make a space board game, I think?) rewrote and combined some characters from the show, so nothing seemed really out of place in either retelling
Not only are there 9 books, but there are also novellas in between that give extra context if you're interested, but they're definitely not required.
I've seen the show but not read the books. Would you say the novellas stand alone or would you need to have book context?. And what about no context?
Having seen the show should give you most of the context you need for the novellas, though some characters will be different.
No context might be difficult, but I think they catch you up on the broader concepts as they come up.
I had a hard time getting into the series, took me like 3-4 tries to get past the first episodes.
Got really good after that though.
I'll keep that in mind.
Without spoilers, how close are the books to the show? I am listening to the first book now after binge watching the show. I'm on season 5, but season 4 with the planet stuff was kind of boring and hard to get through.
I feel like the show stays true to the spirit of The Expanse. There are changes in the show for scene flow, lack of omniscience (viewer vs reader), and because some actors slayed or became unavailable. When the show strays from the books, IMO it makes sense and somehow even manages to convey the book story even better. Ty Franck and Wes Chatham's podcast "Ty and That Guy" is a fun and funny review of the series (and lots of other topics), with lots of insights on... everything. Franck goes into lots of detail on the writing process, translating books to screen, and what is involved in being a writer. Chatham covers topics around the craft of acting and plays the knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing role hilariously.
If you watch only one episode of "T&TG," make it the one with the about how they got the opening shot of Burton in Baltimore. The guests are the cinematographer and the A-camera operator. I long wondered how they got that continuous shot.
I binge read almost all James S.A. Corey's books, and I feel they really nail the connection to the human condition, which is really what good fiction is all about. Class warfare, complex moral issues, and a crackling good plot. The only Expanse book I haven't binged yet is the "Leviathan Falls" because I don't want this to end.
Thank you for your insightful comment! I'll take a look.
I was really confused with the hard magic thing. I thought it might be a fantasy series unconnected with the sci fi show.
It's a writing thing. Any system (magic, technical, science, etc.) that goes beyond what a typical person can do in our reality. Hard magic is a system with rules and consequences that can't be broken. Soft magic doesn't have rules or implies rules or breaks.
An example is Star Trek before JJ is hard magic. JJ turned it into soft magic by breaking all the rules because it was cool...?
I'm in the same boat, I loved the book series but never got into the show. But yeah, excellent series, I was sad to be finished with it.
I'm sure I will be too. I was when I finished the Hyperion series and so many other great series.
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