This post contains spoilers. Reader beware!
The Expanse certainly has an interesting backstory. The show was adapted by the network Syfy and later dropped after only three seasons. Which, in turn, prompted a bit of a riot among its fans. Luckily for them, The Expanse was picked up by Amazon to be continued for at least two more seasons. It might not be common knowledge among casual viewers, but the show is based on a series of novels and short stories by James S.A. Corey, a pen name for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.
The Book – Cibola Burn
After watching and loving the first three seasons of the sci-fi show, I realized I had found my thing and knew I couldn’t possibly wait to see how the story continues. I set out to find and read these books. Reading is perhaps the wrong word for what I did because I somehow managed to devour all eight 500-something-page novels in a matter of months. The world that the authors created is very hard to describe. But to me, these books became what Harry Potter is to a whole generation of young readers. After putting down Tiamat’s Wrath, I felt like I had gained a new family like I had grown old with these characters that I had come to love with all my heart.
I had been on the most amazing adventures in space, encountered the mysterious Protomolecule, visited alien planets, seen my homeworld wrecked by the actions of terrorists, only to find that there are more dangerous threats still waiting out there. As I read the books for the very first time, I somehow settled on Cibola Burn and Nemesis Games as my initial favorites. The 624-page novel took me less than a week to read, a personal record of recent years because it was almost impossible to put down.
The fourth novel has everything I want from a good book in a series: the recurring main cast (Holden, Naomi, Alex, and Amos) that I had already grown to love. It has recurring minor characters – namely Dimitri Havelock, Miller’s partner from the first season. A bunch of new characters who were immediately likable. And most importantly Elvi Okoye, Fayez Sarkis or Basia Merton, who had made a very brief appearance on Ganymede before. Cibola Burn also offers an incredible bad guy by the name of Adolphus Murtry who you just love to hate.
The fourth novel in the series delivers constant, breathtaking action – which is exactly the reason why I read it in less than seven days. Just like in previous seasons of the show, the characters have little time to breathe before the next catastrophe comes along. It surprises the readers with twist after twist and proves what James Holden had known all along: these new alien worlds are very, very dangerous.
While not being perfect, the book solidified my love for The Expanse and I eagerly moved on to Nemesis Games and all the other novels that followed. After Amazon announced that they were taking over the show, the focus of my excitement remained on the fourth season. As a fan of science fiction, the space aesthetics and ships of The Expanse have always given me a particular thrill. But Cibola Burn is not exactly set in space. Not entirely, anyway. Half the action takes place in orbit as the readers witness the Roci, the Barbapiccola, and the Edward Israel trying to combat the quite deadly threats the Protomolecule throws at them. The other half, however, takes place on a brand new planet called Ilus by the Belters who settled there. Ilus is called “New Terra” by the Earth cooperation (RCE) who have secured the mining rights on the planet’s rich lithium deposit.
The show vs the book
One of the many things I love so much about the book series is the authors’ talent for world-building. They have found the perfect balance between giving just enough information to spark the readers’ imagination without boring them to death with the details. And Cibola Burn certainly doesn’t disappoint when it comes to world-building. While reading the fourth novel, I pictured a desert-like planet, barely liveable, with a small, improvised settlement. I have to admit that, in my head, it looked a little like a desert in Nevada and I was surprised to find a desert of stone instead one of sand on screen, and Ilus looked a lot more alien than my mind had imagined it.
Quite early in the book, a few more oddities are introduced: mimic lizards who vomit their own stomachs to eat and imitate all sounds they hear, butterflies that, on closer inspection, turn out to be machines, sorry-looking devices whose purpose we will never know and, of course, death slugs. While the mimic lizards are mentioned, the show takes quite some liberties in recreating the book artifacts, making them seem more threatening than they actually were in the book to intensify the point: Ilus is a dangerous place thanks to the many artifacts the Protomolecule makers left behind.
While the ruins on Ilus certainly have an interesting and alien look, a tiny, book-loving part of me was a little disappointed to see them on screen. I went back to the book and compared the descriptions to what we see on the show and while the ruins do look strange, my imagination had done something else with them entirely. In my head, they resembled a sandcastle with the described curves and arches and rooms. The equivalent we see on screen is not the place where the Belters met to conspire against the Earthers. It’s not the place where Elvi Okoye overheard the plot to murder the RCE people and Holden, too, if he got in the way. And it’s not the place where everyone sought shelter when the heavy rain wiped the settlement off the face of the planet. What The Expanse did with the ruins is an interesting and certainly visually pleasing change, but a small part of me still grieves for the what the ruins could have been if adapted slightly differently.
The alien ruins weren’t the only part of the fourth season that bugged me just a little as a fan of the book series. I was prepared for changes and so far, I had welcomed every single one that the show had made to the books. Even for the readers among The Expanse’s fans, there were still surprises in store, and I found myself loving a lot of changes, like the fact that they gave Camina Drummer a bigger role earlier than she would have had. Watching season four, however, I felt a little conflicted.
Characters
One reason for that is Elvi Okoye (played by Lyndie Greenwood), a character I had loved in the books. I don’t even know whether it was the passion with which she talked about her work, her habit to babble about it when she was excited or her celebrity crush on James Holden. Elvi is a wonderful, passionate character who ends up saving everyone on the planet with a little help. Her schoolgirl crush on Holden was something that really warmed me to her. I spoke to several fans prior to writing this review and while some had hoped for her crush on Holden to be dropped entirely, others agreed with me that it made her seem more human. It showed that even the most intelligent women can have the silliest feelings for people they hardly know and that no one, no matter their IQ, is immune to them. Sadly, the Elvi on-screen barely resembles the Elvi that I had come to love in the books. She is still a scientist, but we hardly see her at work. Of course, there is a lot more space for that in books than there is on a TV show, but it still deprives viewers of the smart, strong, determined, passionate but also occasionally soft Elvi I had grown to love in Cibola Burn. Many layers of her fantastic character are simply missing.
The fact that Naomi spends the first few episodes on Ilus on the show as opposed to on the Rocinante also takes some of the spotlight away from Dr. Elvi Okoye. Instead of asking her Okoye, Felcia Mazur (played by Kyla Madeira) now approaches Naomi to learn more about going to university, an undertaking Elvi and Dr. Fayez Sarkis (played by Zach Smadu) help the girl with in the book. Some other book readers have mentioned that, since Naomi also goes down the well, they hoped it would mean a friendship between Naomi and Elvi. As I read about their hopes and dreams, my heart felt a little heavy thinking about the subtle animosity with which Naomi meets Elvi, a consequence of her general dislike of Earthers. Even though it is understandable given their background, it still makes me sad to see a rivalry between two incredible female characters who could have blessed Ilus – and us – with their combined problem-solving skills.
One character that certainly doesn’t disappoint is Adolphus Murtry, played by Burn Gorman. Knowing the actor from Torchwood and Game of Thrones, I knew from the announcement that he would prove to be an excellent choice. After watching season four, I couldn’t imagine Murtry being played by anyone else. Quite early on, Amos recognises Murtry as a killer and while being utterly ruthless, Murtry is not without reason – and he is completely unpredictable in both. Is he going to murder everyone? Is he going to help? Even James Holden keeps being surprised by this character and it’s a true pleasure watching Burn Gorman take on the role. His performance is nothing short of the book character come to life on screen.
Another point that came up during my conversations with fellow fans about Cibola Burn was the portrayal of James Holden on the show. While I didn’t dislike him, I have to admit that I cared very little about the main character before I actually started reading the books. Even though Steven Strait is the perfect actor to play him, some of Holden’s main characteristics are a lot less pronounced on the show and it doesn’t quite convey just how funny and incredibly charismatic he is. Fellow book fans have expressed how sad they were to see some of his heroic actions being attributed to other characters on the show and the fourth season already starts out by changing his objective.
In the book, the conflict between Belters and the Earthers had already broken out and Holden is sent by Avasarala and Fred Johnson as a mediator (even though Avasarala’s real motives turn out to be slightly different). The majority of Belters put their hopes in Holden and his crew, awaiting his arrival and rooting for him to fix everything. Of course, as the Protomolecule artifacts begin to wake up, Holden struggles to just keep everyone alive and out of danger. But they never once blame him for their fate as they do on the TV show. I hope that, in the future, the show will give James Holden the opportunity to shine with the qualities that make him such a lovable character in the books: his dry sense of humor, his good heart and the incredible charisma he isn’t even aware of.
The Expanse is a book series that features a lot of characters and while I understand the need to drop a few minor ones and attribute their actions to already established TV show characters, I would have liked to see Dimitri Havelock and Basia Merton again. Miller’s former partner plays a big part in Cibola Burn when he is in charge of the security on the Edward Israel until Naomi, as his prisoner, convinces him to switch sides.
Basia Merton had escaped Ganymede with the rest of his family, is still guilt-ridden over the death of his son Katoa (remember the child that was turned into a Protomolecule monster by Dr Strickland and Jules-Pierre Mao?) and determined to keep the rest of his family safe, which leads him to blow up the shuttle instead of Lucia. Season four definitely works without these characters, but it still would have been nice to have a connection to the previous season.
Not all the changes on the show were bad ones, however. While I could never really settle on a favorite character when I read the books (I just love them all), I became incredibly fond of Bobbie Draper and I was afraid that she wouldn’t be featured in season four at all. In Cibola Burn, she only makes an appearance in the prologue and epilogue, so I was very excited to see her glorious character in action once again. Several other book fans told me they were hoping for the storyline of her novella, Gods of Risk to be seen in season four and this time, their dreams came true. We finally get to see more of Mars, their architecture, their transport, their way of living and, to many fans, it is a long-awaited sight – with one of the most beloved characters right in the middle of it all.
Many fans had already expressed their curiosity about Marco Inaros on various social media platforms and The Expanse does once again what they have already started to do during previous seasons: mixing up the books just a little. While the Free Navy plot doesn’t start before Nemesis Games, we already dip into it in season four and the infamous Marco Inaros makes his first appearance.
At the same time, it gives beloved characters like Camina Drummer and Klaes Ashford a chance to shine once again. The only reason Drummer and Ashford ever met on screen is that another character was dropped from season three and his spot given to Camina Drummer instead, but the relationship of Drummer and Ashford, somewhere between hatred and admiration, was such a delight to watch that many fans will be very pleased to see them again.
There are probably very few fans of The Expanse out there who don’t love Chrisjen Avasarala and she graces our screens in season four as well even though she is only featured very briefly in Cibola Burn, so this is another difference that will be welcomed by almost everyone. Can we honestly get enough of Chrisjen Avasarala and her swearing? I think not.
Overall
Season four of The Expanse is a blessing that fans weren’t sure they were going to get when Syfy first canceled it. It would have been a waste not to see more of these amazing books turned into a TV show. As a reader, I was particularly excited about the fourth and fifth installment of the novels (and I am still hoping that the mind-blowing Laconia plot of books seven, eight and nine will be brought to our screens).
With season four about to be released to over 200 countries on December 13th and season five in production, it is certainly an exciting time for every fan of The Expanse as we get to dive deeper into the story of the Rocinante crew, the mysterious Protomolecule and the conflicts between Earthers, Martians, and Belters. The fourth season definitely delivers the same quality of extraordinary TV with a thoroughly amazing cast, lovable characters, intense action, and infuriating cliffhangers as the previous three seasons have.
Yet, as a reader of the books, I have to admit that I enjoyed the written form even more and I can’t remember how many times I tossed my Kindle across the bed in exasperation over yet another cliffhanger and yelled at Cibola Burn because of how thrilling and captivating the story was. For any of you who simply cannot wait for season five, I can honestly recommend the book series as it delivers the same amazing characters, breathtaking action, and mind-robbing cliffhangers just as well as the TV show does – and maybe even a little bit better. And if the page count of the books seems a little intimidating to you, don’t worry. The pages will fly by in no time just as if you were binge-watching all four seasons of The Expanse.
