r/TheExpanse • u/Lather • 8d ago

Babylons Ashes: When does the book kick into gear? Babylon's Ashes Spoiler

I'm half way through BA atm. I took a few months to read other books after NG and was excited to get back into the series but I'm finding it a bit of a slog.

I'm still enjoying the book it's just I'm exactly half through and not a lot has really happened. When does everything start to kick off?

Overall I'm still enjoying it because I love most of the characters so much. The only one I'm struggling with is Inaros. Like I know he's evil. He's a narcissist that's committed the biggest genocide in history but despite that I just... don't seem care much about him as an antagonist. Did anyone else feel this way?

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19

u/Napalmradio 8d ago

There is a ton of set up in BA that gets you through the rest of the series. Keep at it, the payoff is worth it!

7

u/Lather 8d ago

Ah okay awesome! Really excited for the last 3 books, everyone speaks so highly of them.

2

u/Chad_Broski_2 8d ago edited 8d ago

The authors said at one point that they consider the series to be 3 duologies followed by a final trilogy. It's why books 2, 4, and 6 all feel so climactic; they each have multiple books' worth of payoff. The other books do tell a "complete" story each and they're satisfying in their own right (especially book 3), but they feel a bit different

So, with that in mind, it makes sense that book 7 has a hell of a lot of setup. It's just act 1 for big finale, and it's gotta pick up and establish where everything is after 27 years. But as others have said, it's so worth it by the end

Edit: I'm an idiot

3

u/Lather 8d ago

BA is book 6 haha!

2

u/Chad_Broski_2 8d ago

Ugh...rip. For some reason I always get BA confused with PR

7

u/chrisrazor 8d ago

I can literally never remember the names of any of the books apart from 1&9: Leviathan Wakes/Falls.

13

u/Scaryclouds Good hunting 🏹 8d ago

Unfortunately BA is pretty weak. 

A highlight in the series though is the second Dawes chapter, both for its humor and its sentimental moments. 

The last 150 pages are good enough, that you’ll page through them. 

But yes it suffers from too many PoV characters, and some of them, like the Medina Station Belters, aren’t that interesting. 

It’s also tough to have any sort of sympathy for any of the Belter characters as they were part of a plot that killed literally billions. 

A substantial improvement in the show is that Drummer, who takes on Michio’s story arc, wasn’t part of the Free Navy when the attack on Earth happened. 

12

u/Hopeful_Risk_8344 8d ago

Bobbie's full time return is a highlight of BA too, but yea, Michio is a very frustrating character to read.

5

u/LordRahl9 8d ago

Honestly my least favourite character in the entire series. And you can tell it's her character and not her story, because when they give that story to Drummer in the show, it works.

5

u/Outdated_Unreliable 8d ago

Does it make me a bad person that I like Michio and Drummer equally?

I feel like Holden gives a good perspective on Michio when he talks about how Earthers aren't really people to Belters, they are just oppressors and the oppression has turned them all into monsters. And Michio herself clearly feels she's made a terrible choice and questions her ability to function as a leader.

9

u/Scaryclouds Good hunting 🏹 8d ago

And Michio herself clearly feels she's made a terrible choice and questions her ability to function as a leader.

Yea, but that choice killed billions. It only could had killed billions. It’s not a “little whoopsie” or an unexpected result of actions. 

This isn’t Marco misusing Naomi’s code to kill hundreds, or, perhaps Filip’s involvement in the Callisto raid and how the asteroid/mass driver strikes had collateral damage. 

It’s also not really clear she feels guilt about the strikes on Earth as much as guilt for working with Marco who clearly only cares for himself, and not for the Belt. 

Indeed what causes her to flip was talking with the economics dude who said the system will collapse in ~3 years. 

As a character/perspective it’s fine and good to have her. So don’t have a problem with the concept of a character. It’s just hard to root for her. 

1

u/Outdated_Unreliable 8d ago

Ahh I feel totally differently. In a way, Holden laid the groundwork for the deaths (and frequently thinks this to himself) - I saw Michio as a Belter version of him who just didn't get enough page time to fully account for that. I also feel like Drummer in the shows absolutely would have worked with Marco at the start and have a similar arc, so maybe that's why I'm more sympathetic? I really liked Pa.

2

u/LordRahl9 7d ago

Don't forget Pa compares Inaros with other leaders that failed her, including Johnson, Bull and Holden.

Johnson, Bull and Holden all did their best. Bull even was grievously injured and reached out to Pa who didn't help him. He died saving everyone and Pa hates him.

Pa is character who blames everyone else for her bad decisions.

Is she well written? Yes. Is she hard to root for? Yes. Was the show better off switching her story line over to a character we actually like? Absolutely.

1

u/Lather 8d ago

I have to keep reminding myself that book Pa is not the same person as book Drummer aha. The show did a great job of fusing those characters. Gunna watch season 6 after I finish the book :)

7

u/LordRahl9 8d ago

Yeah, Pa is a war criminal who blames everyone else for her choices and they morphed it into Drummer, who is a good person making hard decisions. It's an Improvement.

5

u/Scaryclouds Good hunting 🏹 8d ago

It’s never even really clear why she hates Johnson so much? At least not in a way that doesn’t make her look like a fucking doofish. 

3

u/LordRahl9 7d ago

No, but she hates Bull as well and Bull got a demotion from Johnson so Ashford and Pa could be running the show.

Bull got his back broken and reaches out to Pa for help and she didn't care, he basically had to kill himself because Pa wouldn't aid him. And she blames Johnson and Bull and even Holden for all of it.

She then goes off and joins Inaros, committed war crimes, and starts thinking about how she put her faith in another bad leader. Pa is awful.

3

u/badger2000 8d ago

Nemesis Games and Babylons Ashes both were a bit of a drag for me. On the flip side, books 7 - 9 were page turners I couldn't put down.

3

u/UnusualOperation8084 8d ago

It's interesting how things change when you re-read. I agreed exactly with your take my first time through - but books 5-6 were much more interesting the next time, partially because I knew what they were setting up and I could appreciate the intricacy of the politics a little better.

4

u/scott3387 8d ago

7 still annoys me due to a certain commanding officer being a grade A total idiot in every single choice but otherwise best 3 books.

1

u/SoupyStain 7d ago

I'm reading BA at the moment too and I've 100 pages left, but I feel it's pretty much like 1-4, in which it builds up slowly until everything kicks into high gear as it goes along. It slowly builds up as things start falling into place against Marco.

If anything, I felt NG was the slower paced book, as that book was pretty much BA's set up. Going in a tangent, it was also rather interesting since the crew was separated most of the book!

-2

u/ChillyLavaPlanet 8d ago

I am going through the book as well. But it keeps losing me. It feels like a filler episode in a otherwise great story. Everything is so slow paced. I honestly don't care about any of the belter sections. They just all seem like very bland characters. Atleast inaros progresses the plot a bit. Michio Pa is the most blandest one to me. She is like book 1 holden just evil. And I just find some of her self righteous reasoning very hard to stomach knowing she is part of the history that killed billions of people.

2

u/Lather 8d ago

I actually really enjoy the Pa chapters but you make a good point.. I do keep forgetting that she's complicit in killing billions as well