Memory's Legion by James A Corey
The Expanse is one of my favorite book series. I haven’t read it a dozen times like I have Lord of the Rings or Dune, but it’s going to get a reread from me very soon.
For context, I came off of rereading Lord of the Rings and trying to get into some of the Warhammer 40k novels.
Lord of the Rings is not a fast-paced book series. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not gripping in the way a modern series is. It is one of the foundational works of western fantasy for good reason. It has an amazing world, memorable characters and nails the archetype of a heroic journey. However, the pacing is uneven and the dialog is fairly basic.
The Warhammer 40k novels on the other hand are largely terrible. The only reason to read them is if you are invested in the lore of the universe. The novels seem to lean very heavily on prior knowledge of the universe. When a “carnifex” or “trygon” shows up you are expected to already know what it is and what it looks like and how threatening it is. The author won’t actually describe it in any way. One of the worst I read was Mephiston: Lord of Death. I wanted to slap David Annandale through the page shouting, “show, don’t tell!”. It’s the worst with any stories about Space Marines because they are all portrayed as the same boring super soldiers. At least the Astra Militarum grunts have some real humanity.
All that is to say that within the first few paragraphs of Memory’s Legion I nearly said out loud, “This is what good writing looks like!” I was hooked by the story and it was very well written. It was a huge breath of fresh air. The quality continued through the whole book.
A nice feature of the book is that every story was followed by a few pages of the authors reflecting on the context and intent of the story. It’s the sort of thing that’s often covered in an introduction, but I think it was well placed after each story. Each one was short enough that it was possible to reconsider the story through the authors’ eyes.
Drive
The first story covers the invention of the Epstein drive (that name didn’t age well). It makes the story compelling by alternating two different narratives. The first is the experience of Epstein on the first successful test of the drive, in places advancing just seconds at a time. The other is his life before the test, exploring the pressures and passion that lead to the invention. The title’s double meaning is pretty clear.
The story is alluded to and summarized in the novels and video series, but very little is said about Epstein himself. It’s a testament to the quality of the writing that this short story can be so compelling when covering someone I already know to be a minor player who will have no impact on the rest of the works other than this one invention.
The Butcher of Anderson Station
Much like Drive, this story covers background that is alluded to and summarized elsewhere in the novels and series, but it gives a lot more depth.
Gods of Risk
This story is the first of the short stories here that partially made it into the video series (along with Strange Dogs).
The Churn
The Vital Abyss
Strange Dogs
I found this one less engaging to read because I already knew the stories from the video series. This story features prominently in season six.