I had the itch to read sci-fi earlier this month, and so I thought, “Hey, the Expanse was pretty popular, and I’ve never read anything by these authors before, so why not start with book one in their new series?”

I made it halfway through in order to give the book a chance, but then I decided to call it quits. I may go back and listen to the rest at some point, but the first half wasn’t compelling.

The premise reminded me of the story of Daniel in the Bible (not exactly, but kinda). A powerful and power-hungry galactic civilization conquers a smaller planet (not Earth) that’s populated by humans, and they only let the cream of the crop survive. They bring these people into their regime, and the humans destroy the enemy from within. It sounded good!

I think the primary reason I wasn’t engaged is because I wasn’t crazy about any of the characters except maybe Dafyd. There were so many I wasn’t sure who I was supposed to care about most. I couldn’t visualize them, and I kept confusing them at first because they didn’t have enough flavor to distinguish themselves from each other. When characters are good, I can tolerate a blah plot, but I didn’t connect with any of them here.

Also, I didn’t connect with the enemy race, the Carryx. They are loathsome, insectile creatures who don’t understand humans. They deal with their newly captured subjects via proxies that can communicate with them, sort of. It would’ve been more engaging if the enemy wasn’t so hard to understand.

Another thing. I listened on audio, and the narrator wasn’t my favorite. I read the first chapter in print before I switched to audio, and I did enjoy that first chapter. It’s possible that the narration just wasn’t my cup of tea, and that could’ve colored my experience.