Nemesis Games by James S.A Corey, Book #5 of the Expanse Series
Introduction
The Rocinante must be refitted at Tycho Station after the crew’s last adventure in Ilus (New Terra) which was detailed in book #4 Cibola Burn. The crew splits up, each going on separate missions located around the solar system. Ships are disappearing mysteriously. Disaster strikes on Earth. The crew must come together to defeat a new menace or the balance of power in the solar system will be irrevocably changed.
Summary
For the first time in the series, all four members of the Rocinante crew are viewpoint characters. We can finally see what is inside the minds of Naomi, Amos, and Alex.
Four Viewpoints
Alex Kamal decides to reconnect with his old life on Mars including meeting with his ex-wife. He encounters Bobbi Draper and they go on a mission involving missing Martian MCRN ships.
Amos Burton goes back to Earth to face his past. There is a huge reveal of his true identity. He faces the disaster occurring on Earth. He visits Clarissa Mao (aka Peaches) in the prison where she is incarcerated. They must find a passage to Luna despite facing hostile enemies.
Naomi Nagata has a secret past that she kept from everyone including James Holden. Her secret is directly related to the reason for the missing ships. She must complete a difficult mission alone to redeem herself from the choices that she made in the past.
James Holden supervises the repairs on the Rocinante at Tycho Station. He works with the leader of the OPA, Fred Johnson, in discovering the whereabouts of missing colony ships.
Convergence
The four characters converge together and work on the same goal of dealing with each of their pasts and finding the shocking truth of the new order of the solar system.
Review
I think Nemesis Games is a great book. It is my second favorite book after the first of the series. Using the three new viewpoints was ingenious. Some viewpoints were more successful than others. Naomi’s was the best. Her secret was well thought out. She faced an extreme dilemma and was conflicted realistically. She attacked her problem with an analytical mind and found a solution which didn’t solve everything. James Holden was his usual action-oriented self. He worked well with Fred and thought things through. Amos had a lot to deal with in his past and faced it well. It seemed that the purpose of his journey was to bring Clarissa into the novel.
The timing of the events seemed too close to be realistic and that was the only weakness of this part. The weakest section was from Alex. It didn’t seem that he had enough of a motivation to return to Mars. His interaction with Bobbi was interesting but was also too much of a coincidence that it occurred.
Recommendation
The biggest problem with the novel Nemesis Games is that while there is some resolution to it, it serves only as a set up to the next novel, Babylon Ashes #6. By contrast, the previous four books all came to a strong conclusion. Fortunately, I don’t have to wait for a year to read it. I won a copy of the e-book in a Goodreads giveaway so I will read it very soon.
Links
Link to Goodreads page for Nemesis Games.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22886612-nemesis-games
This is the link to my review of Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey, Book #3 of The Expanse series.
https://www.garydavidgillen.com/cibola-burn-by-james-s-a-corey/