Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey

An alien artifact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark. Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artefact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core.

My review: https://mattstein.com/books/abaddons-gate

Leviathan Wakes ???????????????Caliban's War ???????????????Abaddon's Gate ???????????????

The third book in the Expanse series establishes quite a few new point of view characters. It may have taken me a few books to catch on to the system of point of view characters in this series, but I have to admit it works well and I really enjoy it. Aside from the main cast of recurring characters, there are a few points of view in each book who are specific to that book. It allows the authors to widen to the scope of the plot while still keeping each aspect intimate and close to the reader. And these characters who we only see for one book feel just as real and firmly placed into the universe of the series as the others. There is only one other series I feel has managed multiple points of view this well before and at this scale, and that would be A Song of Ice and Fire.

This book was less action and more politics and plotting. Which is some of my favourite parts of any story.

This is more like a 3.5? Definitely closer to a 4 than a 3 though.

Last book's strength was characters, but unfortunately it wasn't the same here. I wasn't particularly thrilled by any of the POVs. But the adventure inside the ring? Hell yes!

Now to my usual comparison to the TV series: I found Clarissa a bit more convincing as a character here. Ashford isn't as much of an asshole in the TV series. Also, so far this one had the most differences between the mediums!