The Expanse (novel series)
The Expanse is a science fiction novel series (including some novellas and short stories) by the author duo Daniel James Abraham and Ty Franck from Albuquerque , New Mexico , which they published under the pseudonym James SA Corey . The first volume ( Leviatan Wakes ) was published by Orbit Books in the USA in 2011 and by Heyne Verlag in Germany in April 2012 .
Currently (as of 7/2020) the series consists of eight novels and eight shorter works - three short stories and five novellas. Orbit Books has signed Corey for a total of nine volumes of the Expanse series, two more novellas are also planned, with the ninth and final volume due to appear in 2021.
The series was adapted for television by the Syfy Network, also under the title The Expanse (TV series) , and later appeared on Netflix and, since the fourth season, on Amazon Prime.
Works of the series
Novels
| # | org. title | German title | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leviathan Wakes | Leviathan Awakes (2012) | ISBN 978-3-453-52931-1 |
| 2 | Caliban's War | Caliban's War (2013) | ISBN 978-3-453-52929-8 |
| 3 | Abaddon's Gate | Abaddon's Gate (2014) | ISBN 978-3-453-52930-4 |
| 4th | Cibola Burn | Cibola is on fire (2015) | ISBN 978-3-453-31654-6 |
| 5 | Nemesis Games | Nemesis Games (2016) | ISBN 978-3-453-31656-0 |
| 6th | Babylon's Ashes | Babylon's Ashes (2017) | ISBN 978-3-453-31655-3 |
| 7th | Persepolis Rising | Persepolis Rises (2019) | ISBN 978-3-453-31942-4 |
| 8th | Tiamat's Wrath | Tiamat's Wrath (2020) | ISBN 978-3-453-31943-1 |
| 9 | (still unknown, announced for 2020) | (still unknown) |
Novellas and short stories
The content of the five novels and three short stories is mostly located between the novels. Exceptions are Drive , The Churn and The Butcher of Anderson Station , which takes place before, and The Last Flight of the Cassandra , which takes place during the events of Leviathan Awakening . Two of the novels and a short story are now also available in German translation. All short stories and novellas are currently only available as e-books . The Last Flight of the Cassandra is also only available as part of the Expanse RPG and cannot be purchased separately. After the main series is finished, all novellas and short stories will be published as a collection in printed form.
| # | Type | org. title | German title | classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Short story | Drive | awakens before Leviathan | |
| 0.3 | Novella | The churn | The Maelstrom (2015) | awakens before Leviathan |
| 0.5 | Short story | The Butcher of Anderson Station | The Butcher of Anderson Station (2011) | awakens before Leviathan |
| 1 | Short story | The Last Flight of the Cassandra | while Leviathan awakens | |
| 2.5 | Novella | Gods of Risk | The God of Risk (2012) | between Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate |
| 3.5 | Novella | The Vital Abyss | burns between Abaddon's Gate and Cibola | |
| 6.5 | Novella | Strange dogs | rises between Babylon's ashes and Persepolis | |
| 7.5 | Novella | Auberon | between Persepolis and Tiamat's anger rises |
action
classification
The Expanse takes place in the 24th century when humanity colonized much of the solar system. The action initially takes place in many real places in the solar system - such as Ceres and Eros in the asteroid belt , several Jupiter moons such as Ganymede and Europa as well as Saturn's moon Phoebe and Uranus's moon Titania , as well as domes on Mars and the moon .
The basic constellation is the conflict and the political tension between Earth, Mars and the outer planets . On an earth that is completely overpopulated with over 30 billion people, the United Nations (UN) has risen to become a world government that also controls Luna and several stations in the solar system. Above all, the earth is faced with the challenge of extracting resources, which is forcing it to further colonize.
Mars, colonized in the 21st century, sees its future in terraforming . In the meantime he has fought for his independence from the earth and has - according to his name - a considerable military and war science potential, so that there is a stalemate between the two great powers.
Both Earth and Mars are urgently dependent on the resources from the asteroid belt , which is the so-called Third World of the Expanse Universe. The Gürtler (English Belter ) operate asteroid mining , but suffer from poor working and living conditions (clean air and water are often insufficient) and, due to the conditions of gravity, show physical deformations and mutations that sometimes make it impossible for them to enter the gravity well survive the earth. The main base of the belt is de facto the dwarf planet Ceres , important industrial centers are asteroids such as Eros or free-flying space stations such as Tycho , while Jupiter's moon Ganymede is used for food production.
In order to defend itself against the exploitation of Earth and Mars, a militant resistance group called the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) has formed (in the German-language edition Allianz Äusserer Planet , AAP), which acts against Earth and Mars and is supported by the United Nations is combated by all means.
main characters
Each story is told through changing perspectives (always in the 3rd person) of a limited number of main characters and begins and ends with a prologue or epilogue of a unique character. Since the authors take turns in the individual chapters and perspectives, the writing style is very different depending on the figure / perspective.
Crew of the Rosinate
- James "Jim" R. Holden, Captain, of Earth, former UN Navy officer
- Naomi Nagata, chief engineer and managing director, a belt maker
- Amos Burton, mechanic and fighting machine, from Earth
- Alex Kamal, pilot, a Martian, former pilot of the Martian Navy
earth
- Dmitri Havelock, a security and former partner of Joe Miller
- Chrisjen Avasarala, UN Deputy Under-Secretary of State in the Executive Administration, later UN Secretary General
- Clarissa "Claire" Melpomene Mao aka Melba Alzbeta Koh aka Peaches, daughter of Jules-Pierre Mao
- Dr. Elvi Okoye, a biologist from Earth
- Dr. Annushka "Anna" Volovodov, a Methodist pastor on Europe and the earth
Mars
- Roberta "Bobbie" W. Draper, Mars Corporal for the MCRN of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force
Outer planets
- Josephus "Joe" Aloisus Miller, a belt man, detective for the Ceres station security company Star Helix Security
- Juliette "Julie" Andromeda Mao, daughter of Jules-Pierre Mao, former Pinnace racing driver and convert of the OPA
- Frederick "Fred" Lucius Johnson, former UN Marine, "Butcher of Anderson Station", leader of the OPA
- Dr. Praxidike "Prax" Meng, chief botanist of the RMD-Southern Soy Farm Project on Ganymede, father of Mei Meng
- Michio Pa, executive officer of the OPA ship Behemoth , later captain of the Free Navy ship Connaught
- Marco Inaros, commander of the Free Navy, a radical OPA division
- Filip Inaros, member of the OPA and Free Navy, son of Marco Inaros and Naomi Nagata
reception
The series of novels was very well received, especially in the USA, with the first novel Leviathan Wakes receiving the highest praise. Thus Leviathan Wakes for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2012 and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel nominated 2012th The third novel, Abaddon's Gate , won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel 2014. The entire series of novels was nominated for the Best Series Hugo Award in both 2017 and 2020 , which it finally won in 2020.
Adaptations
- Television series : The Expanse In April 2014, the American television station Syfy announced a series commitment for the television adaptation of The Expanse, which appeared in December 2015. By 2020, four seasons with a total of 46 episodes had been produced, with the last episode of each season sharing its name with the respective book.
- Comic : There are currently four digital comics based on the novels and published by ComiXology. They were written by James SA Corey, Hallie Lambert and Georgia Lee, and illustrated by Huang Danlan, Triona Farrell, Juan Useche and Rahzzah. The Expanse: Origins reveals the untold backstories of the Rosinante crewmembers before the series begins and additional stories to Detective Miller. All four comics were also released in print as a compilation entitled The Expanse Vol. 2 .
- Board game : The Expanse board game was designed by Geoff Engelstein in cooperation with the team of authors and published by WizKids in October 2017. The players represent the UN armed forces of the earth, the military of Mars, the OPA or Protogen Inc and fight to become the dominant power in the solar system.
- Role Playing Game (PnP): The Expanse role playing game uses the AGE (Adventure Game Engine) system developed by Chris Pramas. Core Rulebook and Gamemaster's Kit were released on Kickstarter in July 2018, raising the goal of over $ 400,000 in one hour. The game includes a bonus short story by James SA Corey entitled "The Last Flight of Cassandra".
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group in the United States View our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use: Home. Retrieved July 15, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Random House Search Result. Retrieved July 15, 2020 .
- ↑ The Orbit Team: CIBOLA BURN is available now and a big announcement! June 17, 2014, accessed July 15, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Hugo Awards 2012. Accessed July 15, 2020 .
- ↑ 2017 Hugo Awards. In: The Hugo Awards. December 31, 2016, accessed July 15, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ 2020 Hugo Awards. In: The Hugo Awards. August 1, 2020, Retrieved August 19, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ The Expanse Vol. 1: Origins - Comics by comiXology. Retrieved July 15, 2020 .
- ↑ WizKids: The Expanse. In: WizKids. Retrieved July 15, 2020 (American English).
- ^ The Expanse Roleplaying Game. Retrieved July 15, 2020 .