Novel: Nemesis Games

Novel: Nemesis Games
Author: James Corey
Rating: 4 of 5

Synopsis: The crew has to deal with an unexpected threat. Unlike the previous books, the crew are the only POV characters.

Longer (spoilerific) synopsis:
I really enjoyed this one!

Previous novels in the series (I'm looking at you, Cibolla Burn) gave us POV characters who are morally reprehensible. The authors are good enough to portray the inside of those minds as reasonable, and I read these with sufficient charity to be momentarily taken in. I did not enjoy seeing the world from the POV of a mass murdering fuckhead.

Here, the crew are the eye point characters. They are each written very differently. The Amos chapters were hilarious -- he knows he's a monster and looks to Holden to deal with it.

The plot? Oh, right. The plot was fantastic. While the Roci is underoing repairs, mass murdering fuckheads attack earth -- in classic SF fashion by dropping rocks. Big fucking rocks. Dinosaur-ending rocks. Cataclysm everyone is going to die rocks.

Amos is stuck on earth, and he shines having to deal with an apocalypse. He is absolutely the gunlugger. These were my favorite chapters; Amos is hilarious.

Alex is on Mars, and gets to hang with Bobbie! We see Bobbie again! His piloting saves the universe! Alex is the driver.

Naomi has been captured by the mass murdering fuckwits, who she used to be with. I didn't love that its her past that catches up with her, and that she spends most of the novel being kidnapped. She's self rescuing, which is a nice save. She's the savvyhead, mcguyvering her way out.

Holden is dealing with politics, and busy keeping Fred alive. I don't know an immediate playbook for Holden; he runs a small crew (operator, which doesn't exist anymore). He tells the truth. He runs a warship, and prefers nonviolent solutions. He's good at causing trouble, not so good at ending it. Is Holden a battlebabe?

Everyone gets to shine, and we get to see different aspects of the worst devastation in human history. And yet, somehow, it wasn't nearly as depressing as Cibolla Burn. Not sure how that happened.

Quite enjoyable!