And so we reach the final volume of The Expanse. Winston Duarte has undergone a transformation, and is now seeking to fight off the entities that destroyed the gate-builders - but at a terrible cost to humanity. The options are to either be destroyed, or subsumed into a hive-mind of Duarte's making, the perfection of the order imposed by the Laconian Empire across all the human-settled worlds - now back-footed following the events of the previous book, Tiamatls Wrath, but still possessing poweful assets. Against this is pitched the crew of the Rocinante and Dr. Elvi Okoye, who following her experience of the protomolecule on Ilus (as depicted in book four, Cibola Burn), has been put in charge of research for the Empire. But as always with the Laconian Empire, failure is not an option, no matter how high your rank.

The fates of all the characters we have met so far, including Teresa Duarte and a Laconian Marine officer we meet for the first time in this book, are wrapped up, some more neatly than others. By the end, we have said goodbye to everyone, some more finally than others. It is hard to see how this could have ended in any other way.

I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the tv series, in particular the fact that the series ended with the dramatisation of book six, Babylon's Ashes. Many people are holding out hope that the final three novels might be dramatised at some point; and given that there are thirty years between books six and seven, this would not be impossible, if the same cast could be re-assembled some years down the line. The main issue would be accommodating Cas Anvar's absence, as his character - Alex Kamal - was written out of the show in season 5. But as Alex's son and his new family play a fairly direct role in this book, some plot gymnastics would be necessary. It's also interesting to see how some of the short stories - collected in the volume Memory's Legion - are shown in the tv show, to the extent that anyone coming to this book without having either seen the show or read the collected stories will find two quite important characters suddenly appearing and playing a central role apparently out of nowhere. So - on to the short stories! ( )

I just finished like five minutes ago, so no coherent thoughts yet, because I'm still crying, so I'll just say IT'S SO GOOD. ( )

Worthy and powerful finish to a classic series. I’m sad this tale is over, but I’m satisfied with how it ended. ( )

Nine massive books, with some pretty big events covered from start to finish. Trying to finish this series satisfactorily was going to be challenge for any writer, but these guys pulled it off.

Somehow staying true to the themes of cooperation vs. greed that has driven the entire narrative, and although leaning deeper into the more speculative science compared to the rigorous 'hard sci fi' of it's beginnings, it none-the-less never lets up in it's narrative promise to make things difficult for it's characters.

A natural place for these stories and characters to end. ( )

A very satisfying ending to an extraordinarily good series. My deep gratitude goes to the authors for not screwing it up, as too often happens with serials. ( )