Review (Novel): Abbadon's Gate by James S.A. Corey

After the disappointment that was Caliban's War, James S.A. Corey's Abbaddon's Gate is a welcome return to the excellent form of The Expanse series of novels.

This review contains spoilers.

Abbadon's Gate brings the mystery, and potential threat, of the alien protomolecule which has served as the primary narrative thrust of this series, back to the forefront of the plot, whereas Caliban's War was content with reducing the alien protomolecule into nothing but a plot device, serving nothing more than a minor plot point in a different, and far less interesting, story arch.

Despite Caliban's War being sub-par relative to Leviathan Wakes, the epilogue promised that Abbadon's Gate would be an improvement. And that it is. The return of Miller (kind of) provide James Holden with a much-needed foil. Let's face it, James Holden himself has always been a poorly written character. He's toxic, reckless and self righteous, taking action with little-to-no forethought. The only element of his character that provides any level of interest is his relationship with other characters.

One of these characters, some could call her the main antagonist of this novel, is Melba Koh, AKA Clarissa Mao, a young woman out to murder Holden after he indirectly rendered her father's interplanetary, multi-billion dollar company defunct, having her father convicted, and subsequently ruining Clarissa's life. Finally we actually have a human antagonist that can hold a mirror up to Holden, which Jim desperately needs. The finality of her story arch, on the other hand, is rather disappointing. Initially, I was hoping that she would become a prominent member of the cast of characters, but alas, she is rendered another throw-away character that will almost certainly forgotten about as soon as the next novel in the series begins.

The other two character POVs, on the other hand, are bare and redundant. One of the two characters is Annushka 'Anna' Volovodov, a priest whom provides absolutely nothing to the story. There's very little to actually say about her character, simply due to the fact that she has none. The second of these two characters is a man referred to, throughout a majority of the novel, as Bull. He too lacks character and depth, ultimately being rendered a redundancy as well.

The plot of Abbadon's Gate is by far the, in my opinion, the greatest plot of this series so far. The story revolves around the celestial superstructure that was created by the alien protomolecule at the end of Caliban's War. We quickly realise that the superstructure serves as a gateway into what is essentially an interstellar star-gate junction, with a large spherical space station placed firmly in the centre. Eventually, Holden discovers that the station serves not only as a relay station for travelling vessels, but also as a sentry station, one capable of causing a star to supernova.

As you may have already deduced, the station perceives the human incursion into the star-gate junction as a threat to its own security, and subsequently begins a countdown to destroy the sun. Eventually, our ragtag cast of characters finds a way of convincing the station that humanity does not pose a threat to its well-being, or the well-being of its presumably extinct creators, and the station deactivates. With the star-gates still active, the United Nations of Earth, Mars Congressional Republic and Outer Planets Alliances all begin the initial phases of the first ever human interstellar exploration missions, with the hope of finding many habitable world on which they can settle.

This ending has me hooked. Despite a few dull characters, and an unsatisfactory end to the story arch of one interesting character in particular, I will definitely be reading the rest of this series, of which Abbadon's Gate is the greatest instalment in so far.

4/5