James S A Corey Expanse Series 8 Books Collection Set (Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War, Abaddon's Gate, Cibola Burn, Nemesis Games, Babylon's Ashes, Persepolis Rising, Tiamats Wrath) Paperback – January 1, 2020

I have to confess that I watched the TV series first, but unlike many other books adapted to screen, these stories do not differ greatly from the written version to the TV production (at least not until the fifth and sixth season, but I know there were reasons). The characters in the book were brilliantly portrayed by the actors in the series, and as such have become my mental images as I read the books. A couple that were portrayed so uncannily well that you question which came first, TV or book, are Avasarala and Amos, with Alex, Bobbie, and Holden right behind. I really think the entire cast and production overall were absolutely top notch and I place Expanse right up there with Firefly as being uniquely well thought out and believably portrayed.Now back to the books. Even had I never seen the screen version, I would have been absolutely taken by this story. None of the books are really a story on their own, it's really an ongoing serial adventure with some constant characters and many shorter term, but it successfully builds one of the most believable near-future universes I think I've ever read. I also find it interesting that the authors say they are not scientists/physicists themselves and were not trying to be overly techy about anything, because the science involved in these stories is some of the most believable and accurate I've seen in an otherwise non-tech adventure saga.The stories are deep and detailed, and lean heavily into human interaction, governments and leaders, and how they might behave in a solar system level environment, and then beyond. There's adventure aplenty too with space battles, space station battles, and weird mysteries of how we might come across an alien entity or civilization without ever meeting one in person. The authors do an exceptional job of creating settings on a very grand scale, and never straying too far toward either the macro or micro view. Personal relationships one minute, and solar system wide action the next. Almost every character introduced, whether a constant main character, or a short term player is fleshed out with sufficient detail to have not only a visual feel for who and what they are, but how they feel about their world around them and what their motivations might be for taking the actions they do. The main characters are even backed up by detailed histories that make up one of the volumes in the series, and other "novellas" incorporated in the set give valuable insight into the future history you find yourself in. The one I found the most intriguing is the story of how we end up with the "Epstein Drive", which sets the stage for a realistic way to cut travel times to something manageable, but not fantastic like light-speed.Overall these books are very well written and thought out. They are also quite long, but that's because there is so much story to be told because it is such a massive stage. I found it hard to put one of these books down, and couldn't wait to pick it up again and continue. Being the age I am, I was buying sci-fi novels when I was a kid for 95 cents, but all things being relative, this set is a very good value. Read it!

If you like science fiction then you will probably find these among the best of stories to read. If you watched the TV series based on these, then at times you'll be scratching your head at some of the differences. But mostly they are minor and the story ends up in the same spot.

Loved the whole series. The books arrived in good condition despite the packaging.

I watched The Expanse TV series and it was excellent. The books are even better!This book set is very heavy. You’ll need a sturdy bookshelf for these

Package arrived the next day with the books neatly kept in a smaller inner box that prevented them from moving around and potentially getting damaged. They appear to be the UK editions of the books as they list the MSRP in pounds instead of dollars. This is only pertinent because they are smaller and use a different material for the cover unlike the US/Canada editions. I genuinely prefer these. Unlike other buyers, mine came with uniform binding so I suppose your mileage may vary. My only (very minor) gripe is that it doesn't include the final book or the short stories. Happy reading, friends!

I really liked the show, but am happy to find that the show changed enough from the books that reading the books isn't just like reading things I already know. Sure, the general plot points are the same for the most part, so far, but a lot of the details, interactions, and characters are different (granted, it's not like the show could have found tons of actors that would look like the Belters do in the books, being relatively thin and very tall), as well as how things happen or don't happen.I'm just overall enjoying the increased detail, more realistic space (it's really big, and the books do a lot better job of illustrating that), relative lack of drama for the sake of drama (the show had some things happen that seem like they were there just to get people who like drama and character conflict interested) and overall pacing of the books.

This set is the smaller sized books. No flop and prone to bent spine. I’m sorry I purchased this specific bundle set. But not sorry to own the special editions as it’s an amazing adventure. #mustread

The listing for this collection didn’t specify the size of the books, so I assumed they were the same size as the edition that Amazon sells one by one. I bought the 9th book from Amazon and you can see in the picture what my collection looks like. I am disappointed. The larger edition is easier to read. Thought I was getting that for a good price. The size is why it’s less expensive. They did come packaged together and in good shape.