Tiamat’s Wrath destroyed me. How the heck am I supposed to review it? And without spoilers??? It’s a nigh impossible task, but I’ll give it my best go.
Before diving into the nitty-gritty, I need to note that Tiamat’s Wrath is book eight in a nine book series. YOU MUST READ THE SERIES IN ORDER. If you’re not up-to-date on the Expanse series, stop reading this review now. If you’re like, “what’s the Expanse series?”, it’s one of the best space operas I’ve ever read and the first book is Leviathan Wakes. Go read it now.
Spoilers for previous books in the series will follow from here on out.
Ever since Nemesis Game this series has gone from strong to mindbendingly brilliant. Fast forward to book seven, Persepolis Rises which dealt one huge emotional punch. Clarissa’s death still breaks my heart. And then that ending! Duarte essentially won, conquering the rest of humanity with an iron fist. Holden was captured and shipped back as a prisoner. The rest of the crew are fugitives on the run, often separated from each other. There’s little hope of retrieving Holden.
The beginning of Tiamat’s Wrath isn’t much sunnier. Naomi’s a resistance leader, gone through a transformation that actually kind of reminds me of Leia becoming General Organa. Actually, “the Rebellion from Star Wars but filtered through a gritty, Battlestar Galactica type lense” is a great way to describe Tiamat’s Wrath. Naomi’s mostly on her own, hiding in shipping containers to be smuggled across the known universe. Bobbie and Alex lead up the resistance fleet, which is basically just one ship that mostly hides. Amos was sent off on a secret mission to rescue Holden and hasn’t been heard from in like ten years. Holden’s still a prisoner with little to no power. And get this: for the first time, Holden’s not a major POV character. He’s the prologue and the epilogue. Maybe an interlude too? But that’s basically it. He’s been our anchor for the entire series, and now Duarte has not just taken him from his crew/family but from us too.
Tiamat’s Wrath has four principle POV characters. Naomi, obviously. She’s building networks of resistance with the desperate hope of undermining the empire. Alex, whose sections also give us a view onto Bobbie. Teresa Duarte is a new character, the daughter of the dictator. While her father plans to make himself immortal, he’s grooming Teresa as his heir, just in case he needs a backup plan. Elvi, the scientist first seen in Cibula Burn, makes a return. She’s reluctantly become a high ranking scientist of the empire, studying the civilization that made the proto-molecule… and whatever it was that destroyed them.
Mysterious alien artifacts and presences have always underlined the Expanse series, although the conflict largely stems from humans being awful to each other (not particularly surprising). But for ages now, the books have been building up this question: what destroyed the civilization that built the proto-molecule? And will they return to destroy humanity?
Unfortunately, Duarte is in power and he’s decided that the best course of action is to attack the all-powerful, unfathomable alien beings. I can’t really talk about anything else relating to this, but I literally gasped out loud at some of the plot twists here. It’s incredibly thrilling and I get chills just thinking about it. It kind of feels like humans are busy throwing rocks at each other and meanwhile, the godlike aliens who already destroyed one incredibly advanced civilization are like, “Oh shit, I’ve got a pest problem, better call the exterminator.” How the hell book nine is going to resolve this, I have no freaking idea.
Moving on from how intense this book was, the Expanse series has always been driven by its characters who captured my heart in a way I never would have predicted. The first sentence of Tiamat’s Wrath is a character death. I got so upset and worried about my beloved characters that I read the first half of the book pretty slowly! I was scared about more deaths, okay?
Holden’s never been my favorite of the cast, but he’s grown on me, and I missed him here. That said, it was interesting to see him through Teresa’s perspective. Teresa reminds me a bit of Filip (parallels of being raised by wannabe dictator fathers) but I like her more. She’s less violent, more thoughtful. She feels trapped by the life she’s in. She’s constantly watched and while she has more power than say, Holden, she’s still largely powerless, at the mercy of the adults around her. Over the course of Tiamat’s Wrath she begins to discover her own strength as well as her own anger.
I liked Elvi Okoye a lot more this time around. I think she’s matured since Cibola Burn. Also we don’t get the weird subplot about her emotional problems being solved with sex. Anyway, here she’s worried that she’s complicit in the ills of Duarte’s empire. And let’s be real, she sort of is. She keeps thinking that if it wasn’t her, it’d be someone else… but she sort of knows she is complicit and just doesn’t have any way to deal with it. If she protests too much, they’ll flat out murder her. So she’s basically stuck lodging the occasional formal protests that everyone above her handwaves away while she’s also looking at things that have the power to destroy all of humanity. Good luck with that Elvi.
Tiamat’s Wrath is an amazingly intense read in a series that moves from strength to strength. While it’s only been about a year since I started reading it, I’ve put an audiobook of Leviathan Wakes on hold because I need to experience it all over again. I don’t know how I’ll deal with this series ending, and there’s no way I will ever be prepared for what the final book has in store.
I received an ARC with the expectation of a free and honest review.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Flip to back Flip to front
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
| Price | New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
Frequently bought together
- +
- +
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
More items to explore
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Popular Highlights in this book
IF LIFE TRANSCENDS DEATH, THEN I WILL SEEK FOR YOU THERE. IF NOT, THEN THERE TOO.Highlighted by 2,272 Kindle readers- Growing older was a falling away of everything that didn’t matter. And a deepening appreciation of all the parts that were important enough to stay.Highlighted by 1,926 Kindle readers
- This was the problem with thousand-year Reichs. They came and they went like fireflies.Highlighted by 1,046 Kindle readers
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
My copy was missing pages 281-328. It's funny cause it skips out after the first page of one Teresa chapter and comes back in the middle of another Teresa chapter, but not funny because I'm missing 47 pages. They just like, weren't put in during binding I guess? Which is even weirder since the cover printing still lines up correctly. Also, the cover material feels different than the previous books. I don't know if this is an issue with a certain stock or seller, but yeah... I'm just going to read the 2 and a half-ish missing chapters on Kindle.
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Stuart
Number 8 and still great...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 27, 2019
Michael Holmes
The Expanse Approaches Its Endgame
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 11, 2019
Barry Mulvany
Started a bit slow but ramped up to an amazing end
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 21, 2022
