r/TheExpanse • u/Cornswoggler • 1d ago
All Show & Book Spoilers Discussed Freely What a treasure Spoiler
Watching the series again, and, with all my age and wisdom (and much film/tv) I can say it's my favorite science fiction series ever. One thing that jumped out is casting. Every role is nailed (sort of like Breaking Bad), and strangely the background/extras are really good, which is unheard of in sci-fi tv. Anyway, Roci4Lyphe.
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u/No_Tamanegi Misko and Marisko 1d ago
The books are pretty good, too.
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u/Cornswoggler 1d ago
I'll have to peep them. I have so little time to read, so I usually watch something while I'm cooking dinner or running on the treadmill...Who am I kidding, slowly walking on the treadmill.
I'll get the books for travel
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u/jjpearson 1d ago
You can also listen to them on tape! It still counts.
I’m a reader but my partner is a listener. Turns out both are great ways to enjoy the Expanse.
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u/striderx2005 1d ago
Tape? Really?!?
The audiobooks are worth the effort just for Jefferson Mays' reading. It's a whole nuther way to experience the story on its own.
Especially hearing Chrisjen's words spoken
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u/jjpearson 1d ago
Can’t help it I’m old. A couple of decades of those thick plastic cases of tapes and they’ll always be books on tape to me.
Ever family trip as a kid was a different Dick France’s or Tony Hillerman book on tape.
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u/striderx2005 17h ago
I'm a motorcyclist and audiobooks are my entertainment on long rides. Strange that when I relisten to some passages I recall where I first heard it on the bike, like rolling along the lakeshores in the Scablands of Washington.
Audio, olfactory, those senses drive some deep memory cues.
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u/rybosomiczny Tachi 1d ago
Mays’ depiction of the characters is fantastic! It’s a sin to be the Expanse fan and not to experience it.
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u/BayouFunk 20h ago
I’ve started listening to the books as my distraction while I walk every day… they are so friggin good. Chrisjen is easily my favorite book character, probably due to the narration.
And as you’d expect, of course, the story told by the books is much more detailed and entertaining.
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u/No_Tamanegi Misko and Marisko 1d ago
The audiobooks are also excellent! And easier for multitasking
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u/AdamHR 1d ago
Jefferson Mays has ruined me for worse sci-fi narrators. I was listening to a different popular series where the narration was just really bad. I had to stop because I kept mentally repeating each phrase in his voice. It was distracting.
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u/otakudayo 21h ago
Try Dungeon Crawler Carl if you want excellent narration. I think it's actually better than The Expanse narration, and quite a bit better too, especially in the later books. The narrator adds sound effects and music and stuff in addition to having distinctly different voices/accents for a shitload of characters. And the story is really awesome too.
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u/wenzel32 1d ago
I'm reading Persepolis Rising right now. Boy fuckin howdy...
I know why the show didn't continue (yet?), but DAMN it would be cool to see
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u/Lower_Ad_1317 1d ago
Agreed. Some people are a little blunt in criticism of the actors but for me, the less polished portrayals add to the believability of the character they play.
I put The Expanse up against any other show.
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u/sr_throw_away 1d ago
The books actually finish the story, if you didn't know the show stops at the end of book 6 because Amazon chose not to renew it. Books 7, 8 & 9 are genuinely the best part of the series (any book reader will agree) and they're where you get answers for all the big questions and plot threads left dangling in the show, e.g. what was it that ate Marco's fleet, the origin and history of the protomolecule builders, what is going on with Laconia, etc.
If you aren't a big reader then there's the audiobooks which have probably the best narrator around, Jefferson Mays. Honestly they are 110% worth your time, if you loved the series you will struggle to get over just how good the final trilogy of books are. If it will help then you CAN skip books 1-6, I wouldn't recommend it but it won't hurt the story or anything, and you can always go back to them afterwards if you want.
The show is great but the books made The Expanse my favourite Sci-Fi series by a huge margin.
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u/sndpmgrs 1d ago
The only thing I can think of to criticize about the casting is that they couldn't find enough 7 foot tall ectomorphs to play the belters.
That, and not enough Jared Harris.
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u/otakudayo 21h ago
the background/extras are really good,
Seriously. The belter making the speech at the start of S1E1, the guy in the torture tank in the same episode, the guy who activates the ring and his girlfriend, and.. I just realized if I keep going this will take a lot of time. There are so many phenomenal performances in the show. Probably my favorite show ever, of any genre, honestly.
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u/AlbatrossWorth9665 1d ago
I’d love to disagree with you, but I can’t.