Nemesis Games

De: James S. A. Corey

Narrado por: Jefferson Mays

Hugo Award Winner for Best Series

The fifth book in the NYT best-selling Expanse series, Nemesis Games drives the crew of the Rocinante apart, and as they struggle to survive, the inner planets fall victim to an enemy's catastrophic plan.

A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.

Ships are disappearing without a trace. Private armies are being secretly formed. The sole remaining protomolecule sample is stolen. Terrorist attacks previously considered impossible bring the inner planets to their knees. The sins of the past are returning to exact a terrible price.

And as a new human order is struggling to be born in blood and fire, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante must struggle to survive and get back to the only home they have left.

Nemesis Games is a breakneck science fiction adventure following the best-selling Cibola Burn.

The Expanse

• Leviathan Wakes
• Caliban's War
• Abaddon's Gate
• Cibola Burn
• Nemesis Games
• Babylon's Ashes
• Persepolis Rising
• Tiamat's Wrath
• ​Leviathan Falls
• Memory's Legion

The Expanse Short Fiction

• Drive
• The Butcher of Anderson Station
• Gods of Risk
• The Churn
• The Vital Abyss
• Strange Dogs
• Auberon
• The Sins of Our Fathers

©2015 James S.A. Corey (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

Hugo Award Winner for Best Series

Welcome Back! I'm So Relieved...

It's back. The story I really loved is back. So if you haven't read my review of the previous book in this series, "Chibola Burns" I was pretty hard on it. And I still am. I think that novel was heavily flawed. Read my review to see my points, I'm not going into it here. The point is, I think the James S.A Corey duo, went back to the roots of the story here, and guess what? Boy does it work well.


Let me start by saying a big WELCOME BACK to Jefferson Mays. An open note to Audible..PLEASE do not get anyone to read this series. Especially not Erik Davies...I respect the guy, but he does a piss poor job with women, and makes Amos sound like a big mentally handicapped lug. Whenever Davies spoke for Amos I felt like I was reading Lennies character from "Of Mice and Men". And it didn't help that the previous book in my opinion was aweful..

Anyway no in regards to voice.. the main flaw of Chibola Burns is not present in Nemesis Games. This book is a political/character driven novel, that happens to take place in a science fiction world. And that is the perfect blend of how I like my scifi. It's not rubbed in your face that the characters are, from our perspective, in the future. Nor does it go off on tangents about alien technology that to me is very goofy. It's very weird, the backstory about the aliens, the protomolecule, the gates, and what not (which all are still very unclear to me) just don't interest me that much. It's not that I don't appreciate good sci fi, but honestly the whole concept and how it's been written so far just comes off as boring, and to be blunt, comes off as a badly written X-Files episode. I mean okay..ancient aliens.. got it... built some sort of gateway system...and they were wiped out by other aliens? Who built a security system of "slow zones" that shoot stuff, melt moons, cause space stations to be conscious, have feelings, and bring back dead characters... oh yea and create those idiotically cryptic chapters that appeared in Chibola Burns. Anyway each of those things was a small distraction in the first three books, but they all came to a head in the previous book and that just send me over the edge. The problem with the paranormal side of The Expanse series is that it's just too "out there". Too much Outer Limits for me. To me, unless done very well...Sci Fi and Paranomal shouldn't mix. It's too distracting, many sci fi heads like myself, are here to see the characters, ships, technology, space combat etc. And the Expanse series does this well, but the paranormal stuff just butts it's head in and completely tosses in seemingly random crap that the author just seems to have made up to throw into the story. (I know I said I wouldn't spend time re-reviewing Chibola Burns, but that whole moon melting thing? I just don't get it..)


That being said, let me get back on track with Nemesis Games. This book is NOT Chibola Burns. It really isn't, Corey has given us a book that really delves into the characters of the Rocinante and I love it. Minus Holden actually, the crew all return to their homes to give us a really good view into where each comes from. (Here I recommend though reading the Expanse Novella's. These go further into a few of our characters backgrounds, like Amos)
The most revealing and consequence driven backstory is Naomi by far. And this has been a long time coming. We knew from very subtle hints that her time on board the Canterbury had been to escape 'something' but we are given the full glimpse and the pieces all come together.
She, at a young age fell prey to something that many women do, she becomes enamored with an older, headstrong guy who for one way or another, is not exactly on the most moral path. He and his crew, before they were actual OPA and were just militant Belters, begin taking action...sabotage runs in revenge for Earth/Mars actions. The man's name is Marco, and has a profound affect later in the Earth/Mars/OPA relationship. Young Naomi ignores (knowingly or not) that Marco has been involved with these plots and continues to see him as a man of virtue, solidity, and charm. Blah blah blah, the point is, they have a kid together and that is what makes the story very human and tragic, as Naomi later on expresses her concerns, she's basically cast out, and Marco discards her like a used rag. (even black mails her). Speaking of which, going towards the end of the book, the authors, treat us to a very raw and almost painful description of Naomi knowingly reaching the end of her limits, and her pushing her body onward literally within her last gasps. Exhausted and low on air, she fights to try to undo and make up for all the damage she's done with Marco. (She sort of inadvertently helped come up with equations and methods to destroy and disable ships)

James Corey they do a marvelous job in creating a very raw description of Naomi and her relationship with not only Marco, but the crew that she used to run with, with Marco. When they reunite, it seems natural. And her little shit of a son is a perfect little shit of a douche as well. Actually one complaint I did have is that I felt no (zero) remorse for her son OR Marco. Which in turn led me to look disapprovingly on Naomi's weak character for falling for him. See...this is what good writing is... It made me have an emotion other than... "Wait...where did those space death slugs come from...and Why is Miller now transformed into a robot?" See how silly that sounds?

Moving on, I really appreciate how Corey brings into and out of focus the supporting characters. And this is damn important. One of the characters introduced back in book 2 or 3 Bobbie, has left and come back into the story. And from the looks of it may be apart of the story deeply now. Her and Alex seem to have really hit it off, and it looks like there may be something between the two. I like how characters aren't created once, used, and never returned to. Or created, just to be cannon fodder. That becomes very predictable, and very old and it spoils the story. You then know that each new character you meet will just be a device to advance the story and die. Nemesis Games does a fantastic job of bringing in characters from past books and still keeping their personality and having them react in their natural way.

With the above being stated, this brings me to one issue. Clarrisa Mao. I don't know how you "read" her character in Abaddon's Gate...but to me she came off as clearly, and undeniably mentally unstable. She seriously was not all there. She was hell-bent on getting revenge on the Crew and Holden for her father's demise. And then suddenly she's cool with them. And her and Amos become all buddy buddy. (that part isn't too hard to believe actually) They transferred her to prison, which took a year dumped her off, and now in this book Amos returns and goes to retrieve her. At this point in the story, I just don't see how/what her character would want to ship aboard the Roci. I don't think a year in transit, "fixed" her mental instability.
And there's another point that isn't really the author's fault..but the long long passages of time, really hamper the story. It may be because so far I've read these books, literally all back to back, so the passage of time for me is null. But it's hard for me to come to grips with the fact that a year or more passes between books at times. It doesn't help either that the author only casually imparts this upon us. So it's more of a "wtf" moment, when we realize years have gone by. Even visualizing the characters is hard to do, because of this, and the authors don't really write to this fact. They don't express any aging, or worst yet, any changing relationships. Perfect example is Clarissa Mao... They literally transported her on the Roci for a year but it's barely spoken about, and it seems like things should have happened in the interrim.

Anyway, my last complaint is just something a bit odd in story telling. Spoilers follow so turn away if they bother you.
Earth is hit by the rogue OPA faction, "The Free Navy" under Marcos' control. They use and fling some asteroids to hit Earth. This is another "Chibola Burns" moment for me. Okay...slow down. How did they do this? It's mentioned how this was ever accomplished? How on friggin earth did a small pirate band, someone control asteroids and shoot them at Earth, and no one on Earth saw them coming? I think even by today's technology we'd be able to tell that something was hurtling towards us like this. It's stuff like this that just makes me go "Where did this come from?" No explanation. Grates on my nerves,..but I can deal..

Nemesis games is a return to what I loved about the series. The character all act and react in very native and realistic ways which, again is important to me. Nothing like Chibola Burns where everything comes out of left field, and turns into the Twilight Zone. The developing relation between Fred Johnson and the crew continues to evolve, relationships between characters form, even our foul mouthed secretary general Avasarila returns and helps out. Despite the bitching above..I really really was stoked reading this book. So much so, that I had to consciously slow myself down and pace myself, because the next book isn't due out until Novem! Ugh the wait!

Poor audio quality

The story and the narrator's performance were great, I mean if you made it this far in the series, there's no reason to stop now, so I'm not going to nitpick the book.

However, the audio quality in this book nosedived from previous ones. It sounds very low-bitrate, like a 96kbps MP3 from another decade. Bad or low quality encoding, mushy sounding. It took an hour or so to forget how clear the previous book was, so I basically tuned out that part of the story.

More adventures with the Rocinante Gang

Would you listen to Nemesis Games again? Why?

Yes, I would actually listen to Nemesis Games again. Why you ask? Because I might later want to read all the books back to back so I can see if I caught something I might have missed in the 1st listen-read. I liked a lot aspects of this book!

What other book might you compare Nemesis Games to and why?

Not really sure what to compare this to because it's part of a series I find to be original and I'm glad of this.

Have you listened to any of Jefferson Mays’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I think Jefferson Mays does a great job of reading this series. I've read a few other books in the Expanse series that JM reads and I like his style a lot!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Well....*SPOILER ALERT* I was pretty darn surprised by Naomi's past, having a former gorgeous asshole husband and a grown child and then they killed billions of people on earth in rebellion, without a consideration of all the people they hurt.

Any additional comments?

Can't wait for the next Full installment to The Expanse (no shirt stories please!).

The Best So Far!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If you like audio books and scyfy audio books in particular then you need to get this series.
While it is not required to listen to them in order (or read them in order, though I recommend the audible experience for these) I think that listening to/ reading them in the order that they were released will will enhance your experience. The Series is Highly Recommended!

What did you like best about this story?

The characters!

Which scene was your favorite?

Everything Amos!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It is and I did !

Any additional comments?

Jump in somewhere and enjoy this wonderful series of stories!

Love this series

I listen to this series when walking and doing yard work. makes time go fast

Yay!! Jefferson Mays is back!!

I love these stories. I love the way tech is described and how ships work. I can't help but think humanity is on the verge of having its asses handed to them by something beyond the rings.

The focus of the story on the narrative was only distracting a little as my mind wandered to bigger things but honestly with Jefferson back narrating the story could have been crap. I was scarred by the less than talented person who did book 4. Skip that one and read it instead. He ruins things for everybody.

Another great saga in the expanse universe.

This time we delve a little into the back ground more of the crew, and highlight personal struggles within against the drama of the galaxy. The alien tech is still in this book, but it doesn't play as major of a role as it has in books past. But don't let that fool you. More humans die in this book, than any other in the series so far. Hang on!

Best book in the series!!!

This is hands down the best book in the series. It was great to see the crew of the Rocinante in their own adventures.

Great book 5

This series continues to be a great listen. No question. Of course book 1-4 are a must too.

HYPE

Best book and performance so far. Phew. On to the next book to continue the journey.