The Vital Abyss: An Expanse Novella
by James S.A. Corey
The Expanse original ebooks haven't done a lot for me so far, to be honest; the strength of the novels is in their long-form construction and plotting, and the multiplicity of perspectives they assemble. The ebooks, since they are all short stories and novellas, don't really go deep enough to reveal anything interesting about the characters, and aren't long enough to be interestingly plotted. (Other authors can do those things in short fiction, of course, but it seems to me that Corey cannot.) But
The Vital Abyss is the clear standout of these thus far, a compelling read about one man's descent into his belief that the ends justify the means, and somewhat horrific in the detached way that it tells the story. I think this is all backstory to explain something in the main series I've already forgotten about, but that's fine, because it works completely well on its own as a dark
bildungsroman. Hopefully future
Expanse shorts are more like this one.
I read an Expanse story every eighty-ish days. Next up in sequence: Babylon's Ashes
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