#the expanse book spoilers

[rocicrew]

i find the lack of ever revisting julie as a character in the expanse infuriating. i know they decided to use miller instead. but !! think about julie. the first to find out about the protomolecule outside protogen, the first to get sick and escape only to die on eros. and then, to transform and be transformed. the first seed that kicked this whole story forward. i can hear their screams, can you hear julie's ? who loved to race so bad it turned an asteroid into a spaceship, who's essence became the base for the gate and that gate gave humanity the stars. and in it, the hostile entities. using the ring space to hurt humanity. we know that protomolecule is connected and communicates. we know that those infected still live on with some kind of presence. she who died first trying to protect the belt, humanity too, feeling duarte’s wrong use of it all.

(she that could have been by the side of the person that tried to rescue her–holden–making the choice she never had, to become one with this network in a last attempt to save everyone)

[battlestarbones]

just went to rewatch a bit from the expanse TV finale and I was like "why is Holden piloting the ship?? bitch can't fly for shit!!" BECAUSE I FORGOT THEY FUCKING KILLED ALEX MY BABYGIRL MY BELOVED

[phantomoftheorpheum]

CHRISJEN AVASARALA | the once and future queen

[a-very-cute-snake]

DID EROS STATION JUST GET UP AND LEAVE?????

I'm reading Leviathan Wakes and- what- I'm shook, flabbergasted, awestruck-

It really gained sentience and said "aight Imma head out" and fucking walked away

[mobiusstripper]

"If the thing that calls itself Aliana Tanaka came apart here and never swirled back together, I wouldn't even notice that I was missing."

[gyrovagi]

like obviously the architect can't really be brought up but [INSANE BLIGHT LORE DROP] 'well despite the fact that this changes everything darkspawn will never be sentient and capable of reason so we don't have to worry about all that' is certainly . a decision

[novelconcepts]

Moseying along in book 2 of The Expanse, and I cannot stress enough how much I am digging this series—except. There are Marines on Mars. We have fancy spaceship-travel shenanigans. There’s a body horror god molecule having its merry way with Venus. We are in Space, Motherfuckers. Why have I not met a single queer person yet????

[furiousgardener]

Hey, sorry your boyfriend got consumed by a an intelligent alien tool. yeah, he was reduced to his core traits and repurposed to suit its needs. no, his purpose is still to find missing things. yeah, it reaches out and it reaches out and it reaches out and it reaches out

[satanicspeaks]

What I want to know about The Expanse world is how is data storage being managed? If there is that many people across our solar system (and beyond) then where is all the data being stored and how?

This also applies to other sci-fi media. Currently we are so used to places hosting data that it’s become an after thought (until AO3 goes down or someone remembers they don’t actually own a copy of the e-book they bought on kindle).

In The Expanse there are terminals, similar to phones but can do a lot more, where anyone can log in to a terminal with their identifier and then it has all their messages and things they need. So instead of the phone number system we have it’s more like logging in to a universal Facebook. That raises some security issues but not the point here.

By making it a Facebook type system then the person also doesn’t own their own data. It’s not solely stored on their device. There are tech in that world where data is only stored on one thing, like our USB’s, but that’s not the standard because there’s a network. For there to be a network there must be a place to connect it all to.

So, given what happens in book 6 (no spoilers here dw) I reckon it’s stored in the belt, somewhere in vacuum/space, on Luna, or on several of the moons. Reasoning is that reduces a lot of natural heat data servers would have to deal with, reduces natural environment problems. It would absolutely be several locations, sole locations are a serious liability, and also with how much emphasis the series puts on light delay data/communications from one to another that would cause bigger issues.

As I type this I just realised: each station/location would need to have some level of a local copy. There were times that characters quickly set up a new terminal within a minute, and functionally waiting long periods is just bad business.

This likely isn’t something the author considered for the series, because killing or taking data servers hostage would be a way to fuck everyone over. Hence strengthening to the idea that data storage is in *a lot* of locations, making it hard to do a full take over.

There is also some programming elements that make me ‘hmmm’, especially season 1 of the Tv series where a sole person is trying to crack complicated encryption on a time crunch. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a hobby programmer at most, my area is UX, so I don’t know if that’s truely effective. But from how over stated the complexity is it would make more sense to have several people on it (buuut of course story wise it’s cooler if one person can crack the really complicated Martian encryption).

I do wish the TV series showed Naomi as a programmer too, not just electrical and systems engineer. Maybe it’ll pop up later, I can see why they don’t with wanting a more visual way to show what she’s doing, but it feels like it understates her skills and what she can actually do.

Ty for reading my ramble if you made it this far. There’s practically no fandom for this series so mutuals can just second hand enjoy this

[badwolf-gallagher88]

Day 1: Yearning

Day 1 of @phantomkinoc13's Write November - just a few words on the Expanse because why not (and I'm a bit obsessed with Miller)

Josephus Miller never knew what it was like to step foot on Earth. 

Juliette Andromeda Mao never knew what it was like to be born and raised a Belter. 

He yearned for what she had, to be able to grasp the seeds that had led to rebellion in her heart. What half-lit fire had blazed as brightly as the Earther’s sun? What ice moon had been in that girl’s heart? There must have been something, some damned way of understanding that encapsulated a desire to dive into the smoke filled dust pits of Ceres station. It took a real kind of courage - a real kind of yearning - to want to make yourself heard among the types who despised you. 

Juliette Andromeda Mao yearned to be understood by the bastards of the belt. She wanted them to see an Earther who knew their suffering, who wanted to change the vile order, the relentless drives down into the darkness. She wanted them to reach, to touch the light. 

Josephus Miller yearned too. He yearned to understand what could drive a girl to such damned madness. 

[rocicrew]

The part where I think how much I want him to be here and safe and not hurting, and telling me not to hurt, either.

[battlestarbones]

Leviathan Falls Spoilers

...

scenes that make me wanna howl at the moon and be shot into space at the same time!! jim is basically a lump of PTSD in a human skin at this point but the traumas just keep coming!!

[meeeeeeese]

Well this doesn't sound terrifying at all.

[REDACTED] seems to be some kind of cognitohazard infection... thing? One that might be sentient given it can become aware of things. Guess it shows how lucky Tyria may be in the grand scheme of things

[saltinesinsoup]

reading this one YA book. it’s making me laugh bc the main character is a mary sue for sure (not like. the worst thing to happen but it’s very obvious things are gonna come up Io) and also it’s got some of that patented corny YA dialogue along with those crazy coincidences that everyone is in the same city! and our mcs have no issues navigating which just ties back to the mary sue/plot armor point. but i am enjoying it still

[mobiusstripper]

It's all right to let go. Holding on is only pain and weariness. You can let go.

[loremastering]

BABYGIRL HAS ARRIVED