I just finished the first book in The Expanse series "Leviathan Wakes". I really loved the book and it is exactly the type of book I was looking to read. It has that perfect amount of space action that I find satisfying while still remaining grounded and realistic enough to hold my interest.

I did listen to the audio book and in the series I noticed there were some short stories listed before the first book chronologically and I was wondering if I need to read those.

So my main question is how should I go about reading the rest of the series?

- Should I read it all in chronological order?

- Read the books in release order?

- Or should I skip the short stories and save them for after I complete the main book series?

I am perfectly fine with reading all the short stories and I plan on reading them all anyways but I was just curious what the best way to go about it would be.

I am also curious whether there are any stories or books that I can skip because they may have no bearing on the overarching story or events.

Thanks for the help!

—PLEASE NO SPOILERS—

About halfway through Babylons Ashes here and did anyone else find this book mind-numbingly boring? Losing count of all the different perspectives. I hope this is a setup book for the remaining novels.

Such a great scene ,Good character writing as well for amos, he's wanted an excuse to beat the pulp out of murtry but also wanted to listen to holden to hold back unless he was provoked, he found a loophole, provoked murtry into hitting him only for murtry to realize via his "oh shit" expression that its exactly what amos wanted, the crazy eyes and the "thankyou" was so damn satisfying haha.

Genuinely one of my favourite scenes later in the series. (Im on a rewatch after all these years and yeah this is one of the top scifi tv shows for me)

At the beginning of the year I started my journey to get my CDL and become an OTR trucker. From the first moments behind the wheel it immediately felt like piloting a giant spaceship. With all the gauges, buttons, sounds and of course size and weight… not to mention the industry jargon of being the captain of my own ship - I couldn’t help but think it was a space faring vessel! So needless to say once I got out of training and got into my own “spaceship” I had to name her the Rocinante! And as of this week I finally started the audiobooks.

I had never really given audiobooks as a medium a chance but I started listening to fictional podcasts like Midnight Burger on my drives a few weeks back . Listening to stories unfold really lend themselves to driving nearly 11 hours every day. Needless to say I fell in love with them and then it struck me… I need to take the plunge. I had seen everyone rave about the audiobooks, now it was time! It’s been less than a week and I’m already on Abaddon’s Gate. I thought I was obsessed with the TV shows - the books are literally heroin. At night when I’m in my bunk drifting off to sleep all I can think about is getting up in the morning, doing my pre-trip, warming up the drives, powering up the systems, and starting up my book all while I pilot my Roci across the cosmos delivering goods to the people all over galaxy!

I apologize for the sloppy photoshop, I’m on my phone out here on the road with no laptop, it was the best I could do in short notice and I was mainly excited to tell other fans about my quirky little Expanse journey!

Anyone got any ideas for fun decorations I can add to my spaceship? Further lean into it being the Roci? Maybe I can mount some PDC’s somewhere lol it could help with traffic!

I'm re-reading this series for the umpteenth time and one thing that is really standing out this time around is the depth of the worldbuilding. There are so many little details that make it such a believable world, like this passage from Elvi's point-of-view in Leviathan Falls:

When she was being honest with herself, it wasn't even that she loved medical genetics all that much. When she was fifteen, she'd seen Amalie ud-Daula play a medical geneticist in Handful of Rain, and she spent the next year trying to get her hair to look the same. She never really managed.

It's a throwaway line about an actor and film that only exists in-universe and is never mentioned again. And the entire series is just filled with little snippets like this.

I don't think I've read any other series with this much depth to the background world.

https://reddit.com/link/1v4bm8m/video/uup25ud5uyeh1/player

Oye belter fans!
So I spent a lot of my holiday on improving the Belter Charts and finally got around to recording a showcase video.

This is for you and for me, the fans. It is not official thing in any way.

But I hope you will enjoy it and spread the word. Also comment here, because the awesome comments from the community are what kept me going. I love it and thank you all!

What's new since launch (whole busy month, beltalowda):

Stories:

- Seven canon story scenarios, from the Cant's last haul to the Ring flotilla: Epstein's last flight, Julie's last run, Miller's ride to Eros, the Io dash, and Eros making its move. Flight stories put you in the seat with a scripted comm log; watch stories lock the camera on the body while history plays out.

- Spoiler gate: tell the chart how far you've read (book one through six) and it hides the rest. Menus, events, and stories all respect it.

The system got crowded:

- Ambient traffic layer: procedurally generated ships flying real lanes between Earth, Mars, Ceres, Tycho, and the Belt. Faction-tinted transit arcs, hoverable ship names, deterministic (scrub the clock, same ships fly again). Toggle it from the timeline.

- Port districts on Ceres and Eros: warm dock lights and structures that spin with the rock.

- Tycho and Anderson stations with real models, spinning drums, window lights, and running beacons.

Real hulls:

- The Rocinante, the Canterbury-type hauler, the Donnager, and Epstein's yacht are now actual 3D models (community CC-BY models, credited in-app), with faction liveries painted on.

- Epstein-drive plumes per engine: exhaust grows with the burn, mach diamonds on the torches. The Donnager burns on all four nacelles.

Worlds worth looking at:

- Earth got a live day/night terminator that tracks the real sun, city lights, an atmosphere rim that only glows on the lit limb, and a cloud layer that drifts independently of the surface.

- Close-up focus and ship zoom.

Quality of life:

- Bring your own soundtrack: load audio files for your ride, cached also for the next time.

- Ride speed controls and a rebuilt ride HUD.

- New timeline speeds, a proper loading screen with shader pre-compile, and smoother keyboard flight.