Part of The Expanse, book 4
First published 2014
James Holden stares at an abandoned alien military base on Ilus, humanity's first colony beyond the ring gates. Fighters and tanks sit empty on runways. Something destroyed the ancient civilization that built this place. Now Ilus bleeds as independent settlers battle a corporate colony ship for control of the planet. Scientists die surveying alien ruins. The corporate colonists bring overwhelming firepower. The independent settlers fight with determination and war-tested skills from conflicts back home. Earth sends Holden and the Rocinante crew to broker peace between the factions. Holden suspects his superiors designed this mission to fail. The conflict threatens to spread back through the ring gates to Earth itself. Dead voices whisper warnings about the vanished galactic empire. Whatever killed that ancient civilization might kill again.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, space-opera, action
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Earth, Ilus
Period: Future
Unknown Binding · Orbit Books
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence, war