Babylon's Ashes

Last updated
Babylon's Ashes
Babylons Ashes.jpg
First edition
Author James S. A. Corey
Cover artist Daniel Dociu
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Series The Expanse
Genre Science fiction
PublishedDecember 6, 2016
Publisher Orbit Books
Media typePrint
Audiobook
E-book
Pages544
ISBN 978-0-316-33474-7
Preceded by Nemesis Games  
Followed by Persepolis Rising  

Babylon's Ashes is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and the sixth book in their The Expanse series. The title of the novel was announced in early July 2015, [1] and the cover and brief synopsis were revealed on September 14, 2015. [2] It won the 2017 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.[3] According to the authors, Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham (writers behind the pen name James S.A. Corey), with the preceding book in the series, Nemesis Games , the Babylon's Ashes story serves as the overall "hinge point" in the progression of the full set of The Expanse novels. [1]

Contents

This is the last book in the series to be set in the period that began with Leviathan Wakes, as the remaining sequels take place decades later.  

Plot summary

Three months have passed since the Free Navy attacked the solar system. The navy consolidates power in the Belt, steals resources from colony ships heading for the Ring, cuts off contact between Medina Station and the colonies, and continues launching rocks at Earth. On Medina Station, rail guns are installed by the Free Navy around the Slow Zone's alien station (dormant since the events of Abaddon's Gate ) to prevent any enemy ships from moving through the area. Meanwhile, Winston Duarte's rogue Martian faction takes residence in the Laconia system through the gates and works for some unknown purpose. The reason that some ships passing through Ring Gates disappeared is still unknown.

Marco Inaros calls a meeting of his inner circle including Michio Pa, Anderson Dawes, and others, and lays out his plan for a future for the solar system in which humanity exists completely independently of Earth. On Luna, James Holden has a meeting with acting UN secretary Chrisjen Avasarala, who informs him that Earth has identified the Azure Dragon, the Free Navy ship that coordinates the meteor attacks. Holden and his crew (including Clarissa Mao, whom Amos had rescued from Earth during the attack) are sent on a mission on the Rocinante to disable the Azure Dragon. Bobbie Draper is sent along as mission commander. They succeed and they bring the crew of Azure Dragon as prisoners back to Luna.

With the immediate threat of more rock strikes averted, Avasarala plans to launch a major offensive to take back Ceres from the Free Navy. However, Marcos Inaros strategically evacuates the station after stripping it of its resources, leaving the arriving Earth and Martian fleets responsible for the survival of millions of stranded citizens. Fed up with his tactics, Michio Pa, who had led the pirate fleet stealing from colony ships, betrays Marco, and uses her small fleet of ships to continue their original mission of redistributing pirated supplies to belt colonies in need. Marco responds to the betrayal by destroying some of her ships.

Fred Johnson decides to call a meeting with all OPA factions that didn’t join the Free Navy. The crew of the Rocinante ferries Fred to Tycho, but are ambushed by Free Navy ships led by Marco. Although they manage to drive off Marco, Fred has a stroke under high-G maneuvers and dies.

Holden leads the meeting with the OPA factions after Fred’s demise and convinces the heads of Earth, Mars, and the OPA to form a combined fleet to take on the Free Navy. The consolidated fleet devises a plan to take back Medina Station, considered to be the most strategically important military objective as it controls access to the Ring network. The consolidated fleets, including Michio Pa's fleet of Pirates, will launch a massive military offensive all across the Solar System at the Free Navy. The distraction will allow the Rocinante to escort thousands of small, unmanned craft to the Ring, overwhelming the rail guns installed in the Slow Zone. Once the Rocinante has control of the rail guns, a second wave of ships will take Medina back.

The offensive distracts the Free Navy as planned, although the consolidated fleet takes heavy losses and Michio Pa's fleet is crippled. Although the Rocinante reaches the Ring, the force taking the rail guns, led by Bobbie, is surprised by the presence of Duarte's marines defending the guns. Unable to take control of them, Bobbie instead destroys the guns by destroying the nuclear reactor powering them. Although Medina Station surrenders to the Rocinante, without the guns, the station is completely undefended from a counterattack by the Free Navy. Marco Inaros quickly orders the rest of the Free Navy to travel to Medina Station under heavy burn, hoping to retake the station and deal a major blow to the consolidated fleet. Filip Inaros, after several conflicts with his father throughout the book, decides to leave him and stay behind on Callisto, changing his name to “Filip Nagata”.  

Naomi analyses the data on disappearing colony ships and figures out the circumstances under which ships disappear when passing through Ring gates: when a certain threshold of mass passing through a gate is reached, and a ship passes through closely afterward, that ship will disappear. In a desperate final attempt to stop the Free Navy from retaking the station, the Coalition sends the right amount of mass through the Ring, timing it so that Marco’s ships disappear upon entering the Ring. Marco, and the rest of the Free Navy, disappear to some unknown fate.

Six months later, the heads of the major Solar System governments met to determine how to rebuild after the war with the Free Navy. The Laconia gate has been blockaded by Earth, but so far Duarte has not attempted to leave the system. Holden proposes setting up a transport union of belters, to manage the flow of resources from the colonies back to the solar system to rebuild the infrastructure. Although Avasarala attempts to appoint Holden as the head of this union, he refuses, instead appointing Michio Pa. Holden and the crew of the Rocinante, now permanently including Bobbie and Clarissa, will instead provide freelance work for the union, much as they had done for the OPA before it.  

With the Free Navy removed from the equation, the gates to the stars are reopened.

Characters

There are two categories of characters in The Expanse novels, those acting as chapter narrators (the "POV characters"), and those additional characters, who, though not narrating, are nevertheless significant in the development of the novel's plot. Babylon's Ashes, features a larger number of POV characters compared to previous entries, with a total of fifteen. [1] [2]

The POV characters of the novel, including in its Prologue and Epilogue, include the crew of the Rocinante, returning Martian colleague Bobbie Draper, U.N. Secretary and "earther" Chrisjen Avasarala, and "belter" and Free Navy leader Marco Inaros, as well as earlier series notables like Praxidike Meng, [1] [2] and peripheral characters like Namono, [2] spouse of earlier principal character Anna Volovodov: [3]

Reception

As Nial Alexander notes, Babylon's Ashes is "[n]arratively... the polar opposite of its predecessor, which breathed in where this book breathes out." [2] The last novel focused on the backstories of the main characters of the Rocinante crew, and then their intersections with past critical characters; [4] As Alexander notes, "rather than casting the core four—Holden, Naomi, Amos and Alex—as our central perspectives, as in Nemesis Games, [this] saga explodes outwards to include more narrators than The Expanse has ever had to handle, as if to say: this isn’t just about our jokers any more", but the whole of the system's humanity, belters and earthers and Martians, however impacted by events. [2]

Short story

"Strange Dogs" is a short story published by James S.A. Corey, set between Babylon's Ashes and its sequel Persepolis Rising , consisting of 103 pages.[ citation needed ]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

A ship prefix is a combination of letters, usually abbreviations, used in front of the name of a civilian or naval ship that has historically served numerous purposes, such as identifying the vessel's mode of propulsion, purpose, or ownership/nationality. In the modern environment, prefixes are cited inconsistently in civilian service, whereas in government service a vessel's prefix is seldom omitted due to government regulations dictating that a certain prefix be used. Today the common practice is to use a single prefix for all warships of a nation's navy, and other prefixes for auxiliaries and ships of allied services, such as coast guards. For example, the modern navy of Japan adopts the prefix "JS" – Japanese Ship. However, not all navies use prefixes. Among the blue-water navies, those of France, Brazil, China, Russia, Germany, and Spain do not use ship prefixes. NATO designations such as FS, FGS, and SPS can be used if needed.

A flag of Mars is a concept of a possible flag design, meant to symbolize the planet Mars or to represent a fictional Martian government, in works of fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James S. A. Corey</span> Pseudonymous authors of the science fiction series The Expanse

James S. A. Corey is the pen name used by collaborators Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, authors of the science fiction series The Expanse. The first and last name are taken from Abraham's and Franck's middle names, respectively, and S. A. are the initials of Abraham's daughter. The name is also meant to emulate many of the space opera writers of the 1970s. In Germany, their books are published under the name James Corey with the middle initials omitted.

<i>Leviathan Wakes</i> 2011 science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey

Leviathan Wakes is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of American writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. It is the first book in the Expanse series, followed by Caliban's War (2012), Abaddon's Gate (2013) and six other novels. Leviathan Wakes was nominated for the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the 2012 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. The novel was adapted for television in 2015 as the first season-and-a-half of The Expanse by Syfy. Five short stories that take place before, during, or after Leviathan Wakes were published between 2011 and 2019.

<i>Calibans War</i> 2012 science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey

Caliban's War is a 2012 science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey. It is about a conflict in the Solar System that involves the polities Earth, Mars, the Asteroid Belt and the outer planets, and a powerful extraterrestrial biological von Neumann probe. The second book in The Expanse series, it was preceded by Leviathan Wakes. The third book, Abaddon's Gate, was released on June 4, 2013. One of eight short stories and novellas published by James S. A. Corey, entitled "Gods of Risk", takes place directly after the events of Caliban's War.

<i>Abaddons Gate</i> 2013 novel by James S. A. Corey

Abaddon's Gate is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey. It is about a conflict in the Solar System that involves the polities of Earth, Mars, the Asteroid Belt and the outer planets, and a mysterious self-replicating alien technology of immense power. It is the third title of The Expanse series and is preceded by Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War. The series is continued in Cibola Burn. The book was released on 4 June 2013, as well released as an audiobook by Audible, narrated by Jefferson Mays.

<i>Cibola Burn</i> 2014 novel by James S. A. Corey

Cibola Burn is a 2014 science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey and the fourth book in The Expanse series. It follows the crew of the Rocinante as they join the flood of humanity out into the galaxy, using the gates built by the ancient civilization which also produced the protomolecule. Cibola Burn is heavily influenced by western stories, departing slightly from the previous themes of the series to tell a story of survival on the frontier. At the release of Cibola Burn, Orbit Books announced that James S. A. Corey would write three additional books in the series to bring the series to nine novels and various short stories. Cibola Burn serves as the basis for the fourth season of the television series The Expanse, which was released by Amazon Video December 13, 2019.

The Expanse is an American science fiction television series developed by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby for the Syfy network and is based on the series of novels of the same name by James S. A. Corey. Set in a future where humanity has colonized the Solar System, it follows a disparate band of protagonists — United Nations Security Council member Chrisjen Avasarala, cynical detective Josephus Miller, and ship's officer James Holden and his crew — as they unwittingly unravel and place themselves at the center of a conspiracy that threatens the system's fragile peace, while dealing with existential crises brought forth by newly discovered alien technology.

The Expanse is a series of science fiction novels by James S. A. Corey, the joint pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. The first novel, Leviathan Wakes, was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2012. The complete series was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2017. It later won, following its second nomination for the same award in 2020.

<i>Nemesis Games</i> 2015 novel by James S. A. Corey

Nemesis Games is a 2015 science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and the fifth book in their The Expanse series. It is the sequel to Cibola Burn. The cover art is by Daniel Dociu. Nemesis Games has received positive reviews. The novel has been referred to as "Corey’s 'Empire Strikes Back'".

<i>Persepolis Rising</i> 2016 science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey

Persepolis Rising is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and the seventh book in their series The Expanse. The title of the novel was announced in September 2016 and the cover was revealed on December 12, 2016.

"Dulcinea" is the series premiere of the American science fiction television series The Expanse. It originally aired on Syfy in the United States on December 14, 2015. The episode was written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby and directed by Terry McDonough, and is based on the first chapters of James S. A. Corey's novel Leviathan Wakes, the first novel in The Expanse novel series.

"The Big Empty" is the second episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The Expanse. It originally premiered on Syfy in the United States on December 15, 2015, a day after its series premiere aired. The episode was written by creators Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and directed by Terry McDonough.

<i>Tiamats Wrath</i> 2019 science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey

Tiamat's Wrath is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and the eighth book in their series The Expanse. Following the series' tradition of referring to ancient mythology in its titles, the book's title references the Babylonian goddess Tiamat, who took part in the creation of the universe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ty Franck</span> American novelist, screenwriter, and television producer

Ty Corey Franck is an American novelist, screenwriter, and television producer. He is best known for co-authoring The Expanse with Daniel Abraham under the pseudonym James S. A. Corey, as well as Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series (2014) and The Expanse: Expanded (2016). The Expanse novels have been adapted into the television series The Expanse (2015–2022), with both Franck and Abraham serving as writers and producers on the show.

<i>Leviathan Falls</i> 2021 novel by James S. A. Corey

Leviathan Falls is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and the ninth and final book of the series The Expanse. The title and cover art were announced by the authors at a virtual fan announcement on September 16, 2020 and the book was released November 30, 2021. The title echoes the title of the initial book in the series, Leviathan Wakes. The book won the 2022 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

"Babylon's Ashes" is the sixth episode of the sixth and final season of the American science fiction television series The Expanse. It originally premiered on Amazon Prime in the United States on January 14, 2022, written by Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck, and Naren Shankar, and directed by Breck Eisner. The episode title draws its name from the sixth The Expanse novel of the same name written by James S. A. Corey, the joint pen name of Abraham and Franck.

"Remember the Cant" is the third episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The Expanse. It initially aired on Syfy in the United States on December 22, 2015, a week after the previous episode, and was watched by 676,000 viewers in its initial viewing. The episode was written by Robin Veith and directed by Jeff Woolnough.

"CQB" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The Expanse. It initially aired on Syfy in the United States on December 29, 2015, a week after the previous episode, and was watched by 633,000 viewers in its initial viewing. The episode was written by Naren Shankar and directed by Jeff Woolnough.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Smythe, Dan [Daniel A.] (January 12, 2017). "Review: Babylon's Ashes". Elitist Book Reviews (elitistbookreviews.com). Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Alexander, Niall (December 8, 2016). "Agents of Chaos: Babylon's Ashes by James S. A. Corey". Tor.com . Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  3. 1 2 Corey, James S.A. (July 14, 2023). "Read a sample from Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey — Prologue: Namono". OrbitBooks.net. London, England: Orbit Books. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  4. ↑ Alexander, Niall (June 3, 2015). "Leviathan Breaks: Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey". Tor.com . Retrieved 9 July 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.