TL;DR, for Expanse newcomers, I’d recommend bingeing the show before playing the game.
Do you like science fiction TV shows? If so, then I’d recommend the TV series. Do you prefer to read SF? Then I’d recommend the books. Both are pretty good, though the TV show adaptation made a significant number of (mostly) warranted changes from the books.
I would trust that the game does a solid enough job for newcomers to the series, but you’d likely get more out of it if you’d seen the show. The main character in the game (Drummer) is a prominent side character in the TV show, and I believe the actor for that role is doing the voice over for the game. Which is awesome, she was one of my favorite characters from the show. I believe that character doesn’t map one-to-one onto any character in the books though, as the show condensed and combined a number of side characters. I felt that was an understandable change for the TV adaptation since the books had a fairly sprawling cast of side characters. Anyway, long story short, if you’re on the fence for book vs. show, I’d say watch the show since the game appears to match the show’s continuity.
The game just released today and I haven’t played it yet. It’s also releasing in episodic fashion, as many Telltale games have done, so you’d only be able to play the first installment today. Reviewers have access to the first three, according to this review-in-progress, but as that reviewer points out:
I’ve not yet finished all of the episodes, with only the first three available to review, but what I have played is exceedingly promising. At this point, my only question is whether the core mystery is satisfying and if the developers manage to stick the landing, which is impossible to answer without fully understanding the breadth and scope of the entire set of episodes.
I love both the books and the show, and while I’m looking forward to the game I’ve decided to stay on the fence until all the episodes are available.
Edit to add: IMO the TV show did stick the landing, so I have no reservations about recommending it to anyone. The TV show covers the first six books of the series, and just like in the show book six ends with a pretty satisfying conclusion to the story started in book one. In book seven there’s a 30-year time jump, so books 7-8-9 are kind of a separate-but-connected story arc. Books 1-6 I loved, 7-8 I’m lukewarm on, and that’s made me less inclined to invest time in book 9 but I probably will at some point.
As someone that has read the books but not watched the show…
For books 7-9, I think of them as an epilogue trilogy. The time jump, the overall ending at the end of book 9, the state of the characters… Basically all of it fills the same purpose that a traditional epilogue fills. It just tells an entire story in the process of doing so and needs 1200-1500 pages.
Yeah, that makes sense. I’m in the process of re-reading the whole series now. Currently on book 3, will take another crack at 7-9 once I read that far.
Thanks for the recommendations. I’ll most likely watch the show first, then play the game then read the books! (Which is not what I’d normally do with something like the Witcher.)
I hear you, normally I’d recommend books before adaptations so it feels weird to be doing otherwise here. In this particular case I think it makes sense though. The main character of the game ties directly to same character’s depiction in the TV show, while the book version of that character is actually three or four different characters.
Yeah, I can understand why they condense characters. The Expanse books are horribly unoptimized for adaptations, a lot of side characters only appear for one book or even a few chapters and still carry enough relevance to the plot so you can’t just cut them. It was fun reading the books after the show and trying to guess which character got merged with which
I found book 7 to be tough to get through. I’ve barely been able to put down book 8 though. I can’t wait for 9. I think everything up to book 8 was pretty solid with 8 (so far) being amazing. I’ve got ~100 pages left, so maybe that will change.
I’m blanking on the book number (maybe 3?), but I stalled hard on the one when the gate was first discovered. Just got to the part where they are likely going through, and… just didn’t pick it back up one night. After binging the previous books in a matter of days.
Would you say things pick up? Because it’s coming off as an incredibly slow burn and I’m finding it hard to motivate myself to pick the book back up.
Yeah, I’d say things pick up pretty nicely in the next few books. I was driven by figuring out wth the ring’s point was and also wanted to know more about the protomolecule in general.
Yeah, well I played TWD and I’d even recommend playing that without watching the show. Or at least without watching the later seasons. But I get you, I’ll check out the show for show, maybe the book later.
Add comment