Welcome to week 2 of the read-along of James S.A. Corey’s Babylon’s Ashes, book 6 of The Expanse! This week’s questions cover chapters 14-27, and are provided by The Illustrated Page. If you’re interested in joining in, check out our Goodreads page. Beware of spoilers from here on out!
1. So far we've gotten POVs from Namono, Pa, Filip, Holden, Salis, Clarissa, Dawes, Avasarala, Prax, Alex, Naomi, Jakulski, Fred, and Bobbie. Do you have any favorites? Least favorites? Of the characters who's POVs we haven't gotten yet in Babylon's Ashes, who do you most want to see?
It’s kind of dizzying, seeing the story from so many different angles. I guess my favorite so far would be Holden, mostly because he has multiple chapters that appear to be building to something. I am enjoying his “People of the Belt” series, and it was great to see that others are starting to pick it up as well. Pa and Filip also have recurring chapters, but I don’t really like them very much. Their chapters sort of feel like they’re trying to make me have sympathy for people who are pro-genocide, and I just don’t.
Out of the one-off chapters, I really enjoyed seeing the world from Fred’s eyes. He’s a character that I’ve really come to appreciate over the series, so it was neat to have a little insight into how he sees the universe. My least favorite one-off chapters would be the people I don’t really know--Salis, Jakulski, Dawes. I don’t have any emotional connection with the characters, positive or negative, and there isn’t really enough time in their chapters for me to try to build it.
As for who else I want to see, I would like to see Pastor Anna (or Namono again). She was hurt very badly, and I’m worried their family is not going to make it. It’s also a little odd we’ve had no Amos chapter yet, so I’d like to see what’s going on in his mind. Finally, it would be neat to get some Earther refugee chapters, maybe Erich or one of Holden’s parents. I’m trying to resist looking up who’s coming in the second half of the book, in order to preserve the surprise!
2. Marco's left Ceres. Is this a smart move? Is he abandoning the people of the Belt? And what do you think has happened to Dawes?
I think this is a case of “whatever happens, I win”. I think he realized he couldn’t hold the station, so he needed to come up with a way to retreat and still claim a victory. He’s absolutely abandoning the people of the Belt, but I think any Belter who’s been paying attention must know that he doesn’t actually care about them by now. I have no idea what happened to Dawes. Was he not with the Free Navy after Ceres? Maybe I missed something while Pa was breaking off. I wouldn’t put it past Marco to kill him, but that’s mostly because I wouldn’t put much of anything past Marco.
3. Pa's got a temporary truce of sorts with the OPA. Do you think accepting her supplies is the moral thing to do, or is it condoning piracy? And who do you think fired on Pa when she was with the Rocinante?
I think they had to accept her supplies. They’ve already been stolen, and there are people who need them. I can’t think of any other solution that would have been more moral. When this is all over, I expect Pa and her ships will have to answer for their piracy, but using the spoils to help people will count in their favor. As for who fired, I expect Marco left some loyalists behind on Ceres as spies. I would guess it was one of them, trying to prevent Pa from making a deal with Fred Johnson’s OPA.
4. Filip appears to be having some unusual feelings. Do you think he's any closer this week to edging towards redemption?
I guess? He couldn’t have been much farther than he was before. I’m going to be seriously upset with his character arc, though, if he turns on Marco for not being as competent as he believed. Given everything he’s done, he needs to have a moral turning point if he’s going to have any chance of forgiveness from anyone.
5. Prax's home is unofficially being occupied by the Free Navy, and he went and sent potentially lifesaving information to Earth. Do you think this is going to come back to hurt him?
Oh, probably. Things seem to be a fair bit tenser on Ganymede than he’s noticing. I especially enjoyed his clueless conversation about “resistance” with his kid. His answer was a nice explanation, but I can see why she was confused! I get the feeling he’s going to be forced to be more involved than he has been so far. I just hope his family doesn’t get hurt.
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