suggested order - Are "The Expanse" short stories a mandatory read?

I'm reading the beautiful The Expanse series, and I'm currently on book 3, Abaddon's Gate. I am reading the Italian editions (I don't have any problem about reading in English, but it's my main language and the Italian publisher set a huge discount on all of its catalogue, so I grabbed all of them)

I noticed that besides the regular series of novels, there are also some short stories and novellas set in this universe. These short works were not (yet?) translated, so at the moment only the English editions are available to me.

I'm curious if these complementary works are a mandatory read, meaning if they contain details that are necessary to fully understand what happens in the main books, or if they provide just some background and could be considered only accessory material, that can be read anytime.

Since I've already started this series in Italian, I'd like to keep reading in this language, for the sake of consistency. But I need to know if their content is too much important to skip it and read them later, in this case I could also consider the English option.

Answer

I'm reading the short stories and main books in publication order. I guess opinions can vary here, but I would say they are not necessary to follow the main plot.

I'm even with you on progress through the main books (just finished Abaddon's Gate last week) but I'm also reading the short stories as I go. Since I haven't finished the main series, I can only say that they haven't been mandatory to follow the plot through book 3. It's possible the later books will touch on some of the side stories more directly.

Edit to add more info now that I'm further in the series...

I'm not sure if you've started Cibola Burn yet, but I have a good example of how the short stories seem to be tied to the main series. In chapter 4 (the first Holden chapter) there's this line...

"Names matter, boss," Amos said after a moment, a strange look on his big face. "Names change everything."

If you read The Churn, you'll understand what Amos meant. I still don't think they're critical, but that's a line you wouldn't understand without them.

Comments

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...

Blog

Search This Blog