How to Read the Expanse Series
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The Expanse is a series that became popular after airing on the SyFy Network and follows the events of the book series written by the author James S.A. Corey. This series started in 2011 With the Leviathan Wakes. This is the first book in the series. There are however other pieces to the series that can be read as short stories that expand the lore of the series.
The series went for several seasons with SyFy, but was eventually cancelled before being picked back up by Amazon who created additional seasons for the show. Today, all seasons can be viewed on Amazon Video.
The Expanse takes place in a future where the human race has concurred the solar system, but has not yet branched out into other stars. The series takes time to setup how the solar system has formed but leaves enough mystery at the beginning to pull you in wonder what has changed with humanity that is not spread across the entire solar system.
Here is the reading order for the series.
Leviathan Wakes (2011)
Caliban’s War (2012)
Abaddon’s Gate (2013)
Cibola Burn (2014)
Nemesis Games (2015)
Babylon’s Ashes (2016)
Persepolis Rising (2017)
Tiamat’s Wrath (2019)
Leviathan Falls (2021)
These books also have short stories that expand the series as well. These are contained in the book Memory’s Legion. this book was released in March of 2022 After the series concluded with Leviathan Falls.
The best recommended reading order is simple for this series, follow the publish release order for the series and everything will make sense. The only difference is the short story book Memory’s Legion, which contain stories though the timeline of the series. Though this book also takes place after the series, there are events that expand the world further. If you enjoyed the expanse, getting this book is a must to add to the collection.
Going into the expanse myself, I was hooked early on with the Leviathan Wakes book. Following the two characters in that story really pulled me in. There was so much yet to be discovered and the universe felt relatively grounded in reality.
If you are looking for a Star Wars like adventure, this is not for you. If you are looking for a more grounded Science fiction space series. I would recommend this series. It has all the things that I want when getting into Science Fiction.
Please check out the list of books below to get your own copies! I will be posting my reviews to each of these books as well!
