Wow this was not good. Only made it through Holden and Naomi’s stories before I put this down for good. The art and stories (that I read) were bland and uninspired. If you want more Expanse, read the novellas but don’t bother with this.

Well that was unfortunate. Despite an intriguing concept, this book failed to deliver. Got to chapter 13 and felt every bit of my desire to read this book take its last breath. The main character, Alice, is clumsy but cute--but men have zero interest in her (hello Bella Swan)--whom I suspect doesn't have 2 brain cells to rub together. All the problems I foresee--cringy romance, magic savant, continued blunders somehow still allowing her to complete her task--in addition to the major irritation of following Alice around in this story leave me feeling drained already. Hard pass.

DNF'd after a couple chapters. A description of a native person using all the stereotypes you could possibly think of was a huge turn off. The female character was also less than inspiring. Too many other books out there I'd rather get to.

Predictable twists and the cheesiness of a bad scary movie killer made this a very middle-of-the-road thriller. Also, the author liberally name-dropped brands all over the place for some reason. It was distracting.

I honestly don’t get the appeal here.

Dude treks across the desert, climbs a mountain, let’s a kid die, and then chats with the bad guy for 20 pages. While all of that super exciting stuff is going on we also get several loooong flashbacks, and at one point a flashback within a flashback, to give us something to occupy our time while he takes the most boring walk ever.

I’m not a King fan but I’ve read a few of his books—why is there always some out-of-the-blue weird sex shit? All the women in this book were overly sex-crazed and even when they weren’t doing anything sexual, King still describes them in those terms. A woman literally is blown back after being shot (to death) and he describes how she lands as whorish, I assume because her legs are sprawled wide. Why? Also, the ending was excruciatingly anticlimactic. It was more of a slog than the rest of the book, which is saying something. With a first book like this, this series does not deserve to be on any “best fantasy” lists.

Nothing personal, I just don’t like absurd, comical fiction.