If you like SciFi, I highly recommend this series. It’s complex and nuanced with plenty of futuristic technology.

The Expanse is the best show on TV that no one is watching

The Expanse is an American science fiction television series on Syfy …

Set in a future where humanity has colonized the Solar System, … they unravel a conspiracy that threatens peace in the system and the survival of humanity.

It also deals with the fractious relationship between Earth, Mars and the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA). The OPA is an organization that fights for the interests of inhabitants of the (Asteroid) Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Unrecognized as a governing body, the OPA is often accused of outlaw tactics and terrorism. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Though reviews and audience numbers were not all that great, season 3 has already been given the green light.

At the start of season 1 there’s no real star. It’s an ensemble cast.

My main complaint is that the show is too slow. Not much happens. I’m hopeful seasons 2 and 3 will have a little more action.

The Expanse is based on the novel series of the same name by James S. A. Corey, a pen name of the authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who also serve as writers and producers for the show. The first novel, Leviathan Wakes (2011), was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel and Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

I’ll definitely be downloading Leviathan Wakes.

I don’t recommend this book.

It sounded like it would be good. Award winning crime fiction author Anne Holt is a  lawyer and former Minister of Justice of Norway.

Like her Oslo police officer Hanne Wilhelmsen, Holt too is a lesbian.

She obviously writes what she knows.

Blind Goddess (1993) was her first book, not translated to English until many years later. Some say the translation is uninspired. I’m not inspired to read any other of her books.

She’s very popular in Norway. This book was turned into a TV-series in 1997.

About the only character of interest to me is Billy T, a hulking maverick drug squad investigator.

I learned nothing about Norway.

I read this book immediately after a similar murder mystery – In the Woods by Tana French.

Tana French is a much better writer.

Depending on whom you ask, Franzen is either the premier living American writer or the last literary dinosaur: a pompous white male Luddite who gazes disdainfully down at us tweeting, Facebooking fools from his comfortable perch of astronomical sales and critical adulation. …

Guardian review – Purity by Jonathan Franzen review – dazzling, hilarious and problematic

Purity is one big and ambitious book. I was prepared not to like it. Prepared not to finish it.

I assumed every character would be educated and talented. Yet find ways to make themselves miserable.

And I was right.

But the plot got me hooked. It’s complex, interesting and entertaining. If you are up for a challenge, I do recommend Purity.

The multigenerational epic jumps back and forth across decades. Moves from Germany, to Bolivia, to several different locations in the USA.

I did care about some of the lead characters.

Purity (Pip) Tyler was quite convincing, I thought.

German Andreas Wolf runs a WikiLeaks-like site called the Sunlight Project. Daniel Craig will play him in the planned Showtime adaptation. Purity would make good TV, I think.

Journalist Leila Helou did not do much for me much as a character. But her story was fascinating.

Charles Blenheim,  Leila’s husband, a literary has-been, is not a lead character. But I did find him very entertaining.

Tom Aberant is the most important character, I’d say. An idealist who somehow got himself roped into an insane marriage. He’s the character I identify with most.

It’s only got a 3.6 / 5.0 rating on GoodReads. Critics like it better than do regular folks.

Of his 4 other books, the only other I’ve read is The Corrections. Purity is better IMHO.