Written by James S. A. Corey, (pseudonym for Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck

Number 8.5 in The Expanse

Publisher: Orbit Books
Pages: 78
Genre: Science Fiction, Short Stories
Published: 2019-11-12
Original Language:

A novella set in the universe of James S. A. Corey’s NYT-bestselling Expanse series, Auberon explores a new and alien world and the age-old dangers that humanity has carried with it to the stars. Now a Prime Original series. Auberon is one of the first and most important colony worlds in humanity’s reach, and the new conquering faction has come to claim it. Governor Rittenaur has come to bring civilization and order to the far outpost and guarantee the wealth and power of the Empire. But Auberon already has its own history, a complex culture, and a criminal kingpin named Erich with very different plans. In a world of deceit, violence, and corruption, the greatest danger Rittenaur faces is love.

Read from 2020-02-29 to 2020-03-01
Read in English
Rating: 4/5
Review: Auberon, another one of the Expanse novellas, is among the good ones, but not the best.

I appreciate these novellas, but the ones like Auberon tend to leave me wanting more. I appreciate that teasing the main series is probably the point of them, but some of them, like this one, doesn’t add anything to the overall story that couldn’t have been (and isn’t already done) in the main books. I prefer it when these novellas give us more information about the background of the characters in the books, or otherwise tell stories that would have been impossible to do in the main story. This novel essentially fleshes out the way in which the Empire operates, which isn’t really a topic that I felt needed any fleshing out.

But hey, I’m not complaining. Auberon is a good novella, but it’s slightly predictable, doesn’t quite hit the emotional note I think it was trying to hit, and feels a little unnecessary when put up against some of the other novellas. That said, I did quite enjoy it, and it re-invigorated my anxiousness to read the next book in the series.