once again am struck by the reddit-core dialogue. Holden beefing with Amos about "why he's doing something" or asking Naomi where Amos is and explaining to her why he's asking her rather than him directly. It's like overtly for the readers' benefit which is immersion breaking. People don't talk like that to one another lol

It's like so close to being hard sci-fi in some places, and then it just gives up. Like Prax is describing Mei's spinal disease, going into a healthy amount of detail about a chemical imbalance and then gives up describing in conclusion saying "it goes out of whack." Also more corny ass dialogue between Holden and Amos about ~"Oh I'm gonna blow you up because I'm the good guy and you're the bad guy."

I get that it's not trying to be grim dark, but it's like Marvel dialog broh

"not one word of that [threat] was empty" is not the kind of thing that people who are making full threats say. Something along the same lines is claimed by Avasarala who while interrogating Julia Mao's father Julian and it deflates any tension in the scene. Like, a scary person doesn't say that shit, and a cool person also doesn't say these corny ass lines.

Holden has a line "wincing at the self-righteous tone, even as he said it" IS A PHRASE USED TO DESCRIBE HIS OWN NARRATION from a character who, if I had to guess, will continue to sound self-righteous for the duration of the book/series :/

Even the author/character thinks he's corny. In the first book at least, it was used as a kind of foil, but now it's just superman holden and it's really bad to read lol. The action doesn't match the characters, and though I'm intrigued by the action/worlds being built – I dislike all of the characters.

5/10 so far ~25% through

Now, it's possible for Bobbie to just be a bootlicker. I think it's fine and good to have such characters. However, hamfisting commentary on ~the not too distant future, through your characters is a bit preachy, and the first book did it too. Specifically, her disgust at UBI/technology advancing past the need for everyone to need to work is a bit overt lol. "really makes me wonder how the author feels about the dignity of work!"

By itself, this one passage from her perspective would be whatever at worst. BUT, it's immediately followed by Holden recruiting some mercenaries called fuCKING PINK WATER. AS IN "the pinkertons" + "black water" bro

I recognize that at this point in the book, I'm just being a party pooper, and it's possible/allowable to use hyperbole in a "hard sci-fi" context, but after the crew ejects the proto-molecule monster out the airlock, the narrator (not a character that can use hyperbole) describes "torching it with the thruster bloom to break it down into subatomic particles," which is not possible and is such an easy miss. I'm usually forgiving about technical details being wrong when they exist in my domain of expertise and are more nuanced than the average reader likely cares about, but this kind of inconsistency about chemistry/physics from a book/series that also dabbles/claims authority on some stuff like this (the premise of the series so far is a bioweapon), it's like [Biden voice] "aw come on Jack!"

I've bitched about this book enough at this point, but:

Holden's character development as "an idealist" who internalizes all things that go wrong in the whole solar system as a personal fault of his is dull. Teenager sadboi narcissist mentality. Even though he kind of becomes aware of this at threat of Naomi leaving him, he's still the same guy.

Him physically tackling Prax when he gets tunnel vision about taking care of his daughter and simultaneously not exercising a lick of judgement about how his actions impact others before launching a crusade is so annoying I hate him lol.

• the idea that the UN holds any power (even with a military) while recognizing that the SecGen is a friggin PoW who's claim to fame is that he's a poet is like too self-aware hahaha. They're not scary, and just like IRL, they wield no power outside of the noobs who are reliant on them which is made evident in this story too, but there's still some weird reverence to the "government of humanity"

Also it's like pretty much the same story as Leviathan Wakes: monster gets loose, scary corp/government weaponizes it, it's intertwined with someone's daughter which adds a complication, (same) character struggles with a paper thin moral quandary about sacrifice/killing. There was very little meaningful development or increase in scope about the things which make this series potentially cool (the proto molecule)

The "my parents are racists" end-of-book drama is stupid. Holden's parents took issue with her being a belter, not her being of color. Racism is a misnomer, xenophobe perhaps closer to the mark, but it's like a lazy and dismissive PoV for Holden to attribute to his parents when interplanetary relations are the crux of the political drama. Even with the drift in biological makeup between the species in different gravities. His parents' sentiment towards her are isomorphic with classical racism in "trad" parents, but the lazy presentation is just another kind of detail that's like 'cmon man, just flesh it out a bit more, you have this entire backdrop of worldbuilding to write on top of but you fall back on "my parents are racist"'

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