Nemesis Games Review
Nemesis Games, the fifth book from the James SA Corey duo delivers. It has a couple main changes. The first and biggest is that there are different stories for each of our favorite characters. Holden and the crew get detailed in a bit more personal way as individual stories detail parts of their lives that we always thought about, but then quickly forgot as the other stories were consuming. Amos is off to Earth to attend a funeral for an old friend, Alex goes to Mars to see his divorced wife, and Naomi is off to earth to revisit an old boyfriend and her SON! Yes! Did I mention spoilers?
In the mean time Holden is dealing with missing ships. Attacks on Earth and Mars are putting the entire solar system into war and the Rocinante is no where to be seen with it crew together in one place. I have read a few other posts saying that there are not any new characters, but I would say the opposite. There is a combination of a few new ones, but also more in depth conversations with some existing ones. Remember Carissa Mao or Bobbie Draper? In depth relationships develop with Alex and Amos respectively with those two previous characters. Then the new character being Naomi’s son and former lover. Each having significant parts in the storyline of Nemesis Games.
In the end, you would of course expect Nemesis Games to come together and have the crew in one place. Over the course of the book you find out that there was an elaborate trap placed for Naomi by her ex who ends up being the leader of the militant group that is actually behind all of the missing ships that Holden is actually searching for. He is the same leader who ends up stealing the proto-molecule from Fred Johnson. At the same time Bobbie is also looking into the missing ships and is hoping that Alex can help which also ties her and he into the storyline of Holden. I think that the most unclear story is that of Amos. It is not tied together as nicely, but it really gives insight into his persona, but more importantly…spoiler…he brings Carissa Mao back to the ship and asks Holden to have her as crew! Damn!
This book is not about the proto-molecule and aliens, but almost one that allows James S.A. Corey (Abraham and Franck) to build up the characters so that future books can elaborate on the lives more and have more lives to do so with. Some readers have loved the book and others not so much. I enjoyed it because I am stuck in that universe. Just like the space opera that Alastair Reynolds created for me, Corey has done the same.
Image courtesy of Nemesis Games – By James S.A. Corey
Book Review by Rick Zich