I just finished reading Auberon, a novella in the universe of The Expanse by James SA Corey.
This is a story about love, power, and politics. It’s short, and it’s simple, and it’s elegant. I really enjoyed it.
Part of that enjoyment was seeing Erich again, our old friend from Baltimore now running a criminal empire out among the stars. Erich showed up in previous novellas and Expanse books as an old associate of Amos, and it’s good to see that he landed on his feet after the catastrophic events of the series forced him off of Earth (with a sweet new cyborg arm, too).
Also good to see: more resistance to the fascist Laconian takeover of the entire known universe. These blue-jackbooted conquerors got on my nerves from the first page of their introduction to the world of The Expanse, and I take a certain dark satisfaction in seeing their authoritarian ideals fall apart in the face of corruption and criminality, even if their foes in this instance aren’t themselves particularly heroic. Thus to all tyrants, motherfucker.