The support team for this series has also grown to include the staff at Alcon Entertainment and the cast and crew of The Expanse television show. Our thanks and gratitude go especially to our showrunner, Naren Shankar, and the inimitable Dan Nowak, who were there from the beginning to the end. And an extra-special thank-you to Sharon Hall, who took a chance on our books and taught us how to make them into TV.
Also critical to the success of this project has been the consistently brilliant performance of Jefferson Mays, who, if you got this as an audiobook, is the voice you’re listening to right now. If we’re ever in the same bar, that man drinks for free.
And, as always, none of this would have happened without the support and company of Jayné, Kat, and Scarlet. We lost time with them in order to do this, and it wouldn’t have been worth doing if they hadn’t been there for us when we got back. By James S. A. Corey
The Expanse
Leviathan Wakes
Caliban’s War
Abaddon’s Gate
Cibola Burn
Nemesis Games
Babylon’s Ashes
Persepolis Rising
Tiamat’s Wrath
The Expanse short fiction
The Butcher of Anderson Station
Gods of Risk
The Churn
Drive
The Vital Abyss
Strange Dogs
James S. A. Corey is the pen name of fantasy author Daniel Abraham, author of the critically acclaimed Long Price Quartet, and writer Ty Franck. They both live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Find out more about James S. A. Corey and other Orbit authors by registering for the free monthly newsletter at orbitbooks.net.
For the first time, all of the short fiction set in James S. A. Corey’s New York Times bestselling Expanse series are available in this collection.
learn more at orbitbooks.net
A groundbreaking new fantasy trilogy from Expanse coauthor Daniel Abraham.
learn more at orbitbooks.net
extras
about the author
James S. A. Corey is the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. In addition to writing the novels and short stories of The Expanse, they wrote and produced the television series of the same name. Daniel lives with his family in the American southwest. Ty will tell you where he lives when and if he wants you to come over.
Find out more about James S. A. Corey and other Orbit authors by registering for the free monthly newsletter at orbitbooks.net.
if you enjoyed
LEVIATHAN FALLS
look out for
FAR FROM THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN
by
TADE THOMPSON
The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having travelled light years from home to bring one thousand sleeping souls to safety among the stars.
Some of the sleepers, however, will never wake – and a profound and sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel. Its skeleton crew are forced to make decisions that will have repercussions for all of humanity’s settlements – from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet of Bloodroot, to other far-flung systems and indeed Earth itself.
Chapter One
Earth / Ragtime: Michelle “Shell” Campion
There is no need to know what no one will ask.
Walking on gravel, boots crunching with each step, Shell doesn’t know if she is who she is because it’s what she wants or because it’s what her family expects of her. The desire for spaceflight has been omnipresent since she can remember, since she was three. Going to space, escaping the solar system, surfing wormhole relativity, none of these is any kind of frontier any more. There will be no documentary about the life and times of Michelle Campion. She still wants to know, though. For herself.
The isolation is getting to her, no doubt. No, not isolation, because she’s used to that from training. Isolation without progress is what bothers her, isolation without object. She thinks herself at the exact centre of the quarantine house courtyard. It’s like being in a prison yard for exercise, staggered hours so she doesn’t run into anyone. Prison without a sentence. They run tests on her blood and her tissues and she waits, day after day.
She stops and breathes in the summer breeze, looks up to get the Florida sun on her face. She’s cut her hair short for the spaceflight. She toyed with the idea of shaving her head, but MaxGalactix didn’t think this would be media-friendly, whatever that means.
Shell spots something and bends over. A weed, a small sprout, pushing its way up between the stones. It shouldn’t be there in the chemically treated ground, but here it is, implacable life. She feels an urge to pluck the fragile green thread, but she does not. She strokes the weed once and straightens up. Humans in the cosmos are like errant weeds. Shell wonders what giants or gods stroke humanity when they slip between the stars.