Persepolis Rising (The Expanse #7) by James S. A. Corey

Format: Kindle
Read: June 2025

This turned out to be another re-read because I forgot that I had already read it until I started it, and checked my Goodreads! I think I’ve got confused about books 6 and 7 because so little happens in Babylon’s Ashes (Book 6) that the two merged in my brain! I first read Persepolis Rising in 2018, and this definitely was where I dropped out of the series the first time!

Book 7 does shove the series arc along quite considerably and it marks the start of the end of the series. The Expanse series can be read as a trilogy of trilogies, and we’re now starting the third and final trilogy, so we’re calling back the original story that started in Leviathan Wakes, when humanity first came into contact with the mysterious protomolecule. The surviving protomolecule sample was stolen by Duarte’s faction of rogue Martians, and in all the chaos of the war (that he got Marco to start), he slipped away with it and some stolen ships through a ring gate. And, thirty years later, they return calling themselves Laconians (from Laconia)… with lots of new toys and an enthusiasm for the brave new world they’re going to force the rest of humanity to be part of.

The thirty-year time jump was something I really struggled with – as did my fiancé (now Husband) – because I could not figure out how old I was supposed to be picturing the characters! The crew of the Roci had to be at least in their thirties (Alex, I think, is in his forties) when Leviathan Wakes starts, so, minimum, they’re in their mid-60s at this point. And also.. Avasarala is still knocking about and must be in her nineties at least! Now, I know there are anti-ageing meds referred to, so ageing is not the same in this future as it is for us now… but how am I meant to picture them? It is mentioned that they have greying hair, wrinkles and sagging skin. I’m sure at one point, Amon was described as having age spots. But they’re also still running around doing all this action hero stuff… I just found this so distracting!

I also didn’t love this one because it wasn’t the type of plot that I enjoy. The Roci crew are quite divided physically by the story, but also emotional divisions are there, with dynamics shifting. Holden and Naomi were about to retire, leaving Bobi as captain of the ship, but then everything kicks off, and they all end up stuck on Medina Station. Clarissa is also dying from the poison in her illegal enhancements, and Amon is struggling with it. There is just a lot of tension, and then the plot splits them up, and it’s a story of underground resistance and action stuff that doesn’t really do it for me. I just felt stuck reading this; there is an air of hopelessness as they’re ridiculously outmatched, and the plot didn’t move me along.

There were things I enjoyed, though! Bobi as captain makes a lot of sense, and it does seem like she might be better at it than Holdon was… especially when it comes to handling Amos. I enjoyed the POV chapters for Singh, the young Laconia true believer put in charge of governing Medina, who makes a catalogue of mistakes but has an admirable ability to recognise them, even if hindsight doesn’t help when you already fucked up. The Laconians might be big and scary with their fancy technology, but they are also still stupid humans!

I’m trying to remember the other POV characters and struggling (I finished this a few weeks ago!) … I had to look it up, and it is the full spread of Roci crew, Singh and Drummer. I don’t mind Drummer, but I did find her chapters to be really depressing as she gets increasingly stressed and hopeless. She is there to give me insight into the political situation in the Sol system, because everything else going on is on Medina, but it was not exactly a fun or stimulating read… still, they did have Avasarala in on occasion.

This was better than Babylon’s Ashes, but we’re not hitting the heights of the first two books or Nemesis Games! While the previous one felt like a filler novel, this book is all set up, and I’m just hoping the final two books in the series will be the payoff for that.

I’m going to take a bit of a break from reading this series for now, I need a breather, and also Husband needs to catch me up because he’s still struggling through it!