The Expanse is a bit more of a niche series than some of my other inspirations. It started as a collection of sci-fi novels written by James S. A. Corey set in a future where humanity has colonised much of the Solar System but does not have interstellar travel. It focuses on the interplanetary relations between Earth’s United Nations, Mars and the Outer Planets Alliance. Six of the nine books have now been adapted into a TV series.
The screen is where my love for The Expanse started when I found mention of it on Reddit while looking for a new sci-fi series to immerse myself in. I loved Mass Effect more than Star Wars because it leaned harder into a realistic feeling over being just pure fantasy. The Expanse takes that realistic feeling and dials it all the way up to eleven; it does a superb job of building a believable world in combination with telling a compelling narrative. The adaptation only started to fall down due to classic TV industry dramas – cancellations, actor scandals etc.
It was only quite recently, in the last year or so, that I decided to read The Expanse book series. Part of this was fuelled by my new focus on novel writing, and part of it was fuelled by my interest in seeing how the story plays out in its original form. Doing this alongside my shift to novel writing managed to inspire me all over again.
Even though I don’t go for the level of realism in The Expanse (I’m just not that smart to write as heavily based in fact), the series is definitely something I appreciate as a viewer and reader. And even though I may not be aiming to achieve what The Expanse achieves in terms of realism, the series has left a strong imprint and shaped my writing in a different way to some of my other inspirations.
The TV Series
As I touched on above, one of the core things I love about The Expanse is how real it feels. It feels like this could be where humanity is at in a few hundred years. It also delves deep into the science, always referencing and incorporating the challenges and hardships that come with space into the story.
This feeling of realism is also very prominent in the book (obviously), but what TV series has that the book doesn’t have is visuals. You’re actually seeing everything play out in real-time before your eyes, and it’s fantastic. It feels like it could be based today, even though it’s based far into the future. It’s a massive kudos to the TV series for translating that realistic atmosphere so well onto the screen.
Even though my narratives tend to drift back more towards the fantasy, striking a similar balance to Mass Effect, I do still strive for them to feel as real as possible. Even though a science fiction story is often totally fiction, the more it feels like something real playing out, the more immersive it is. This is what I’m always aiming to achieve, and The Expanse serves as a fantastic guide. I’ll dive more into this concept when I talk about Christopher Nolan later in the year.
The Books
As mentioned, I only just started reading the books. And yet, I already feel like the novels have had a big impact on my newfound prose writing. The way the story is told in words is very engaging despite all the complex details it needs to get across. I never feel bogged down in excessive paragraphs of detail and description and the pacing is near perfect. Details and descriptions are usually either succinctly communicated or they’re carefully spread out through a tense sequence of events.
The novels also have an interesting structure in how they flip around different character perspectives with each chapter. Speaking of the chapters, their word count always tend to hover around the same length – give or take a few pages depending on what’s happening. I find the length perfect for keeping the pace moving without going so fast that everything loses all its meaning.
While my overall writing style is different to how The Expanse novels are written, I find they feel close to how I might tell a story and I’ve learnt a lot as I push myself through the gruelling first draft of the Nash I novel. To put this into context, I recently read the novelisation of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. While I really enjoyed the novel (I recommend reading it if you enjoy the film), and I embraced some of its storytelling techniques, I don’t think it quite lined up with how I prefer to tell a story.
Overall…
Whether it be the TV series or the books, the one thing The Expanse consistently delivers is a compelling narrative. It’s always a joy to read and I find time flies by when I’m powering through chapters on the train to and from work. It’s not always easy to decipher why you find something compelling. Compelling is often very subjective. While one person can’t put down a book, another may find they can’t get past page one in that same book. For me, even when I loosely knew the story from the TV show, I was still hooked when reading the novel.
I’m always talking about how I love the way Mass Effect created a future that felt like it could be believable. We could find technology on Mars that leads to us becoming part of a galactic community. The Expanse, however, dials up this believable future by taking away a lot of the staple gimmicks like FTL travel and protective energy shields that have become basic storytelling tools in propelling humanity forward. Stripping all that away gives us a very grounded narrative. Even the *SPOILER* alien life side of the story is told in a truly believable way.
Now, I don’t want to give up speedy space travel and energy shield gimmicks in my two series (I kind of need them for my story to work). However, The Expanse forced me to really think about how slow it can be for radical change to actually play out in society. As I plotted humanity’s journey from today to 2419 in Nash I, I wanted to be very careful in considering all the challenges – politically and technologically – humanity would face as they spread out among the stars.
Space & Lasers 