Nemesis Games

By: James S. A. Corey

Narrated by: Jefferson Mays

Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Hugo Award Winner for Best Series

The fifth book in the NYT best-selling Expanse series, Nemesis Games drives the crew of the Rocinante apart, and as they struggle to survive, the inner planets fall victim to an enemy's catastrophic plan.

A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.

Ships are disappearing without a trace. Private armies are being secretly formed. The sole remaining protomolecule sample is stolen. Terrorist attacks previously considered impossible bring the inner planets to their knees. The sins of the past are returning to exact a terrible price.

And as a new human order is struggling to be born in blood and fire, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante must struggle to survive and get back to the only home they have left.

Nemesis Games is a breakneck science fiction adventure following the best-selling Cibola Burn.

The Expanse

• Leviathan Wakes
• Caliban's War
• Abaddon's Gate
• Cibola Burn
• Nemesis Games
• Babylon's Ashes
• Persepolis Rising
• Tiamat's Wrath
• ​Leviathan Falls
• Memory's Legion

The Expanse Short Fiction

• Drive
• The Butcher of Anderson Station
• Gods of Risk
• The Churn
• The Vital Abyss
• Strange Dogs
• Auberon
• The Sins of Our Fathers

©2015 James S.A. Corey (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

Hugo Award Winner for Best Series

Worth several listens

Wish I could give it 10 stars and I sure wish there were more of these. When you get to my age and have read so very many books and a clearly outstanding series like this comes along... well, it is sweet. I like what they are saying: 'like Game of Thrones but with more space ships and less beheadings'. Same kind of grab on and don't let go stories. Happy to see Jefferson Mays is back as the narrator.

Avaserala is the best . Great story

a great addition to the past . can't wait for the next one .

amazing

Loved it. Great sci-fi in all respects. this series makes my top ten for sure.

Back to Basics

While the previous book, Cibola Burn, had fantastic ideas on a new planet. The book and story itself seemed to meander. It felt ovely ambitious in a way that seemed to lose some of the real, gritty feel, that was unique to The Expanse series. By the end of the book the only take away was that new colonies would succeed. But so what? By the end of that book it felt like all of it could have been condensed into a prologue for the setting to this one. Nemesis Games, gets back to the basics that made this series great.

All of the characters we've grown with over the past 4 books get time to shine. This time, Holdin is put in the back seat. He has his moments, but just as it is in his character to hide nothing, we already know him. He shows some of the ways he has grown as a character during this book. But this book is more about Amos, Alex and more importantly Nyomi. She has always been a mystery, and finally she gets more time to be highlighted as the true badass she is. Nymoi is not to be taken prisoner by her past, by Jim or by an cliched trope of the beautiful badass.

The risks are greater than they were on New Ilus. Even though this book wholly takes place back in the Sol system, the dangers are reimagined and and entirely human. Proof that we are more dangerous to ourselves than any alien weapon...we have had millennia of destroying ourselves. The protomolecule may have been designed, created, to cultivate new systems. But were have an even more proficient capability of expasion and destruction, and it's in our very DNA.

This book almost felt like a hard reboot after CB, and it makes me optimistic that the Corey team have realigned their compass for the next book(s). Mayes was superb, as always. I would probably rank this book as my second favorite, just after Abbadons Gate.

This book takes the series off life-support.

If you could sum up Nemesis Games in three words, what would they be?

So I typically continue to read a series even if it seems to loose its luster. I loved the 1st and 2nd books. Books 3 and 4 seemed like they should have been edited into a single book. Nemesis Games, book 5, made me fall in love with the crew of the Rosinante all over again. High stakes and pressure cooker conditions are well written into a slow burn that pays off in a big way. Then you get the epilogue tiny details suddenly focus. I can't wait until book 6.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Amos is likely my favorite character. Practical to the point of knowing he needs Holden as his Jim-iny Cricket. Amos is a hard ass with a heart. It is particularly endearing to me to see someone react to their own emotions as if they stepped in dog poop and are both clinical fascinated and unaffected by them. Amos and Holden foil each other perfectly.

Best one since Leviathan Wakes

Best one since Leviathan Wakes, they recapture the human dynamic of the story again. Can't wait to see what happens next.

loved it

really love the expanse series and how the narrator guides me through. hope the series is continued after tiamat's wraith

Love it

Man, I just....I LOVE this series! The characters, how the story keeps moving, the performance. Just the best

Keep on coming!

Loved it just like all the others. Exciting and interesting. All good times and on to the next!

Awesome.

Highly recommend - this is the best book in the series so far. Huge cliffhanger left wanting more. Can't wait for next book.