Crossing the Expanse: A Discussion of “Drive” and The Butcher of Anderson Station

Happy New Year, dear Chicers! I hope your 2020 is off to a good (or at least okay) start. As promised in my resolution post, I plan to reread and discuss the whole of The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) in the next twelve months. I’m also planning to write a book and try to figure out how to do a winged eyeliner, but those are more personal goals.

At any rate, 2020 is here, and the reread has begun! The format for these posts might change as we go along, depending on interest, engagement, etc. I will provide very short recaps for those who want or need reminders without rereading all 40 million pages, a very rough estimate and one made with love. But, I’m also going to include some very spoiler-y material, including direct quotes, so consider yourself warned. (Although, I will also mark those sections with a SPOILER disclaimer. I’m not a monster.)

Last thing…I’m not including anything about the show because I don’t watch it. Wait! Hear me out. Okay, I read Leviathan Wakes in 2011 and immediately fell crazy in love with it. It became my comfort book, the book I returned to whenever nothing in my TBR pile appealed or when I needed a mental anchor. So, by the time the show came around in 2015, I had already read Leviathan Wakes seven or eight times (a very accurate estimate) and…imprinted on the text, I guess. I tried to watch the show, but I was already too attached to the original narrative and my own visions of the characters to get into it.

That said, I’ve heard The Expanse (now airing on Amazon Prime) is fantastic from many people whose opinions I trust, and you should totally watch it. Just for funsies, though, I’m going to include some actors for my dream cast, which is without a budget or any other pesky limitations. Plus, it’ll be a little insight into how I imagine the characters.

“Drive”

Published: Solaris, 2011
Pages: 7
Point(s) of view: Solomon Epstein

Let’s jump right in, shall we? “Drive” is available online or, as I very recently learned, in Edge of Infinity (The Infinity Project, Book 2), a collection of hard sci-fi short stories edited by Jonathan Strahan and featuring stories by other amazing authors, like Elizabeth Bear, Alastair Reynolds, Hannu Rajaniemei, etc.

Anyway, while “Drive” is, of course, filled with the complex world-building and rich characters expected from any Corey outing, its purpose is fairly singular: to show the development and discovery of the Epstein Drive, the bit of technology that allows humanity to expand beyond the Earth, Luna, and Mars.

Solomon Epstein is part of the Mars Project, an on-going effort to turn our closest planetary neighbor into a second Earth. Because of this, Mars has become a hotbed of scientific and cultural discovery, and its long-term residents are already sick of what they see as an iron-gripped yoke Earth is determined to keep around their necks.

There’s a lot of talk — war, history, politics. There’s also action and love, and a bittersweet acceptance of the nonstop Wheel of Progress. (I would have referred to Disney’s iconic Carousel of Progress here, but I was recently trapped on that ride, as a mechanic-issue prevented it from turning. A technological SNAFU or foreshadowing of our particular universe? You decide.)

RECAP: Solomon Epstein, an engine engineer, buys a space yacht for a song and keeps it off the books, allowing him to modify the fusion drive and test it without any corporate or governmental red tape. Six years after making this initial investment, he takes his little ship out for a spin and accidentally alters the course of human history.

SPOILERS: There isn’t much to spoil here. However, there are a few things worth nothing. Most importantly, perhaps, is the importance that names serve in the Expanse Universe. For my money, Solomon’s name serves two purposes: 1) Broken down, his name is essentially “Solo Man,” which is appropriate since he alone creates and takes the first spin on the drive which will be named for him. 2) His nickname is Sol. Translation “Sun.” He is an every-man character, representing our species and our system in his tragedy and his triumph.

If there is a spoiler to be had here — other than Solomon’s eventual marriage to Caitlin — it’s that the Epstein’s Drive originator doesn’t survive its shakedown run. As I mentioned above, progress can be bittersweet, especially for those who drive it forward, and while many of Sol’s final thoughts are for Caitlin, he’s also imagining the unknown future that he’s in the process of creating and regretting that he won’t get to see it unfurl. The final line of the story, however, is graceful and serves as a perfect jumping-off point for the series:

“Solomon relaxes, and the expanse folds itself around him like a lover” (7).

There’s also a shout-out in the early pages of Leviathan Wakes, an observation made by James Holden:

“With a good scope, you could still see [Epstein’s] ship going at a marginal percentage of the speed of light, heading out into the big empty. The best, longest funeral in the history of mankind” (7).

Casting for Solomon Epstein: This might be a controversial choice, but…

For Solomon Epstein, I would cast Jason Segel. Marshall from How I Met Your Mother?! Yep. Segel is often categorized as a comedic actor, full-stop, but the boy’s got range, people. He’s also hella smart, and he’s got that sort of off-kilter, abstracted handsomeness that works for a brilliant engine engineer.

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The Butcher of Anderson Station

Published: Orbit, 2011
Pages: 40
Series page count: 47
Point(s) of view: Colonel Frederick Lucius Johnson

All right. So, I know that on James S. A. Corey’s site, the authors recommend reading the series (novellas and all) in publication order. However, they did just release Auberon, a novella set between Persepolis Rising and Tiamat’s Wrath, so there’s that. Plus, The Butcher of Anderson Station does take place quite a while before Leviathan Wakes.

But, those are flimsy arguments. My real reasoning is based on the text itself, and the insights it provides into Corey’s world and Fred Johnson, a character that walks on-stage in Leviathan Wakes with a gravitas provided by the narrative but more honestly earned by his performance in Butcher.

RECAP: Colonel Fred Johnson is taken captive by members of the Outer Planets Alliance (more often referred to as the OPA), and, through a series of flashbacks, we learn how he earned the nickname “Butcher of Anderson Station.”

SPOILERS: For those who can’t quite recall the details, Johnson earns the nickname by leading a UN Marine assault against a group of Belters — a shorthand term for those born and raised out in the Belt and beyond — who overtook Anderson Station, executing the station’s manager in the process. During the breach, over eleven hundred Belters die, most of them civilian bystanders.

What Johnson doesn’t know beforehand, and what he later learns, is that a) the Belters were uprising because the taxes, levied by companies back on the Inner Planets, were making life untenable (charging people to the point where they could no longer afford enough oxygen), and b) that the man leading the rebellion surrendered before the assault, a message that intelligence received before deciding to go ahead with the mission.

As a result, Johnson becomes disillusioned by the organization to which he’d previously devoted his life, and when the story starts, has been spending a lot of time drinking in OPA bars, looking for fights, hoping for some angry and/or drunk enough Belters to finish him off. Instead, as I mentioned above, he’s taken captive by Anderson Dawes, a member of the OPA, named for the self-same company that owned the ill-fated Anderson Station. (Awkward!)

Quick note on the OPA: Although the Inner Planet governments consider them terrorists, and treat them as such, it’s actually a widespread organization with dozens of factions. Some of them are violent. Others are more interested in simply gaining acknowledgment as a legit organization fighting for Belters’ Rights.

At any rate, Dawes — as he prefers to be called — spends quite some time trying to get to the bottom of Johnson’s recent actions. He comes up with several scenarios (mostly small and/or petty) to explain Johnson’s death wish, one includes an affair with another Marine who died during the Anderson Station mission, but Johnson denies them all, finally demanding from Dawes the reason for his interrogation. Dawes’ response is perfect, and it’s a sentiment that will echo throughout the series:

“Because why matters, Colonel. Why always matters” (Loc 242).

At the end of the day, Dawes gets the truth out of Johnson, and Johnson’s finds a renewed purpose for a new life. A life in the OPA.

Anyway, while I appreciate and very much respect the way in which Corey doles out information in the books, I think that Butcher does three important things: 1) It humanizes Johnson. I understand that in Leviathan Wakes we’re intentionally meeting Fred Johnson through the lens of James Holden, who sees The Man, The Myth, The Legend, but I feel like Butcher makes him more accessible while retaining that same sense of awe. 2) This novella introduces the OPA with a more balanced hand. It also makes their purpose clearer sooner, which, for better or worse, creates more sympathy for the organization. (At least, the non-terrorist branches of it.) 3) Butcher is a quick-and-dirty primer to how hard and unforgiving life is out in space. Dawes has a sister who died because he was lackadaisical in checking the seals on her spacesuit. When Johnson asks him how he survived the guilt of that, Dawes says, “I’ve got three more sisters. Someone’s got to check their seals” (Loc 298). That is some hardcore shit, sabe?

Casting for Fred Johnson: Idris Elba. *mic drop*

No shade thrown at Chad L. Coleman, who I’m sure does a more-than-amazing job at portraying Johnson on the small screen, but this is the closest I’ll ever get to creating a fantasy sportsball team, so I gotta go with Elba.

I hope this was as interesting for you as it was for me, dear Chicers. Coming up on “Crossing the Expanse”: Leviathan Wakes. In other words, the book that started it all — the series, the modern redefinition of “space opera,” my obsession, etc. I will also reveal my picks for the full crew of the Rocinante. Stay tuned!