Hello. I'm back to write about more random stuff that, at most, a small handful of you will care about.
We're going to talk about what the titles of The Expanse books mean! Sort of. At any rate, my interpretation of them, with a little help from the contents of the books themselves and Wikipedia.
I will not be talking about Tiamat's Wrath because I don't know what it's about (overarching storyline), nor will I mention short stories, because their titles are much more straightforward. I might talk about some names from The Expanse that aren't book titles. We'll see.
Spoilers, maybe.
1. Leviathan Wakes
Is any real explanation needed? Even without an accurate definition for "Leviathan", it's obviously talking about something big and bad. And it's waking. Should be talking about the protomolecule with that one. Does that mean, in the context of the title, that Leviathan went back to bed on Venus?
2. Caliban's War
To be honest, I'm not sure about this one, even though this entire post is just my opinion on how the books are named. "Caliban" itself probably refers to the character Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest, where the character is described as "the only human inhabitant of the island that is otherwise 'not honour'd with a human shape' (Prospero, I.2.283)". He is apparently half-human and half-monster, which would seems to be the protomolcule super-soldiers/monsters. This would make sense, as this means the books is about the war the protomolecule monsters began, which could be pointed to as their having ownership of it (the war).
3. Abaddon's Gate
Abaddon appears in the Bible as "a place of destruction and an angel of the abyss." This makes all the sense, in both senses of the word (what a great sentence). The Ring would be a gate towards a place of destruction and could also be interpreted as some angel of the abyss (Ring Builders? Protomolecule?)'s gate to a place.
4. Cibola Burn
One of the Seven Cities of Gold of New Spain legend. This would point to Ilus (wow! such a great new place!) and how it totally burned everyone involved, colonist and RCE (and mediators) alike.
5. Nemesis Games
You could look into this as the goddess of retribution in Greek mythology, but I think it just shows how the two sides of the Free Navy conflict could really just be boiled down to the animosity Marco Inaros held toward James Holden, which could've been interpreted as Inaros viewing Holden as his nemesis. The "games" bit sounds cool, and also shows how Inaros was, at least for a time, toying with the other major powers of the Sol system.
6. Babylon's Ashes
I'm really not sure what this one means. Babylon was one of the world's ancient civilizations, responsible for one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This might point to the Ring Builders again, but I really don't know. Someone help.
7. Persepolis Rising
Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, hosting a particular piece of architecture known as the Gate of All Nations. Laconia itself, of course is the capital of the Laconian Empire, but Medina Station and the slow zone in general could be the ceremonial capital. And what's in the slow zone but, I don't know, a massive collection of rings sometimes referred to as gates leading to other worlds? I'm not sure. The "rising" part probably refers to the fact that Laconia is making a move for once.
Bonus: Laconia
Laconia was the "principal region" of Sparta in ancient times. Clear connection here; the Empire of Laconia also asipres to be pretty much a military state. Like Sparta.
More bonus, but this time RagedBarbar!an is being lazy: Rocinante
You all know how it goes. Don Quixote, his double, overworked, out of its depth, workhorse, etc.; this name was probably selected for this very reason. Plus, "Rocinante" is long and sounds cool, while the colloquial term, "Roci", still sounds cool and acceptable and stuff.
If anyone cares, please discuss this, because that would be cool and your opinions should be interesting, but please don't devolve into petty Internet squabbles; those are annoying.