Persepolis Rising

Plot summary

Twenty-eight years after the events of Babylon's Ashes, Admiral Winston Duarte and his rogue fleet, who broke away from the Martian Congressional Republic Navy and journeyed through the Laconia gate, have not been heard from. In the Laconia system, they built an advanced fleet using leftover technology from the Protomolecule's creators and the Protomolecule sample stolen from Fred Johnson on Tycho. Duarte uses the Protomolecule to extend his life, planning to become the immortal emperor of the 1,300 worlds joined by the gates.

In the Solar System, Earth has recovered from the attack that crippled it. The crew of the aging gunship Rocinante—Holden, Naomi, Alex, Amos, Clarissa, and Bobbie—work contracts for the Transport Union, which controls trade through the Slow Zone and the gate worlds. After receiving a morally dubious order from union president Camina Drummer to blockade trade to an entire system, Holden and Naomi decide to retire and hand the Rocinante's captaincy to Bobbie.

The Laconians announce the end of their exile and send the battleship Heart of the Tempest through their gate to capture Medina station. The battleship uses a new magnetic weapon that disintegrates matter at the atomic level to obliterate the railgun emplacements in the Slow Zone and takes control of the station. Laconian navy commander Santiago Singh is made governor of Medina. Initially trying to govern fairly, Singh becomes paranoid after a failed assassination attempt and issues increasingly ruthless orders, including public prisons, strict communication limits, and heavy curfews and censorship.

He fires his head of security, drawing rebukes from his superiors. The Rocinante crew joins a resistance movement on Medina station led by Saba, Drummer's husband.

Characters

James Holden, aging captain of the Rocinante after over 30 years, looks to retirement but is drawn back when the Laconians return. While his companions escape to lead the resistance against Duarte, Holden is taken captive to Laconia. Bobbie Draper, a former Martian Marine working on the Rocinante, becomes captain when Holden retires. Camina Drummer, former head of security at Tycho Station, is now president of the Transport Union; her control of Ring station and the 1,300 worlds makes her one of humanity's most powerful figures.

Santiago Jilie Singh, a Laconian Navy captain recently promoted to command The Gathering Storm, is appointed governor of Medina Station after the Laconians take it. Naomi Nagata, one of the solar system's best engineers and XO of the Rocinante, looks forward to quiet retirement with Holden but is pulled into the resistance with the rest of the crew. Alex Kamal, pilot of the Rocinante, remains at the helm after another failed marriage and a son in university, with no plans to leave.

Amos Burton, mechanic on the Rocinante and close friend of Clarissa, has become her caretaker as her health declines. Clarissa Mao, daughter of disgraced Jules-Pierre Mao and former prisoner on Earth, works as a mechanic alongside Amos; her health deteriorates due to body modification implants received over thirty years ago. During the final assault to steal the Storm, she activates her mods one final time and is killed by the combination of released chemicals and injuries from the fighting.

Paolo Cortázar, a former member of Protogen's nanoinformatics research division who was a prisoner of the OPA after the raid on Thoth Station, was released by rogue OPA members and has worked with the rogue Martian fleet under Admiral Duarte ever since. He is the lead researcher on Laconia, working to make Duarte immortal using protomolecule technology.

Reception

A review on Elitist Book Reviews praised the characterization, calling it likely the best in the series and noting moments that held the reviewer's breath or caused tearing up. Andrew Liptak of The Verge was slightly critical, saying the book falls short in some places; he found the Laconians too much like a stereotypical evil empire with super weapons and armored foot soldiers, and Singh particularly naïve, questioning why a powerful military power would not have a more realistic understanding of invasion forces and insurgencies.

Liptak considered the politics less interesting than the nuanced politics of past books. Niall Alexander of Tor.com praised the dark tones and themes, noting that although the novel opens on an unusually hopeful note with humanity united and the heroes planning retirements, Persepolis Rising is among the darkest chapters of the saga. He said it takes longer than he would like to get going but becomes as pulse-pounding and poignant as its predecessors, and he expected no dull moments before the story's end.