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I finished James S. A. Corey's (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck pseudonym) Caliban's War and really enjoyed it (the second in the Expanse series).
I'm getting a bit of a Gap series (Stephen R. Donaldson) vibe from the Expanse series. Not quite as huge, of course, but the political wrangling of the U.N., Mars, and the O.P.A (Outer Planets Alliance) reminds me of the similar wrangling in Donaldson's sprawling scifi epic. Namely the political maneuvering between the United Mining Company, the UMC's personal police force and the Governing Council for Earth and Space (and of course, an alien bogeyman). Basically all the political/legal/logistic issues one would expect when space starts to be commercially exploited and humans start living on nearby "rocks." The difference being that the Expanse utilizes a bit of a goofy/lovable "buddy cop" atmosphere at times (mostly through dialogue) where the Gap series was deadly serious—almost exclusively. And yes... the Gap series did have a "hyper"-drive and some of the pseudo-science baggage that something like that invariably brings to the narrative (that the Expanse series eschews), but it wasn't a galaxy-hopping technology; nor was the pseudo-science behind it mind-numbingly quantum-ish in nature. Humans were still limited to a small corner of the universe just like in the Expanse series.
The Gap series is one of my all-time scifi favorites (modern anyway) ... and the Expanse series seems to be tickling the very same pleasure-centers—even if it is a bit "lighter" (both in heft, scope, and tone). I want more.
I will say that I thought Caliban's War had some minor pacing issues late in the game. Namely the "Wandering in the Wilderness" portion of the narrative. But it didn't trip me up too much—it's not overly long to begin with.
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