The Art and Making of The Expanse
Titan Books
Alcon Publishing
Nonfiction, Art/Media Reference
Themes: Space Stories
****+
Description
The Expanse, the epic space opera chronicling humanity's leap to the stars and first contact with alien technology and the ragtag crew caught up in the middle of it all, has been through numerous incarnations: first a collaborative multiplayer game, then a best-selling novel series written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck as "James S. A. Corey", and finally a top-rated television series debuting on SyFy and now continuing on Amazon Prime. Bringing the story to life required massive investments of time and talent from a wide cast of contributors. In this hardcover celebration of the show, explore concept art and behind-the-scenes photos of the first three seasons, plus a glimpse of the upcoming fourth year.
Review
Nobody can accuse Amazon Prime of stinting on promotion. This hardcover art book, released mere weeks before the debut of Season Four (in mid-December 2019), offers fans of the series plenty of eye candy and the smallest taste of things to come. Yes, it's a blatant marketing tactic, but it's also a beautiful and well-made book, featuring many great art pieces sure to please any Screaming Firehawk. If I can fault it for anything, it's that I'd hoped for a few more articles or interviews to add a little meat to the "making" end of the book's titular concept. But, then, I usually want a little more text in these "art of..." books, because I've always found the thought process behind concept art and creativity interesting. (One of those "in another life, wouldn't that have been awesome to do" things... one of many, I'm afraid, but I digress.) The art covers pretty much everything from the first three seasons, from the ships to the worlds to the costumes and the protomolecule; there are some omissions, but a truly comprehensive concept art and making-of book would likely be an encyclopedia by this point, given the intensive designing a show like The Expanse requires. (I do have to say that I noticed a minor mistake in the caption on page 12: it's Holden, not Amos, erasing the Rocinante's logo at the start of Season Three... and, yes, I did double-check the scene just before writing this review. Amos put the art on in Season One, but he and Alex were already inside the ship while Holden lingered on the hull, which is when news went out about Earth and Mars declaring war. And I'm aware that this is probably the most minor of possible nitpicks, but I'm about as oblivious an entity as one is likely to meet, as my reviews can readily attest; the fact that I noticed this makes me wonder what an actually alert fan might find if they went over this with a fine-toothed comb... and if there's one thing fans do, in my experience, it's carry the finest of fine-toothed combs.) Ultimately, I consider myself well satisfied with my purchase.