Caliban's War

Why it’s on the list: The second volume of The Expanse: the agricultural domes of Ganymede, the outer planets’ food supply, are wrecked in minutes of fighting, and the book follows the consequences — a moon of refugees, a marine who saw what caused it, and a UN official trying to stop three governments escalating. A novel about a single-point-of-failure supply chain.

Where I heard about it

• a16z’s infrastructure team — on the a16z Infra Reading List, A tier (“very good books”), under The Expanse series, which they list in full and recommend for taking the near-future route: believable conflict between factions rather than a jump to unrecognisable technology.

About this edition

Book 2 of The Expanse, which begins with Leviathan Wakes — Earth, Mars and the outer-planet Belt as three mutually dependent polities, conventional propulsion, and one piece of alien biotechnology loose in the system. James S.A. Corey is the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.

Connections

• a16z Infra Reading List — the list this came from.
• James S.A. Corey — the author (a pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck).
• Leviathan Wakes — volume one, which Kyle has read.
• Abaddon’s Gate — volume three.
• Leviathan Falls — volume nine, already in the anti-library.
• Science Fiction — the genre page.
• a16z — the firm whose infra team curates the list.