History Literature / TheExpanse

* AndIMustScream: The fate of anyone absorbed into the protomolecule, such as [[spoiler:everyone on Eros station. As of ''Cibola Burn'', it turns out they're still vaguely conscious in the protomolecule.]]
** [[spoiler:Somehow both Julie and Miller are largely exempt from the horror of this trope.]]

** Coop masterminded the bombing of the landing pad, which led to the shuttle crashing and killing most of the RCE science team. Unlike the other Belters, he doesn't feel any remorse, so it's hard to feel particularly sad when he tries to intimidate Murtry and gets his brains blown out.
** Chief Engineer Koenen repeatedly forces the ''Edward Israel''s engineering team to fight in zero-G, despite their inexperience, and attacks the ''Rocinante'' when Naomi, Alex, and Basia try to save the ''Barbapiccola''s crew. Alex eventually gets fed up and snipes him, and not even his engineering team is upset.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Later in the story, Alex (the pilot of the Rocinante) uses a ship-to-ship railgun to delete a single person in a light, barely-armored spacesuit. [[AssholeVictim He was a total dick, though.]]

* ColonyDrop: Marco [[spoiler: drops a number of high-speed radar-shielded rocks on Earth, killing billions.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Miller's VirtualGhost constantly warning Holden over the past three books to check "doors and corners" takes on a whole new meaning when [[spoiler: the crew realizes that ''something'' is devouring ships as they pass through the Gates.]]

%%* GenerationShips: None have been used yet, but there is one under construction.

* EldritchStarship: [[spoiler:Laconian technology is derived from the shipyards of the Protomolecule-makers and all of the creepiness that implies. Most notable is Magnetar-class which is described as a self-repairing flying vertebra]].

The technology featured in the series is relatively [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness realistic]] but not described in detail. An unexplained breakthrough in fusion and drive technology (the Epstein Drive) has made interplanetary travel possible but there isn't any FTL travel and thus no interstellar voyages have been attempted yet.

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: 4. Corey acknowledges in an interview that he/they wanted to make the universe plausible without [[RuleOfCool letting the science get in the way of telling a good story.]] In their Reddit AMA, they say they're looking for "wikipedia-level plausibility".
-->"We don't want the tech to pop anyone out of the story, but we do want all the cool stuff that comes with light delay and coriolis effect and variable gravity."
** Hardness: slower-than-light travel, limited StealthInSpace, generally excellent physics where described.
** Softness: ships powered by AppliedPhlebotinum fusion reactors, almost everything about the protomolecule (which is acknowledged in-universe as being [[ClarkesThirdLaw pretty close to magic]], as it plays by very, very few of the rules people are used to).

* ExactTimeToFailure: The ''Rocinante'''s computer calculates exactly how long it will take for [[spoiler:the ''Barbapiccola'' to hit the atmosphere and disintegrate. Basia does not find this reassuring]].

* EldritchAbomination: The Ilus "Dead Zone," described by Elvi as "the eye of an angry god." Whatever it is, it cannot be detected by (and is instantly fatal to) anything related to the protomolecule, but to naked human eyes it appears as a small area of space with infinite depth and fractals of darkness. The one and only person who witnesses it is deeply unsettled. And that's not even mentioning her reaction to ''passing through it!''

* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler:Marco's victories over the combined Earth-Mars-OPA fleets cost him significantly, losing him ships, territory, supplies, and support from the remaining Free Navy captains]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Nico Sanjrani explains to Michio Pa that the Free Navy, in plunging Earth into a nuclear winter, has vastly overestimated the capabilities of non-Earth agriculture, and that without Earth to feed the rest of the system, there won't be enough supplies to last 4 years, maximum.
%% * RebelliousRebel: Marco's Belter Free Navy with respect to Fred Johnson's more moderate OPA, and Pa's fleet in relation to Marco's Belter Free Navy. The OPA itself is little more than a coalition of disparate factions with few unifying factors other than a hatred of Earth and Mars.

* DeadlyDodging: During a dogfight between the ''Pella'' and the ''Rocinante'', [[spoiler:the ''Pella'' figures out how to dodge the ''Roci'''s rail gun. Bobbie manages to exploit this, and tricks them into dodging right into a cloud of oncoming PDC rounds]].

%% * TheSociopath: Marco Inaros.