Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey (4 stars)

Fifth in the excellent Expanse series. This is essentially the origin story for all of the core crew members, something I've been looking forward to, and was becoming increasingly necessary for the continuation of the series. There's quite a long setup, but it eventually culminates in an incredibly intense action sequence happening simultaneously for every character POV.

Amos' story is the most unusual for the series, it's essentially The Road but a bit less gloomy. Naomi's is the most psychologically painful, although it eventually turns into an over-the-top but very fun space-MacGyver a la The Martian engineering survival epic.

On plausibility: I completely didn't buy that the huge numbers of missiles used in a cloud to protect the ship with the Martian President were: a) much smaller than the ship, b) faster, and c) had similar inter-planetary range. That's a pick-two situation.

Favourite quotes:

Realizing you’ve got shit on your fingers is the first step toward washing your hands.

But looking back through history, there are a lot more men who thought they were Alexander the Great than men who actually were. 

Good continuation of a great series, looking forward to the next one.

4 stars.