Beautiful nuggets for fans of the series. Allowed fans to have closure with certain characters.
Brilliant writing

Memory's Legion is a collection of short stories and novellas that expand on the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey, these tales delve into unexplored aspects, providing backstories, additional world-building, and revealing the fates of side characters beyond the novels.

I had previously read some of the novellas individually, but it is nice to have them all consolidated into a single volume. There are nine stories in total, the stand outs for me where the "Strange Dogs", "The Vital Abyss" and "The Sins of our Fathers".

Overall I give Memory's Legion 4 stars.

Memory’s Legion by James S. A. Corey is a collection of eight short stories and novellas set in the immensely popular Space Operatic universe of Expanse. Each of these stories fits the little gaps between the Nine novels that constitute the entire series, providing backstories to certain major characters and tying up a few loose ends. The varied content of this collection includes the bittersweet first run of a drive that could make interstellar travel possible; a soldier attempting to make amends for the atrocity he was conned into committing; a disillusioned aunt finding her purpose when her nephew gets dragged into a lethal business; a simple muscleman trying to do the right thing by taking on a feared gangster; a brilliant scientist whose conscience is obliterated; a little girl adapting to the magic of an alien planet that would become the only home she knows; a new governor to a big, important planet, learning to cope with realities that are far from the ideals he has been taught; and the upholding of justice in a little community entirely cut off from the universe.

The stories are gripping individually, and the characterisation and world-building achieved by the author duo within the constraints of the short format are impressive. Beneath the umbrella of Sci-Fi and Space Opera, these stories span multiple sub-genres, predominantly crime and psychology. While each of these stories is appealing on its own, readers who are familiar with the universe of Expanse – unlike me – would have a better context about the persons and events of these stories. My favourite from the lot was Strange Dogs, with the crime stories – Gods of Risk and The Churn – rounding off my top three. The weakest one, or the one that was difficult for me to get into, was The Vital Abyss, which made me feel sort of disoriented. I am planning to start reading the Expanse series soon and would like to read the stories of Memory’s Legion in the proper chronological order once again. Readers who are already into the universe are sure to enjoy this fine collection.

I am grateful to Little, Brown Book Group, UK for providing me the Digital Review Copy of Memory’s Legion through NetGalley.

A good collection of stories in the expanse universe. Good characters and plotting. The stories link to the expanse novels. Especially loved the novella The Sins Of Our Fathers. I received this book from Little Brown Book Group and Netgalley for a review.

It's been years since i read the Expanse series and this collection of short stories was welcome.
Highly entertaining, well plotted, all the stories are well done and at high level.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I usually avoid short story collections, for no particular reason.
But this is from the Expanse universe, so it's a no-brainer...
It was a fun read, some stories touched me more than others, but it was great to read extras on old favourite characters (Amos yay) and get to know new ones.
Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity.

After consuming all nine books in the main series, I have finally turned to the short stories in order to complete everything and, thankfully, they’re now available in one book.

Like every short story collections, not all stories are created equally but I think that having them all written and published separately first elevates the stories from your typical short story collection.

At the very least, they all feel like they’re adding something to the world, which isn’t always the case with short stories, and we get to spend time with some completely new characters which helps to flesh out the world we have all come to know and love. That being said, The Churn is obviously the best story in the collection because it centres on Amos and he is the best character in the entire series. For me, The Vital Abyss was my least favourite of the stories because I felt like it dragged on too long and I was a little bored by the end. I also liked the story that centred around Naomi’s son, The Sins of Our Fathers, as it wraps up Filips story.

Is Memory’s Legion required reading? No, of course it isn’t but it does enhance the main series with some interesting character stories and world building. If you love the main series then you’re going to get a kick out of reading these as well.

I had been pining for more Expanse since I read the final book. This brilliant collection of short fiction from that universe definitely supplied the deficit – I’m actually glad I didn’t get around to reading all the short stories as I followed the series now! This was a treat.

Ah, the Expanse series. Having read the nine books in the main series over the course of five years, I often lost track of the plot, especially when it came to the complicated political machinations of the mid-series arc. I loved the first two books in the series but then felt that it entered a period of diminishing returns, until a 'soft reboot' of the series with Persepolis Rising took us away from interplanetary wrangling and brought the protomolecule that had originally kicked off the story centre stage again. The final three books were all brilliant, I thought, bringing back the horror vibes and introducing genuinely interesting ethical questions. So, where does this collection of short fiction sit in my rankings?

This is definitely not one for readers who are unfamiliar with the Expanse universe, but I found that my patchy memory of the series, especially the middle books, wasn't a hindrance at all. I enjoyed reading every story in Memory's Legion. My absolute favourites were those that put personal moral choices centre stage, something that I've always thought the Expanse authors do well when they aren't getting buried in too many points of view and political alliances. 'The Butcher of Anderson Station' gives us the backstory of Colonel Fred Johnson, a significant character in the earlier Expanse novels. Fred is notorious in the Belt for an unnecessary massacre of insurgents and civilians, but this story explores what happens when you realise you've made a bad decision, and what you do next. 'The Vital Abyss' is the backstory of another crucial character, this time, in the later novels: Dr Paolo Cortázar. All the novellas switch back and forward in time, or between different PoVs, but I thought the juxtaposition between the present and the past worked especially well in Cortázar's story, as we see how he becomes the amoral person we meet in Persepolis Rising. Finally, I loved 'Auberon', which focuses on a character we don't meet in the main series, Biryar Rittenaur, who is the first Laconian governor of the planet Auberon. I appreciated this more nuanced glimpse into Laconian government, and liked the portrayal of Rittenaur's anguish as he realises he's caught in an impossible situation: it's probably this story that is the most obviously influenced by GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire.

I didn't find every story in this collection equally gripping - 'The Churn', 'Strange Dogs' and 'Drive' didn't captivate me in quite the same way as the other offerings (the first two had settings and protagonists I found less interesting, and the last is a pretty slight short story). But this is a consistently good collection, and, far from making me feel that I've forgotten too much about the Expanse universe, actually re-enthused me to engage with the books again.

Rounds up the various pieces of short fiction in the Expanse universe and puts them all in one place with some interesting authors' notes. Pretty essential for fans!

A good compilation of the the Expanses novellas. I still sad that this series comes to end but the characters will always stick on me!

I'm not sure I can objectively review Memory's Legion, as I have adored the entire series of The Expanse - although this may have made the potential for disappointment higher! Some of the stories collected were re-reads for me, whilst others I had been waiting to read until this full collection was published. As with most collections and anthologies, some of the works were more effective for me than others. However, as a whole, I had a brilliant time reading this. It was great to revisit old characters and round off some loose ends - even just reading the stories within this collection, there were lots of clever little links between seemingly disparate tales. I also really appreciated the author's notes, and a bit more background on which aspects were chosen for further exploration and why. All in all, Memory's Legion left me with the urge to re-read the whole series (again). I'm not sure how well it would work without having read the complete series beforehand, but as an existing fan it was a highly enjoyable experience.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5

The Expanse (review here) is one of my favourite series of books- a science fiction saga spanning generations with the most intricate space battles, politics and aliens, so I was looking forward to reading Memory’s Legion by James S A Corey. Memory’s Legion is a collection of short stories and novellas fleshing out some of the backstories of the characters that inhabit The Expanse.
I received a copy of this book for a free and unbiased opinion.
The stories are varied in their range which shouldn’t have surprised me given how good the books in The Expanse are. There are stories that are sad, some optimistic and some downright scary ones too.
The collection covers the origin of The Epstein drive, Amos’s and Fred Johnson’s backstory alluded to in the tv series. There are also stories that also tell you a little more about what happened to some of the minor characters such as Filip, Naomi’s son.
As always, the world-building and descriptions of tech are amazing but it is the characters that drive the story.
I particularly enjoyed the author’s note after each story revealing a little more about the creative process.