The physical world building is so much better than everything else on TV that I almost hated the plot because I would have very much enjoyed ten seasons of just the Roci freelancing around in the solar system.

Same! Though I did love the plot too, but every scene with the Roci or other ships maneuvering, fighting or even in a tense standoff was simply superb.

The damage caused during ship combat was also pretty interesting. People die not in massive explosions (though there's that, too) but simply as fragments and projectiles perforate the ship's hull and their bodies. Instead of the usual "sparks flying from consoles" like in Star Trek, a hit in the Expanse means you have a kinetic projectile punching through the wall and taking someone's head off.

There is a trilogy of book scalled "The Nameless War" by Edmund Barrett ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074C8KG27?ref_=dbs_r_seri... ) which I highly recommend if you like "Expanse" style technology and combat.

Written by a naval historian and features no super-weapons or other deus ex machina. Just solid strategy and tactics of Naval Combat in Space. There are two accompanying "Janes Ships of the Fleet" style books which detail the ships in the story.

It is 4/4.5 on the Mohs scale of sci-fi hardness https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfScien... (Jump drives, very limited FTL, and Plasma Cannons which are basically naval artillery in space)

Which, just to clarify, "The Nameless War" you are referring to is NOT the 1952 anti-Semitic screed by Archibald Maule Ramsay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Maule_Ramsay)

Loved the shots of PDW rounds silently penetrating the interior of the Roci and then leaving just as silently via the other wall as they'd removed the atmosphere to avoid pressure blowouts in the event of a puncture.

In the latest season (so spoilers for those who haven't seen it)

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One of the PDCs on the Rocinante is used while the ship is landed on a planet with atmosphere. Those "little" guns that go brrrrrrt in space are large cannons in atmosphere that go BOOM BOOM BOOM. Just one PDC used while on a planet is like an artillery barrage being called down on one person.

Surprised they don't have anti spalling and internal protection

They do, but also take lucky hits from opponents.

The Rocinante is a nimble corvette, not a heavily armoured battleship. :)

I understand that about the Rocinante, but what about larger Martian warships? The Donnager, the huge warship that carried the Roci (when it was called the Tachi) has its hull punched through by a weapon and someone gets his head blown off. Though it may have been a railgun in that case, not that I'm sure what that is in The Expanse.. an energy weapon?

The warship that carries Gunny and her Marines gets attacked by kinetic projectiles on Ganymede and someone is similarly killed by projectiles punching through it.

My impression is that they may have anti-spalling measures, but close combat in The Expanse means spraying the enemy ship with your PDCs until something breaks down and the defenses get overrun. I get that impression from the (very cool) fight with the stealth ship protecting the station with the Protogen scientists. They rake the enemy ship with bullets until it simply stops working and drifts away, its crew dead.

You're correct about the close combat part.

The Donnager was hit many times by railguns, so far we haven't seen any energy weapons except for the communication laser on what is now known as Medina Station.

For the larger ships, I think it's one of those trade-offs of weight vs drive power. There's probably no thickness of rock or steel that would stop a railgun round that could also exist on a ship light enough to move in combat. I'm not well-versed in weapon and armour theory, but I think it's not possible to make armour that can withstand any gun or weapon.

(And that stealth ship fight was so badass, desperately hiding from the advanced ship twice your size until you can land a killing blow.)

Thanks for the explanation. I'm still not sure about what a "railgun" is, if not an energy weapon.

The Expanse's ship combat is very cool. A worthy successor to the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (minus the mumbo jumbo that marred the end of that series!).

I like the characters too. I haven't read the books, and I understand this character was changed a lot, but I really like what they did with Klaes Ashford in the series. Way to subvert expectations! The TV show more than once appears to set up a cliché (this is the bad guy, he has delusions of power and is going to undermine this other character) only to subvert it. More of that, please!

its a slug thrower accelerates stuff to high velocity

I would have been content just to watch the Roci accelerating, flipping, and decelerating, for ten seasons.

With some Adam Savage / Scott Manley explanations of the orbits used. And whole episodes dedicated to Amos repairing the ship.

man of culture i see