Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey

 Babylon's Ashes is the sixth book in The Expanse series.

When we last left the world of The Expanse, a rogue faction of Belters had basically destroyed Earth, Mars was left in utter chaos, the Belt was full of factions within factions, but all was okay because our group had managed to make it back to the Rocinante and were alive.

But, honestly, now humanity has to deal with the fallout.  How can we keep the people remaining on Earth alive?  How can we keep the rogue faction from taking over all the ports and stations in space?  How can we keep diplomatic relations going when Mars is in a constitutional crisis and the UN's leaders have all been killed?  

I actually didn't love this book as much as I have loved other books in The Expanse world. There's a combination of relatively new boring characters, especially this female pastor on Earth who is a real snoozefest, and not a lot of action.  Nothing could be as action packed as Nemesis Games, I guess, but this book felt like it was a lot of filler and not a ton of plot or character development. I'm obviously going to read more of the series, but this was a mediocre addition to it.

Notable lines:

1) "Because he's Amos. He's like a pit bull. You know he could tear your throat out, but he's loyal to a fault and you just want to hug him."  - Naomi describing the ship's mechanic (page 34)

2) "It was a bad move, and I expect we'll pay for it. But since we've done it, we should do the hell out of it. Better to be decisive and wrong than to let them see us wobble."  - Holden describing a strategic choice to Naomi (page 255)

3) "What's your doctorate in?" she asked.

"Um. Structural biochemistry."

"Do you know what mine's in?"

He shook his head for a change.

"Not structural biochemistry," she said gently. "I don't know anything about whether this magic yeast recipe is bullshit or not. So fi you can't tell, I'm less than fucking useless."  - Avasarala talking down to a scientist (page 288)

Words I looked up:

Duniyaret (page 306): This doesn't seem to be a real word, so I assume it's part of the Belter creole used in the novels. Seems as if it means "world sand" or "small world," depending on what language you're actually translating from.

Nakilye (page 307): From context clues, it means fake or false, but it's not an English word, so it must also be part of the Belter creole.

Demimonde (page 341): A group of people considered on the fringes of acceptable society