Persepolis Rising is the seventh book in The Expanse series, following Babylon’s Ashes.  In the previous book thousands of distant star systems were being opened up to exploration and settlement through newly opened Ring Gates.  Then about one third of the Martian Fleet deserted under a commander named Duarte who the colluded with the Free Navy to attack earth, Mars, and several Belter posts before disappearing into a gate called Laconia.  In Persepolis Rising, just when life is getting back to normal, the “Laconians” emerge from their gate, with weapons spawned from alien technology, bent on conquering the known universe.

The book basically describes being overrun by a foreign power with weapons so advanced that resistance is not practical.  Much how North American Indians must have felt when White Christians arrived.  And with the same sense of superiority.  Be grateful we are conquering you and oppressing you with our superior society.  Slit every last Laconian throat is my stance.  The plot of the book involves efforts to thwart the Laconians.  Our protagonists, the faithful crew of the Rociante, naturally finds themselves in the center of the action.

We do get some unexpected plot twists typical of the Expanse, though usually bad ones.  There is some allusion to problems with the alien technology based on the protomolecule discovered in the first book.  The Laconians completely ignore that something unknown wiped out the race that built the Ring Gates.  They are blind with power.  While it doesn’t catch up with them in this book, you feel it is coming.  I was getting a little tired of the Expanse after the last book but am back on board and already reading book eight.