Belting At Windmills

Belting At Windmills is a serialized companion to James S. A. Corey’s The Expanse novels and short fiction. The show’s recent run follows Abaddon’s Gate in chapter chunks, after closing out Caliban’s War and covering Gods of Risk from Memory’s Legion. Its basic shape is dependable. Each episode catches the listener up on the assigned chapters, then turns the recap into a loose but thoughtful conversation about what the story is doing. Elliot Diebold is presented as the longtime Expanse fan. Ruben Morehouse is presented as making his first journey up the well. That split gives the show its best tension: one voice has a sense of the larger machine, while the other can react to Holden, Melba, Bull, Anna, Naomi, Avasarala, and the ring without smoothing away the surprise. The conversation is brisk. It likes jokes, but the jokes usually come from close reading rather than detours for their own sake. A broken warship, a bad legal claim, or yet another layer of coup politics can become funny without losing the stakes of the plot. The hosts are especially good at noticing when the books make disaster feel personal. Holden becomes both sincere protagonist and recurring trouble magnet. Naomi’s grief opens a discussion about love, revenge, and emotional intelligence. Bull’s professionalism becomes a way to talk about institutions, military habits, and fragile cooperation under pressure. Melba’s planning and unhappiness get treated as more than villain mechanics. Gods of Risk lets the show move smaller, using David Draper’s life on Mars to talk about surveillance-flavored worldbuilding, social fit, and the way a side story can deepen a setting. The tone stays approachable even when the subject turns bleak. It is a strong fit for readers who want to keep pace with the books and hear two engaged fans argue through the implications.