Babylon's Ashes

Babylon’s Ashes (2016) is a military science fiction and space opera novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name for the writing duo Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and is the sixth book in The Expanse series. The nine novels are New York Times bestsellers and have been adapted into a popular television series. In Babylon’s Ashes, the solar system plunges into total war following the devastating asteroid attacks on Earth by Marco Inaros’s radical Free Navy. As the surviving powers of Earth and Mars scramble to form a fragile coalition, the fractured factions of the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) must choose sides in a brutal conflict for control and survival. The book explores several themes: Redefining Loyalty and Alliances During Upheaval, The Moral Cost of Revolution, and Weaponizing Narrative in a Political Vacuum.

This guide refers to the 2017 Orbit trade paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain depictions of graphic violence, cursing, and illness or death.

Plot Summary

Three months after Marco Inaros’s asteroid attacks devastate Earth, a Nigerian woman named Namono struggles to survive in the ruins of Abuja, Nigeria. Her wife, Anna, is bedridden with an injury from the attack, and they care for their young daughter, Nami. The constant threat of more attacks looms, and debris from intercepted asteroids streaks across the sky like ominous shooting stars.

In the outer planets, Marco Inaros’s Free Navy consolidates its power. Captain Michio Pa of the Free Navy ship Connaught leads a fleet to conscript colony ships for their supplies. Marco summons Pa to an inner-circle meeting on Ceres Station (located on the dwarf planet Ceres). Aboard Marco’s flagship, the Pella, Marco’s son Filip harbors a deep hatred for James Holden, whom he blames for the supposed death by suicide of his mother, Naomi Nagata. However, Filip learns from his security chief, Karal, that Naomi is alive, which the crew concealed from him. Humiliated, Filip’s rage shifts from Holden to his mother.

At the summit on Ceres, Marco reveals his next move: to strip the station of all its vital resources (including its reactors, defense grids, and medical supplies) and abandon it, leaving the ruined port and its millions of citizens as a logistical nightmare for the approaching Earth-Mars coalition. His forces immediately begin the sabotage, horrifying the station’s governor, Anderson Dawes. Tensions escalate when Filip shoots a Ceres security officer. Dawes confronts Marco, who agrees to remove his son but subtly signals his fury at the insult.

On the Connaught, Pa is disgusted by Marco’s cruelty and strategic recklessness. She and her family, who serve as her core crew, decide to stage a mutiny. They resolve to pursue their original mission of supplying the Belt’s needy stations and, breaking away from the Free Navy,, and Pa formally declares mutiny against loyalist forces.

Meanwhile, on Luna (Earth’s moon), the crew of the gunship Rocinante receives debriefings. Acting United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Chrisjen Avasarala, Martian Prime Minister Smith, and OPA leader Fred Johnson have formed a combined fleet. Their first mission is to destroy the Azure Dragon, a ship coordinating ongoing asteroid attacks. James Holden, captain of the Rocinante, agrees to participate on the condition that he retain command, with Martian marine Bobbie Draper appointed as mission commander.

The Rocinante successfully disables the Azure Dragon but is caught in a booby trap upon docking, trapping Bobbie in an airlock while mechs (enemy forces wearing protective exoskeletons) attack the ship’s hull. Crew members Amos Burton and Clarissa Mao conduct a perilous extravehicular space activity (EVA), or spacewalk, to fight them off. Clarissa is wounded but proves her mettle, and Holden formally accepts her as part of the crew. Upon returning to Luna, Holden has a tense reunion with his eight parents, whom Avasarala evacuated from Earth.

Because the UN Navy is free from defending Earth, Avasarala orders the fleet to retake the abandoned Ceres. There, Holden begins a personal project, filming interviews with ordinary Belters to humanize them for inner-planet audiences. Soon after, Fred Johnson asks Holden to transport him to a secret OPA summit on Tycho Station.

The Pella and two other Free Navy gunships wait to ambush the Rocinante. Marco, knowing that Fred Johnson is aboard, plans to kill the OPA leader and puts Filip at the weapons controls. A brutal battle at extreme acceleration (high g-force) ensues. Bobbie orchestrates a brilliant defense, using risky and physically punishing maneuvers to disable an enemy ship and damage the Pella, forcing a retreat. The extreme acceleration of the battle induces a fatal stroke in Fred Johnson.

During the fight, Marco taunts Holden by showing him a live feed of Filip at the weapons console. Unwilling to be responsible for killing Naomi’s son, Holden secretly disarms the torpedoes that would have destroyed the Pella. After the battle, Amos discovers Holden’s actions and confronts him, questioning his captain’s ability to lead when his loyalties are compromised.

The novel reveals UN Secretary Avasarala’s grand strategy: The system-wide attacks on the Free Navy are a massive diversion. The true objective is for Holden and an OPA force aboard the repurposed ice hauler Giambattista to capture the heavily fortified Medina Station, which sits at the center of the ring gates.

The Rocinante escorts the Giambattista toward the Sol gate, pursued by Free Navy ships. Upon arrival, the Giambattista releases a swarm of thousands of decoy drones, which Medina’s advanced Laconian rail guns target. Bobbie leads a small assault team that lands on the alien station housing the rail guns. Pinned down by Martian soldiers loyal to the renegade Admiral Duarte, Bobbie sets her landing craft on a kamikaze run on the rail guns’ central reactor, jumping free just before impact and disabling all of Medina’s primary defenses.

With the station vulnerable, Holden bluffs a full-scale invasion, and Medina’s commander surrenders to avoid further bloodshed. While securing the station, Naomi analyzes traffic logs from the ring network and discovers a predictable anomaly, a “load limit,” that causes ships to vanish if they enter a gate shortly after a high-mass, high-energy vessel has passed through. They form a desperate plan to use this discovery against Marco’s approaching fleet. After overloading the Giambattista’s systems, they send it through a gate, triggering the anomaly just as Marco’s 15 warships arrive in pursuit. Caught in the wake, Marco and his entire fleet vanish from the universe.

In the aftermath, the war ends. Filip, realizing his father’s manipulative nature, deserted before the final battle. Taking his mother’s surname, Nagata, he seeks anonymous work on Callisto (one of Jupiter’s moons). Michio Pa’s fleet is shattered during the diversionary battle at Titan (one of Saturn’s moons), where she loses two of her partners and spouses, Oksana and Evans.

Six months later, a conference is held on Ceres to determine the future of the system. Avasarala proposes the creation of a transport union to manage all traffic through the gates, establishing a new, vital economic role for the Belt. She nominates Holden as its first president. He refuses, arguing that the leader must be a Belter, and nominates Michio Pa, whose integrity and dedication to the Belt’s welfare make her the ideal candidate. The crew of the Rocinante celebrates the war’s end and looks toward an uncertain future.

The story ends by returning to Anna, Namono, and Nami, who are among the refugees on a colony ship heading to a new world. They reflect on history, hoping that humanity learns to be gentler as it spreads to the stars.