Gods of Risk

Set on Mars in the aftermath of interplanetary crisis, Gods of Risk follows David Draper, a brilliant teenager quietly manufacturing illegal drugs while dreaming of a university future. When a friend vanishes and a dangerous dealer's shadow falls over her disappearance, David finds himself navigating a world far more ruthless than any chemistry lab. His aunt Bobbie Draper — one of the Expanse's most compelling characters — looms nearby, and the tension between what she suspects and what David hides gives the novella a quiet, coiling dread. This is a story about youth, desperation, and what people risk when they feel they have no other options.

At seventy-odd pages, James S. A. Corey writes with remarkable compression here — every scene pulls double duty, building character while advancing stakes. The Martian setting feels lived-in and specific, all tunnels and rationed air and social pressure, which grounds even the most intimate moments in something larger. Where the main Expanse novels work on an epic scale, this novella rewards readers who want to see what the universe looks like from street level, through eyes that aren't yet hardened enough to know better.