Set hundreds of years in the future, the series depicts a humanity that has colonized the solar system, only to repeat the same historical patterns of division. The narrative is built around three primary factions:
In the modern era, we have tried to fill every terrestrial expanse. We plow the prairies, irrigate the deserts, and pave the forests. But the remaining wild expanses—the national parks, the preserves—are our most valuable psychological assets. They remind us that nature does not exist to serve our convenience. expanse
A working class born in low gravity on asteroid stations and moons. "Belters" develop thin, elongated limbs and a unique creole language, marking them as physically and culturally distinct from "Inners". Set hundreds of years in the future, the
But the courage to explore the internal expanse is the root of all wisdom. Meditation is the astronaut training for the inner void. By sitting still, by letting the thoughts pass like clouds over a vast plain, we realize that we are not the thoughts—we are the expanse in which the thoughts occur . But the remaining wild expanses—the national parks, the
For most of us, this internal expanse is cluttered. We suffer from what Buddhists call the "monkey mind"—chattering, jumping from branch to branch, never still. We fear the internal expanse because it is dark and unknown. We fill it with social media (the digital expanse) to avoid looking at it.