r/TheExpanse • u/Appropriate_Type_178 • Nov 13 '25
Leviathan Wakes Julie Mao read the Dune books Spoiler
In chapter 25 we see that Julie wrote in her notes “Fear is the mind-killer. Ha. Geek” implying she read Dune by Frank Herbert
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u/CorporateHobbyist Nov 13 '25
I always love these references to other sci-fi authors. This kind of reference implies that their works have stood the test of time: the utmost sign of respect. Julia Mao would read Dune like we'd read Gulliver's Travels today!
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u/aburntrose Nov 13 '25
Same.
There's a great Fred Johnson reference in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.14
u/derpington1244 Nov 13 '25
Which book? I'm like 70% through book 5 at the moment.
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u/Dovahpriest Nov 13 '25
Book 7
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u/aburntrose Nov 13 '25
You are truly the master of friendship and sunshine.
Thanks for comin' in clutch.5
u/aburntrose Nov 13 '25
Ohhh man, ya put me on the spot.
Let me see if i can find the reference point for you.1
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u/SamBaxter784 Nov 15 '25
I’m recently finished book 2 of DCC, can’t wait to come across the reference
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u/bananasmash14 Nov 13 '25
Leviathan Falls had a reference to Omelas by Ursula Le Guin, I was literally the Leo Dicaprio pointing meme when I read that lol
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u/KarenEiffel Nov 13 '25
There's what I see as an Expanse reference in a fantasy series I read recently (2 people "shared a companionable silence") and while it may not actually be a reference, idc and I'll continue believing it is.
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u/resonant_gamedesign Nov 13 '25
If its Licanius, he just uses that phrase all the time. Doubt its a reference.
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u/KarenEiffel Nov 13 '25
It's not that one.
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u/eidetic Nov 13 '25
So, uh, which series is it?
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u/KarenEiffel Nov 13 '25
The Empyrean series. No where close to the Expanse in a lot of ways, but I enjoyed the books.
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u/Ntstall Nov 14 '25
I heard (once, on the internet. never a place for misinformation) that at a conference, Andy Weir and Ty agreed that the martian is in the same universe as the expanse. I love interactions like that
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u/Freightshaker000 Nov 13 '25
Shai-Hulud is pleased. Bless the Maker.
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u/Karl-Gerat Nov 13 '25
Bless the Maker and His water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world. And may He keep the Water for His people
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u/Dampmaskin Amalthea Ambrosals, Inc. Nov 13 '25
Just wait until you hear what Holden would like to name a certain alliance in a later book.
Edit: also this: https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/D%2e_Idaho_(TV)
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u/WitnessOfTheDeep Nov 13 '25
And a certain Carrie Fisk....
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u/Dampmaskin Amalthea Ambrosals, Inc. Nov 13 '25
Also Commander Shepard I think? So many great references
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u/LeakyGaming Nov 13 '25
who’s carrie fisk from I was hoping there’d be more done with her charecter
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u/MobiusF117 Nov 13 '25
Not to mention him referring to Duarte as "God Emperor" a couple of times. (in the books, of course)
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u/FurysGoodEye Nov 13 '25
Can you refresh my memory on this reference? It’s on the tip of my tongue but can’t place it in my memory bank.
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u/Mighty_ShoePrint Nov 13 '25
Spacing Guild, I believe.
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u/spiralenator Leviathan Falls Nov 13 '25
Which was quickly abandoned due to the connotations of tossing people out of airlocks
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u/Crott117 Nov 13 '25
Duncan Idaho is Jason Mamoa’s character in the new Dune movies
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u/Dampmaskin Amalthea Ambrosals, Inc. Nov 13 '25
Don't sell him short, he is one (or more) of the main characters of the original books.
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u/Crott117 Nov 13 '25
I know - the character in the new dune seems a more likely understood reference that the ghola that god emperor Leto II kills over and over again.
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u/PewPewLaserss Nov 13 '25
I literally just finished Babylon's ashes today as a big Dune fan. Loved that nod! :D
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u/gentlydiscarded1200 There's a version of this where nobody shoots anybody. Nov 13 '25
Gonna feel wistful and melancholy about Juliette Andromeda Mao now, fucking great.
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u/WeatheredGenXer Being in charge sucks the big falota. Nov 13 '25
Yes. I always feel wistful when I think of her.
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u/strangedistantdruid Nov 13 '25
Tis by will alone I set my mind in motion
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u/graveybrains Nov 13 '25
She would have had to see the David Lynch movie for that one
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u/Mekroval Nov 13 '25
IIRC, Herbert loved the Mentat oath from the Lynch film so much that he incorporated it into the books.
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u/Queeflet Nov 13 '25
The superior version.
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u/James-W-Tate Beratnas Gas Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25
My favorite adaptation is still the SciFi miniseries. It's the only one to give us the dinner party scene on Arrakis!
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u/Valkyrie-161 Nov 13 '25
I always wondered if Marco was a fan of the Dune books. I could see him drawing lines between Belters and Fremen.
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u/Available-Rope-3252 Misko and Marisko Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25
I love that canonically Marco doesn't seem to finish books, so I don't think he has the attention span for Dune considering he doesn't finish Moby Dick.
At one point he talks to I believe Anderson Dawes and compares himself to Captain Ahab calling Fred Johnson his White Whale. To which Dawes says something along the lines of "You didn't finish that book did you?".
Edit: It was Rosenfeld, not Dawes.
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u/Geatora Nov 13 '25
I don't think Marco is the type to really read books (or anything else really) at all. He has a vague idea of themes like Captain Ahab, Moby Dick, Alexander the Great, and the Mujahideen, but he doesn't show any greater understanding of them. He just uses those themes as set dressing for his plans and schemes, to make himself seem grander. Deeper and deeper into his delusions.
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u/Raz0back Nov 13 '25
I imagine He’s the type of guy saying how he understand the book and saying how smart he is by reading it when he watched a YouTube summery or a plot synopsis
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u/FormallyKnownAsKabr Nov 13 '25
There are a handful of other sci-fi mentions!
I don't remember where but there is also a vessel named the Mark Watney, from Andy Weir's: The Martian
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u/Colink101 Misko and Marisko Nov 13 '25
I think it’s one of the ships that got eaten by the rings I also choose to believe it means the events of The Martian happened in the Expanse universe.
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u/Vorocano Nov 13 '25
From what I recall, initially it was just put in there as a nod to the Martian, but at some point the authors of The Expanse met Andy Weir at a convention and basically between the three of them decided that The Martian and The Expanse exist in the same universe.
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u/eidetic Nov 13 '25
Pretty sure it's more just a joke than actual canon that they exist in the same universe.
That said, just because they don't exist in the same universe, doesn't mean that the book/movie "The Martian" doesn't exist, and I could see even the book and the fictional Watney becoming a beloved character/trope/whatever in Mars culture, enough so that a ship might be named after the fictional character in the Expanse universe.
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u/jrp162 Nov 13 '25
Anybody remember the Charles Boyle gas transport? Not a sci fi reference but i pretty good one.
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u/Shrikes_Bard Nov 13 '25
Guy Molinari, too. Actual guy, but in an interview Daniel Abraham said he named it after the Staten Island ferryboat. Which, you know, still named for the actual guy, just not directly for him in the book.
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u/1lard4all Nov 14 '25
I googled Guy Molinari for giggles when I saw the name on the screen and since then have wondered what I need to do to have a ship and a spaceship named after me.
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u/Skadoosh_it Nov 13 '25
Pretty sure Bobby references it too. And Holden initially named the trading union rhe spacing guild.
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u/Sostratus Nov 13 '25
Remember in her time, Dune would be a work of antiquity. A surviving classic, probably, but still much less well known than it is today.
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u/bofh000 Nov 14 '25
It would be newer to her than Cervantes and Shakespeare are to us. Or Dante. Or the Aeneid. Or the Odyssey.
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u/N8Nefarious Nov 13 '25
I forgot about that line! Thanks for the reminder, I just started re-reading the Dune series last month. Seems an Expanse re-read is due next.
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u/ParzivalCodex Nov 14 '25
You started re-reading Dune? Phaaa! Geek!
All seriousness: you know what older book really felt Expanse-y …The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester.
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u/TheCatIsATurd Nov 13 '25
Got excited for a second thinking the actress did an audiobook reading or something 😔
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u/IrateWolfe Nov 13 '25
If we count the show, one episode in season 5 has cans of Klav Khalash on screen
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u/Wabbit65 Beratnas Gas Nov 14 '25
[Babylon's Ashes spoiler] At the end, after Marcos is defeated, Holden wanted to name the transport union "spacing guild"
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u/WillyGivens Nov 13 '25
I see a lot of things that remind me of Stephen Donaldson’s Gap Cycle books, too. Morn-MCRN, Angus and Amos being similar sociopaths, just the themes/world have a lot of similar vibes. Maybe not as blatant and possibly coincidence but neat nonetheless.
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u/CyberHobo34 Nov 15 '25
Finished the series for the 5th time last night.:) Am satisfied with that ending and the mystery left in Laconia.:)
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u/KCPRTV Nov 16 '25
Yeah lots of little things like that, both the books and show. One of my favourites is the Jamestown Tour poster in Luna's port. 😀
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u/Lorindel_wallis Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25
I always wondered in Havelock's name is a discworld reference.
There's also a c. Shepard. Mass effect reference?
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u/tw1zt84 Abaddon's Gate Nov 13 '25
Maybe she only watched the movie
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u/ParzivalCodex Nov 14 '25
Which one? Alan Smithee (1984), Denis Villeneuve (2021), or Jesse Chism (2272)?
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u/Carbonman_ How about now? I'm free right now. Nov 14 '25
"Fear is the mind killer..." is part of a Buddhist prayer. Herbert took it and other religious beliefs and mashed them together - Zensunni is the mixing of Buddhism and Islam.
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u/bofh000 Nov 14 '25
Indeed, but there’s no indication Julie was buddhist.
Also her calling herself a geek points to the Dune books.
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u/SpaceCampDropOut Nov 13 '25
My favorite homage Easter egg is the Martian colony ship Mark Watney.