For example, the story from Cibola Burn seemed a lot better on the show than the book in my opinion and some of the characters are better.
In particular, Ashford's character is massively improved (it helps that David Strathairn plays the role incredibly well).
The books are very good though and I can't wait for Leviathan Falls. Also, it seems the series will stop at the end of Babylon's Ashes.
The show really gives the opportunity to explore the individual motivations of the characters; the books are also great and they complement each other, but I feel that the books are almost too fast paced to really savour the environment and setting.
The way his character develops and changes is incredible and the acting is really well done.
I really like that they prefer a good story over sticking to the exact "canon" of the novels. And in "they" I include the novel authors, who are very involved in the TV series.
We still have the final season though - let's hope it doesn't do a "Game of Thrones".
Don't get your hopes up too high; "The Expanse" is often nicknamed "The Expense" due to its high special effects budget. Amazon Prime may decide that later seasons need to have their budgets cut.
As for The Expanse, it's season not seasons; the next season will be the final season. I cannot see the tv series ending in the same end point as the final novel, that is I cannot see them cramming four novels with one huge time gap in between into one season. But I do believe it will come to a satisfactory conclusion at some alternative end point.
Maybe it's my fault for having mostly read Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams for the last few years, but I found the writing to be extremely bland. It does the job of narrating the plot but the lack of all flavor would have turned me off immediately if I wasn't able to visualize the characters and scenes from the show.
That said, I'm pretty happy with the changes they made for the show. And a bit annoyed that most of the things I didn't really like about the characters were details carried over from the books.
Also, the books set a very high bar for Naomi's "solo adventure" (let's call it that to prevent spoilers), and the series did such a great job, and stayed very true to the source. It was satisfying seeing this unravel almost exactly as I had imagined it.
But all the romance I found really unrealistic and ham-fisted.
They cut that completely out of the show.