560 pages
French language
Published May 4, 2022 by Actes Sud.
Leviathan Falls is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and the ninth and final book of the series The Expanse. The title and cover art were announced by the authors at a virtual fan announcement on September 16, 2020 and the book was released November 30, 2021.
The resolution is satisfying, and I felt that the parallels with Leviathan Wakes were a good send off for the whole series. I felt it was denser than volumes 7 and 8, but it might just be because it wrapped up the series
Epic and satisfying conclusion to an epic series.
"I'll be here," Alex said, and it felt more like a prayer than it usually did.
There it is, The Expanse has come to an end. It will be difficult to review this book without considering how it concluded the series and wrapped up loose ends. The final book in a series has a significant amount of pressure to stick the landing and I'm content with how it went.
"He hasn't changed," Alex said. "Not really."
"He has," she said. "We all have."
Looking back over my reviews of the previous books I found more comments about family and connection than science, space battles and protomolocule. The latter is excellent and there have been some doozies, but the books have always been about the crew of the Rocinante and the authors didn't deviate from that recipe this time around. Thankfully there was a bit more focus on the big …
"I'll be here," Alex said, and it felt more like a prayer than it usually did.
There it is, The Expanse has come to an end. It will be difficult to review this book without considering how it concluded the series and wrapped up loose ends. The final book in a series has a significant amount of pressure to stick the landing and I'm content with how it went.
"He hasn't changed," Alex said. "Not really."
"He has," she said. "We all have."
Looking back over my reviews of the previous books I found more comments about family and connection than science, space battles and protomolocule. The latter is excellent and there have been some doozies, but the books have always been about the crew of the Rocinante and the authors didn't deviate from that recipe this time around. Thankfully there was a bit more focus on the big bad because it was time to wrap things up.
All the places you visit start charging into new ones the second you leave.
Regarding the big bad; I feel a little underwhelmed. Holden's sacrifice at the end was typical James Holden, and Miller commenting on Holden making a decision for billions of people shows how flawed Holden is/was...but the bad guys are still out there.
The Ring Gate was destroyed and there should be no recurrence of protomolecule attempting to recreate it, but will that be the case? How do we know that Elvi's science crew can keep their catalyst under wraps and in control?
What Holden did is a more long term solution than what the builders did before but the monster race that can change physics and eliminate humanity in a blink of an eye is still out there. Will they be satisfied that humanity isn't poking their ships where it doesn't belong and with technology it doesn't understand?
"You're right," Holden said. "Let's solve the extinction-level threat first. Then we can all go back to killing each other at a more civilized pace."
I'm satisfied with the conclusion but can't help shake the questions that remain and wonder if the end is as air tight and in line with the quality of the books before it.
Plain sight was their best hope, because their plan B was violence.
I will need more time to process the book and ending as a whole but my initial thoughts were positive and applaud the writing duo on pulling off this incredible series in the manner they did.
The Expanse as a series was as I believe always about change and change in scale humanity has to face. After all this time it was impossible to keep escalating and it ended in the only way it could, really... A fitting end.
Hard to believe that this series followed me through my uni years.
