When Captain Jim Holden's ice miner stumbles across a derelict, abandoned ship, he uncovers a secret that threatens to throw the entire system into war. Attacked by a stealth ship belonging to the Mars fleet, Holden must find a way to uncover the motives behind the attack, stop a war and find the truth behind a vast conspiracy that threatens the entire human race.
Encore sous le choc d’Hypérion, et en début de manque, j’ai finalement jeté mon dévolu sur ce début de série proposé par Actes Sud qui traînait dans ma PAL depuis un temps certain.
L’argument « “un Game of Thrones dans l’espace” ne m’a pas du tout interpellée : il m’en faut plus pour me convaincre, mais la promesse de noirceur et le fait d’avoir récemment succombé au genre (du moins au travers d’Hypérion) me laissait entrevoir bien des merveilles. [La suite sur mon blog, merci :)]
Quite enjoyable read. But. The authors seem hell bent on fulfilling the old sci-fi/fantasy cliche that everyone constantly frowns. They're all frowning together, he said frowningly with a frown to Detective Frownsen.
(And now for something completely different: I'm starting a little fan fiction series called "The Frownse".)
I enjoyed reading this book. The characters were interesting, if a little male dominated. The pacing of the story was so that I read it without too many breaks. The world is exciting.
There is just one thing I have to critique: the title kind of spoils the whole plot. But then this is something that happens and it was surely done on purpose. But all in all there were not many surprising turns in the book for me. Curiously, I usually dislike surprises but here I missed them a little. Not enough however to detract from my overall enjoyment of the story. I am looking forward to reading the sequel.
I really liked both Miller and Holden, the two protagonists. They are well-rounded characters with deep flaws that drive the plot in good ways.
I always waited for Fred to turn on everyone but he didn't and his moment …
I enjoyed reading this book. The characters were interesting, if a little male dominated. The pacing of the story was so that I read it without too many breaks. The world is exciting.
There is just one thing I have to critique: the title kind of spoils the whole plot. But then this is something that happens and it was surely done on purpose. But all in all there were not many surprising turns in the book for me. Curiously, I usually dislike surprises but here I missed them a little. Not enough however to detract from my overall enjoyment of the story. I am looking forward to reading the sequel.
I really liked both Miller and Holden, the two protagonists. They are well-rounded characters with deep flaws that drive the plot in good ways.
I always waited for Fred to turn on everyone but he didn't and his moment of redemption was if not quite great then at the very least good.
I have very mixed feelings about this book. It feels a lot like Firefly with the crew dynamics and the whole frontier western vibe but it lacks the humor and depth of world of the show. About halfway through I feel like the book could have concluded but then we spent most of the rest dwelling of the depressed detectives emotions. I would have preferred more time spent with the proto alien. Odd choices overall.
Finishing 2014 on a high note. This book is great space opera, with a few surprising twists and two very different main characters in a well written, lived-in, gritty world. Sign me up for the sequels!
There is a LOT going on in this book: genre mashups, social commentary, complex narrative structure, space, opera... the world-building is fantastic, but I wish he put more effort into character building.
I have mixed feelings about leviathan wakes. The first half was pretty bad. I found it stale and uninteresting and even when people got killed I didn't really care.
The second half was thrilling. Though I don't like it when the author spells out everything and doesn't let me figure out anything by myself.
I do admire the fact that the book has an ending despite being part of the series.
Brilliant? No. Derivative? Absolutely. Yet, this novel seems to overcome all of that with a quick pace and a determined narrative drive. The characters are all familiar and likeable, we've seen the plot before, though maybe not in this order, but it is space opera we are interested in after all, and the authors have written a compelling one.
I will probably read the other books in the series, though I might have a hard time recommending them to anyone who isn't already excited about the genre.
Really good space opera; similar to Iain M. Banks' stories but closer to our time frame and just inside the solar system. Characters were well-drawn, with a noir-ish detective on an asteroid and the remains of crew that's reminiscent of way-back-when futures.
The ending seems a bit rushed but mostly reasonable to me, but seems to end a little too upbeat for what's happened. Still, the author(s) have a good recipe with a lot of science fiction spiced with a murder mystery and a pinch of horror. I'm definitely moving on to Caliban's War after finishing this one.
Interesting ideas woven together in a mid-future near-space opera setting. I think the authors (this is a two-person team writing under a single pseudonym) did a pretty good job with what they had, and it's definitely a fast-paced action book. The story is told from the perspectives of two of the main characters most of the time, alternating between the characters. It's hard to compare it with good, classic sci-fi --- the characters are a little weaker, and there are definitely some cliche moments, which is why I'm inclined to give it a three instead of a four. But overall it did its job, filling several evenings and bits of a few afternoons waiting for other things, and most of the time I was wanting to keep reading even though my time for reading was up.
I read this as part of the Sword and Laser book club. Until it was announced as the month's book I hadn't heard of it, so I really had no particular expectations going in. I was pleasantly surprised.
This is a fast moving book where humanity has managed to colonize parts of the solar system. But they're still very much tethered to Earth. Technology and science are background elements for this book. They serve the plot, not the other way round.
We are presented with two viewpoint characters: Jim Holden, the rather naive and reckless XO of an ice mining ship and Detective Miller a policeman on a space station with a very realpolitik viewpoint. Over the course of the book their two stories merge into one as a larger plot develops. The two characters and their conflicting moral views drive the story forward.
I particularly enjoyed the first half …
I read this as part of the Sword and Laser book club. Until it was announced as the month's book I hadn't heard of it, so I really had no particular expectations going in. I was pleasantly surprised.
This is a fast moving book where humanity has managed to colonize parts of the solar system. But they're still very much tethered to Earth. Technology and science are background elements for this book. They serve the plot, not the other way round.
We are presented with two viewpoint characters: Jim Holden, the rather naive and reckless XO of an ice mining ship and Detective Miller a policeman on a space station with a very realpolitik viewpoint. Over the course of the book their two stories merge into one as a larger plot develops. The two characters and their conflicting moral views drive the story forward.
I particularly enjoyed the first half to two thirds of the book as the mystery and political elements played out. The interactions between Earth, Mars and the "Belters" was convincing and the political tensions kept my attention. In some ways this stuff reminded me of Babylon 5.
The final part of the book is a bit more out there. Not bad and it follows on logically from what came before but not as interesting to me personally.
I did like how science was used in the book. They don't ignore the realities of physics (whether it's gravity or radiation) but at the same time it's just accepted that after that much advance in science a lot of problems are solvable. We aren't subjected to page long explanations of how, just that they are.
There is a peculiar absence of robots or any sort of artificial intelligence though. I'm not sure if that's simply because it didn't suit the story being told, or if there's more to it.
One interesting thing the author attempts is to have his viewpoint characters faced with some harsh realizations about themselves and their own actions. On more than one occasion you find your perception of the character twisted by what they discover about themselves. It can be a bit of a wrench, but the hints are there if you look back.
However, this may annoy readers who like their characters to be consistent from beginning to end. These people are changed by events around them and their own emotions. Their decisions and actions are consistent, but not constant.
All in all it's a fun, fast paced read with mystery, politics, action and at the end just a bit of "sense of wonder". Oh and while it's reasonably self contained it does set up a sequel very nicely!
