German language
Published April 9, 2012 by Heyne Verlag.
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.
Das Buch hat mich genau so gefesselt wie die Serie. Auch wenn hier so 3er oder 4er Bewertungen stehen, für mich ist das Buch ein neues Universum und mit ganz neuen Bereichen, wie sich die Menschheit ausgebreitet hat und doch nicht von seinen alten Lastern loskommt, anderen ihren Willen aufzudrücken. Allein sich das Universum so auszudenken, mit der dreier Konstellation ist schon ganz gut
What's all the fuss? Just a space thriller with so-so characters. A gritty future where humanity has colonised the solar system, but it's as corporate, politically riven & prejudiced as today. Some intrigue and a fair bit of action, but to what end?
goated
I encountered the TV show, The Expanse, before discovering it was originally a book series. I'm glad I experienced the two formats in that order. Reading the book was in some way a replay of the TV show, since I pictured and heard the actors as I read.
If you haven't come across either, Leviathan Wakes is the first in a monumental space opera series, set centuries in the future, where humans have colonized most of the solar system, where Mars is a space-faring power that exists in an uneasy and unstable tension with an overcrowded Earth, and where the "Belters" (the inhabitants of the asteroid belt and the moons of the outer planets, are resentful at how they're taken for granted and exploited by the two planets.
A powerful corporation's attempts to weaponize an alien organism destabilizes an already unstable solar system.
This massive canvas is the backdrop for …
I encountered the TV show, The Expanse, before discovering it was originally a book series. I'm glad I experienced the two formats in that order. Reading the book was in some way a replay of the TV show, since I pictured and heard the actors as I read.
If you haven't come across either, Leviathan Wakes is the first in a monumental space opera series, set centuries in the future, where humans have colonized most of the solar system, where Mars is a space-faring power that exists in an uneasy and unstable tension with an overcrowded Earth, and where the "Belters" (the inhabitants of the asteroid belt and the moons of the outer planets, are resentful at how they're taken for granted and exploited by the two planets.
A powerful corporation's attempts to weaponize an alien organism destabilizes an already unstable solar system.
This massive canvas is the backdrop for following a rag-tag crew that have commandeered a salvaged top-notch Martian military vessel. This gives the book its personal touch. The novel is has an excellent balance of the personal and the political/military.
The book has the advantage of going into more depth about the characters' motivations than the TV series could, clarifying some aspects of the show that struck me as rather random.
This is an excellent read, and I've already started on Caliban's War, the second in the series.
Fast paced space opera, with a social and political background.
I loved this entire series. Page-turners, every one. WAY better than the TV series.
I started this series because I loved the TV show and wanted to experience the world more after it ended. I loved the writing style of the book, the writers do a good hard SF world without going in very long descriptions of the world, weaving the SF details in the world elegantly.
I'm impressed how close the show stuck to the book, but I also enjoy the differences, already looking forward to the next book that introduces two of my favourite characters from the show.
I don't know why but I was expecting a fast action-paced space opera. But I thought it had too many political discussions and background and a lack of action. I enjoyed the world-building, though! It seems like this world can be expanded and explored to create amazing stories. I like noir-style detective stories but detective Miller was not my favorite character. The highlight is Rocinante's crew dynamics. I loved the mix of Earthlings, Martians and Belters. It is interesting to imagine that as humankind explores the universe there will be new languages, mixed cultures and different body types.
**UPDATE: I had originally given this book a 3 star rating mainly because I didn't like the pace (or I was in a bad mood) but after I saw The Expanse TV series I changed my mind about the book. Is that possible? So now it is a 4 star!
So I started reading this book 1 year ago...
I remember very vaguely that it kind of bored me; the vocabulary was complicated, the author uses some technical words I don't understand, and it generally didn't entertain me...
However, the idea of an interplanetary society that's set up in this novel, is very fascinating, additionally with the perspectives of 2 different, opposite characters, is also a very interesting way of telling a story.
Ultimately, I would give it a 3/5
A bit of a slow start, but after the first quarter or so it becomes unputdownable. Soon on to the sequel.
Easily my favorite space opera series and the first book hooked this Earther. The detail and world building are outstanding and the characters and their adventures are addictive.
I'm going to skim the first six books so I can re-read Persepolis Rising and then finally read Tiamat's Wrath to prep for the last book coming out at the end of this year.
Um, here's a thought, but don't read it unless you've already read the book, okay:
I feel kinda horrible to say it, but I was kinda glad when Miller got killed off. Not that I wasn't sad; he was one of my favorite characters, and I really loved how he developed over the course of the novel. It's just like this: if I'm going to stick around for a what, nine-book series, I want to see that the authors aren't afraid of change. Too many books I've read are afraid to let anything happen because they want their readers to keep loving the characters they first saw. (The Oz series is predominantly on my mind; every book solved the conflict with yet another magic object to the point where one of the later plots--and in my opinion one of the more interesting ones--has an evil magician steal all their magic …
Um, here's a thought, but don't read it unless you've already read the book, okay:
I feel kinda horrible to say it, but I was kinda glad when Miller got killed off. Not that I wasn't sad; he was one of my favorite characters, and I really loved how he developed over the course of the novel. It's just like this: if I'm going to stick around for a what, nine-book series, I want to see that the authors aren't afraid of change. Too many books I've read are afraid to let anything happen because they want their readers to keep loving the characters they first saw. (The Oz series is predominantly on my mind; every book solved the conflict with yet another magic object to the point where one of the later plots--and in my opinion one of the more interesting ones--has an evil magician steal all their magic stuff, so they have to work without. I mean, seriously: how can you keep a story interesting when one character has a belt that lets them do literally anything?)
Anyway, by killing Miller, the authors have convinced me that they're going to do what's right to make an interesting story, even if it hurts the reader's feelings a bit. And that's all right. In fact, I much prefer that to static characters. I don't want a bunch of novels with practically identical plots. (I'm talking to you, Sherlock Holmes and Hardy Boys.)
And to those who have read further into the series (preferably until Cibola Burn):
Yes, I realize Miller came back. My point stands; he definitely was extremely changed and arguably not even the original person at all.
ok yeah the hype lived up, there's probably not much else to say after ten years but god damn is the pacing, the writing, everything just so solid with this book. excited to continue the series
I enjoyed this book. It had a fun mix of space ship fights mixed with some classic tension from humanity. It even mixed in noire and vomit zombies. I am starting to get back into reading and this was a fun page turner that got me back into some one of my favorite genres.
Death without warning was preferable, as it removed all fear.
It will be difficult to review the book without comparing it to the Syfy/Amazon series, but the reason I'm reading it is because of the TV show so regardless of how I try to view them separately they (season one and Leviathan Wakes) are so similar that they both suffered the same flaws or challenges.
It's the problem with politics. Your enemies are often your allies. And vice versa.
Miller is a stereotypical cop that has gone through a divorce, witnessed his glory days come and go and is now a joke among the force. I failed to understand (in the beginning) why Miller was so fixated with Juliette Mao and why he kept postponing the conclusion of her case so he could pursue another Julie-related task (find her, find those who wrong her, enacted vengeance). His obsession reeked …
Death without warning was preferable, as it removed all fear.
It will be difficult to review the book without comparing it to the Syfy/Amazon series, but the reason I'm reading it is because of the TV show so regardless of how I try to view them separately they (season one and Leviathan Wakes) are so similar that they both suffered the same flaws or challenges.
It's the problem with politics. Your enemies are often your allies. And vice versa.
Miller is a stereotypical cop that has gone through a divorce, witnessed his glory days come and go and is now a joke among the force. I failed to understand (in the beginning) why Miller was so fixated with Juliette Mao and why he kept postponing the conclusion of her case so he could pursue another Julie-related task (find her, find those who wrong her, enacted vengeance). His obsession reeked of a stalker as opposed someone who was diligent and focused.
On the other end of the spectrum is Holden who came across as someone who made poor decisions that impacted his crew and lacked the awareness to understand his flaws. His conversations with Miller were monosyllabic, which made them both seem simple and flat. The story had a wonderful world, interesting drama developing and our two lead characters are having one word conversations.
The above describes my problem with the TV show and book. However, with the benefit of internal monologues the book avoided the nosedive the TV show took.
He was vaguely aware that he was weeping. It didn't mean anything.
The events that each character faced, the horrors they witnessed, and their different ways of dealing with them showed a drastic divide in how they each operated their morale compass. The conversations between Miller and Holden were still basic, but there was subtext and something existed in the spaces of a "good?" "yeah" conversation.
Suddenly words, however few, had weight and importance.
Holden is righteous, Miller is a renegade. Holden believes in justice and Miller realizes not all situations will see justice so vengeance is necessary.
Unfortunately I dislike Miller in both instances (TV and book), but Leviathan Wakes Miller is redeemed...it just took nearly two thirds of the book for this to become obvious. The events on Eros were a defining moment in each characters path and the outcome of that challenged how they each saw their counterpart.
"You might be the best person I know. But you're totally uncompromising on what you think is right, and that's what you have about Miller."
"I do?"
"Yes," she said. "He's totally uncompromising too, but he has different ideas on how things work."
Holden realized that Miller would shoot without question and Miller understood Holdens morality. The fallout of Eros and then followed by the confrontation with Dresden on the secret science Thoth Station only further showed this division. The crew of the Rocinate sided with Holden but understood the reasons for why the two were different long before Holden did.
Building humanity's greatest empire is like building the world's largest anthill. Insignificant.
When the story has only two POV characters and you dislike them both it's easy to overlook the rest of the book. Holden and Miller aside Leviathan Wakes was excellent. Having the memory of the TV show allowed me to jump in to the world very quickly. Ships, locations, gear and the wonderful execution of the TV show seemed like very honest replication of the source material. Understanding the political struggles to come I took time to pay attention to details and be cognizant that Fred Johnson, OPA, Earth and Mars will set the groundwork for the larger scope of a story to come.
