halkeye reviewed Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #1)
Review of 'Leviathan Wakes' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I had a lot of trouble putting it down.
Published April 12, 2011 by Hachette Digital.
Leviathan wakes
4 stars
(425 reviews)
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.
Mark Niemann-Ross reviewed Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #1)
Review of 'Leviathan Wakes' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Shades of Prometheus - with car chases!
Michael @ Knowledge Lost reviewed Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Review of 'Leviathan Wakes' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Humanity has colonised the solar system; the Moon, Mars and even the Asteroid Belt. With the colonisation tensions is on the rise, will conflict erupt between Earth’s government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries and the corporations? Leviathan Wakes tells the story of two very different and very explosive characters; Holden the XO of an ice mining vessel that makes runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. And Detective Miller who is looking for a girl; one girl in a galaxy of billions. Leviathan Wakes is an explosive Science Fiction novel that weaves two different styles into one fast paced novel.
Both Holden and Miller are very dominating characters; the sort of characters that will take a moral stand against anything that don’t believe in. But both characters have a completely different sense of what is right and end up being polar opposites. They tend to …
Humanity has colonised the solar system; the Moon, Mars and even the Asteroid Belt. With the colonisation tensions is on the rise, will conflict erupt between Earth’s government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries and the corporations? Leviathan Wakes tells the story of two very different and very explosive characters; Holden the XO of an ice mining vessel that makes runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. And Detective Miller who is looking for a girl; one girl in a galaxy of billions. Leviathan Wakes is an explosive Science Fiction novel that weaves two different styles into one fast paced novel.
Both Holden and Miller are very dominating characters; the sort of characters that will take a moral stand against anything that don’t believe in. But both characters have a completely different sense of what is right and end up being polar opposites. They tend to end up being their own worst enemies making choices that enviably being destructive towards themselves. I never really ended up liking Holden or Miller; with Holden’s storyline the writers tended to go for a real firefly style plot and I never felt like it ever worked. Holden is no Malcolm Reynolds and overall he had nothing to him that I ended up liking. I felt like he lacked the charisma and wit to make his story line stand out. Then Detective Miller was the storyline I was most looking forward to, the hardboiled detective that will stop at nothing to solve his case. I didn’t mind that Miller was the joke of the police force, I thought that was a nice twist but I never felt like he was hardboiled enough; he was also missing the charisma and wit needed for this character and in the end he was just unmemorable.
I found it interesting to know that James S. A. Corey is actually two people; Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck and both took on the role of writing one characters plot and then the interweaved the two storylines to make Leviathan Wakes. I did end up liking the fact that Holden and Miller’s stories felt and read differently and the way they ending up complimenting each other worked really well. The end process is a thrilling novel with some great elements to keep the plot moving forward.
In the end I felt like the characters of this book needed to be fleshed out a bit more, to me they just weren’t three dimensional enough and I felt like I could predict their next moves without even trying. There was nothing in the book that did end up surprising me, except the one love element, which just ending up feeling like sloppy writing. It’s an interesting start for this series and I still think I want to read the next book in The Expanse Trilogy but maybe that was mainly caused by the open ended end to this novel.
Jonathan Arnold reviewed Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #1)
Review of 'Leviathan Wakes' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
"Leviathan Wakes" is the first in a new series of space opera books called "The Expanse". James S. A. Corey is the pseudonym used by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck ("George R. R. Martin's assistant"). It is going to document "near space", where the human race has colonized the Solar System, but is looking to expand. "Leviathan Awakes" is a very promising debut book, telling its complicated and sweeping story with panache and heart.
The book opens with a prologue of space pirates taking over the Scopuli, but then things get weird, as one of the captives turns into the sole survivor. Jim Holden is the XO of an ice freighter, which pushes huge chunks of ice from the outer planets. The Canterbury is the nearest ship when the call for help goes out from the Scopuli, so they head in to inspect it.
While they are doing this, Detective …
"Leviathan Wakes" is the first in a new series of space opera books called "The Expanse". James S. A. Corey is the pseudonym used by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck ("George R. R. Martin's assistant"). It is going to document "near space", where the human race has colonized the Solar System, but is looking to expand. "Leviathan Awakes" is a very promising debut book, telling its complicated and sweeping story with panache and heart.
The book opens with a prologue of space pirates taking over the Scopuli, but then things get weird, as one of the captives turns into the sole survivor. Jim Holden is the XO of an ice freighter, which pushes huge chunks of ice from the outer planets. The Canterbury is the nearest ship when the call for help goes out from the Scopuli, so they head in to inspect it.
While they are doing this, Detective Miller, on Saturn's moon Ceres, desultorily takes on cases and ponders his mostly empty life. He is told to find the daughter of a rich patron and bring her home, by force if necessary. He's not too keen on the idea, but the more he investigates Julie's disappearance, the more he is drawn to this rebellious daughter.
Holden's investigation of the Scopuli, and the ensuing combats, enmesh him and his skeleton crew in both far reaching politics and the hideous secret of the Eros massacre. Detective Miller is also drawn into the sweeping arc, as well as the horrific discovery of what became of Julie.
It is a really engrossing read. The technological mumbo jumbo is kept to a minimum, which is refreshing. We aren't told exactly what the "Epstein Drive" is, or how it powers the spaceships, as we don't need it. This is a story of people, and how the straight as an arrow Holden and the bent and nearly broken Miller can combine to save Earth.
I enjoyed how the book intertwined science fiction with some noir-ish tendencies. Some of the relationships fell flat, and the ending went over the top, robbing it of a 1/2 a star. But otherwise, a great read and the little bit of book 2, Caliban's War, offered up at the end of the book just whetted my appetite to continue with the series. I'm not exactly sure if there will be continuing characters. Certainly a reappearance of Miller would be a shock, although Holden is probably coming back. But neither are mentioned in the sample chapter.
SBWright reviewed Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #1)
Review of 'Leviathan Wakes' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Leviathan Wakes is the first book in what I assume will be the Expanse Trilogy. It’s written under the pseudonym of James S.A. Corey – the writers responsible are Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank. I presume this literary skulduggery, thinly veiled though it is, has something to do with marketing.
The Story
Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless …
Leviathan Wakes is the first book in what I assume will be the Expanse Trilogy. It’s written under the pseudonym of James S.A. Corey – the writers responsible are Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank. I presume this literary skulduggery, thinly veiled though it is, has something to do with marketing.
The Story
Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.
Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.
Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.
Is it Kickass? Is it Space Opera?
George R.R. Martin has labelled Leviathan Wakes ‘Kickass Space Opera’. I don’t know that it hits either of those descriptors right on the head. I’ll take on Space Opera first. The world building has it registering with me as a plausible future. The attention to detail in regards to the harshness of space, the limits of human expansion being within our solar system, the Mormons building a generation ship. It’s not grand enough to be Opera, not yet anyway.
Is it Kick Ass? For something to register as ‘Kickass’ to me it either has to hook into me emotionally, or have unbelievable levels of cool or both. Leviathan Wakes is a good exciting read, don’t get me wrong, I was rocketed through its 560 odd pages, eagerly turning but It didn’t hit me where it hurts and like I have said it’s setting is plausible, realistic even.
What I liked?
Characterisation and world building were brilliant, within 50 pages I could see, hear, taste and feel what life was like out in the solar system. Deft little touches like the hand gestures used by Belters(occupants of the asteroid belt) to add inflection to conversation - a by-product of a culture that spends most of its time in vacuum suits where facial gestures are useless.
I liked the mix of futuristic hardboiled fiction and fugitives on the run from evil empires in the “galaxy’s fastest ship”. Leviathan Wakes feels a bit like Rick Deckard meets Han Solo, crossed with Event Horizon plus Dead Space and it’s all good.
Gender Issues?
This story is really about two men, Miller and Holden. The only significant women are Naomi -a competent XO / love interest, Captain Shaddid -Miller’s superior and Juliette who strikes me as not much more than a plot device. So the women, though developed as strong and independent are only supporting characters.
Summary
It’s a very entertaining read and there's enough resolution of the story in this volume for the reader to not feel cheated and by the same token enough dangling threads to make the second volume enticing. For me the highlight of the book was characters and world building, a little too gritty and restricted to be Space Opera but a worthwhile investment of 10 hours of my time.
This book was a review copy provided by Orbit.
