Glen Engel-Cox reviewed Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Intriguing
4 stars
In an effort to catch up on some of the most popular SFF published in the last couple of decades, I finally turned to this, the first in The Expanse series, now made into a TV series on Netflix. And it’s easy to see what has made it so popular and cinematic: the action here is exciting, the characters fairly complex, and the political machinations between Earth, Mars, and the Belt intriguing and interesting. The latter is probably the best selling point of the book, at least for me. Corey (a pseudonym for Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank, but I’ll refer to the collaboration with their chosen sobriquet because it truly is the work of both) has imagined a future in which humanity has escaped the gravity well that is our home planet, but not made much progress in escaping our solar system. This “on the cusp” of something bigger …
In an effort to catch up on some of the most popular SFF published in the last couple of decades, I finally turned to this, the first in The Expanse series, now made into a TV series on Netflix. And it’s easy to see what has made it so popular and cinematic: the action here is exciting, the characters fairly complex, and the political machinations between Earth, Mars, and the Belt intriguing and interesting. The latter is probably the best selling point of the book, at least for me. Corey (a pseudonym for Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank, but I’ll refer to the collaboration with their chosen sobriquet because it truly is the work of both) has imagined a future in which humanity has escaped the gravity well that is our home planet, but not made much progress in escaping our solar system. This “on the cusp” of something bigger defines the book, in which an alien…let’s call it a virus…is discovered and what happens when different groups interact with it. But the book is anchored in the point-of-view of two characters, who affect the politics, but aren’t politicians, and that saves the book from being too heady and firmly keeps it in the tradition of action-adventure.
Now, for the negatives. The two POVs, both male, display some annoying modern (or possibly 20th century) tendencies, especially with regards to women. Oh brave new world where we still can’t get beyond sexism, I greet thee. On the plus side, Corey uses these character flaws to try to deepen both the characterization and utilize it for some plot surprises, but after reading the more enlightened future of Becky Chambers, the element grated a bit on my sensibilities. While not going full Bruce Sterling (whose Shaper/Mechanist series had some great depictions of how humanity would be changed by space), Corey explores some of what might be the differences in future groups who grew up entirely in space, and how those differences might become a new racism.
The other negative, although I was able to overcome my squeamishness, was the amount of body horror here. The aforementioned Belter differences pale in comparison to what the alien virus achieves, even so much as being described by the characters as making their human hosts zombies. But it’s much worse than that. This would likely put me off the TV series, depending upon how much of that is depicted; in reading, I’m able to get beyond it. Given that the opening leaves a pretty stark description of this as the cliffhanger, it’s not that Corey doesn’t warn the reader about what’s coming, however.
All in all, I enjoyed the book and am intrigued enough by the ending (which is an ending, but not) to be interested in continuing the series at some point.
