Published June 14, 2011 by Orbit.
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.
An entertaining read. Can't go into the parts I didn't like without spoilers. Fleshed out characters, good detail on the realities of living in a Newtonian universe.
An interesting introduction to a view of the distant but recognizable future and a mix of hard science fiction and space mystery/fantasy.
Leviathan Wakes is the first book in a science fiction series. It’s on television as a series called ‘The Expanse’. As usual if there is a book I don’t watch it on television.
So what’s this book about?
We are in an age where Mars is colonised and also many rocks in space, known as The Belt, sustain life in some form or other. A detective, a space ship commander and a man who is involved in a rebel organisation called OPA meet in circumstances that are able to plunge all inhabited places in a war. The discovery of a strange matter makes everything even more complicated as there are parties who want it and who will go to extremes to have and keep it.
The book was a fascinating read, nicely detailed and all the people in the story really came to life for me. That’s the best kind …
Leviathan Wakes is the first book in a science fiction series. It’s on television as a series called ‘The Expanse’. As usual if there is a book I don’t watch it on television.
So what’s this book about?
We are in an age where Mars is colonised and also many rocks in space, known as The Belt, sustain life in some form or other. A detective, a space ship commander and a man who is involved in a rebel organisation called OPA meet in circumstances that are able to plunge all inhabited places in a war. The discovery of a strange matter makes everything even more complicated as there are parties who want it and who will go to extremes to have and keep it.
The book was a fascinating read, nicely detailed and all the people in the story really came to life for me. That’s the best kind of reading. It’s as if I watched on television, only better.
This book had, to me, a slow crescendo. So slow, in fact, that I was nearly 40% through the book before I really felt like I connected with the characters. Once I did, though, the story continually ramped up, and by the end I was delighted with the direction of the story.
I really liked the first half. It introduces a very gritty sci-fi world. Very realistic, limited, inconvenient. A fantastic place, but not one where you would want to live. Humanity has colonized the Solar System, but not beyond. A lot of people live in the asteroid belt and that's where the story is set. There is no artificial gravity, no wormholes, no faster-than-light travel, no aliens, no robots.
A lot of good comes from this non-magical sci-fi. For example the heavy acceleration of space ships is something you cannot ignore here. Corey manages to turn surprisingly many of the inconveniences that most sci-fi would rather forget about into interesting plot elements. Space stations spin to provide a semblance of gravity, so "down" is toward space, "up" is toward the center of the station. Lots of nice technical details to contemplate!
The story has two main characters and the chapters alternate …
I really liked the first half. It introduces a very gritty sci-fi world. Very realistic, limited, inconvenient. A fantastic place, but not one where you would want to live. Humanity has colonized the Solar System, but not beyond. A lot of people live in the asteroid belt and that's where the story is set. There is no artificial gravity, no wormholes, no faster-than-light travel, no aliens, no robots.
A lot of good comes from this non-magical sci-fi. For example the heavy acceleration of space ships is something you cannot ignore here. Corey manages to turn surprisingly many of the inconveniences that most sci-fi would rather forget about into interesting plot elements. Space stations spin to provide a semblance of gravity, so "down" is toward space, "up" is toward the center of the station. Lots of nice technical details to contemplate!
The story has two main characters and the chapters alternate between their viewpoints. It doesn't sound very exciting or original like that, but in practice it's done very well. In the first half, every chapter ends with a cliffhanger, I could barely put the book down.
So what was it I did not like about the second half? I think the third quarter or so was too much about the feelings of the characters, who are not very interesting emotionally. I didn't entirely buy the drama. Also there is action but it felt like a side-quest that I wished we could have skipped. So basically pacing issues. The first half is a rush. Main characters (or so you would think) die left and right. Everything is a mystery. The heroes are random people that just happen to get involved. The second half is not like that.
From reading the synopsis of the numerous novels that follow in the series, I'm afraid it's more like the second half. Our heroes become professional heroes, and nothing interesting can happen in the solar system (maybe the universe?) without their presence.
All said, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone. But it's fine to stop reading if you start getting bored. The gritty technical details, like heavy acceleration effects, also wear out their welcome and I started to understand why most sci-fi opts to get rid of them with magic.
Rich earth girl Julie runs away to the asteroid belt and the goes missing. Tired out Belter police detective Miller is hired to find her. And dishonorably discharged Earth ex military Holden and his ragtag water hauler crew come across a ship in distress under mysterious circumstances. All three stories tie together throughout, as Holden, Miller, and the reader slowly discover what really happened to Julie, what the shady corporation Protogen is up to, and whether all out war between Earth, Mars, and the belt can be avoided.
I liked the book ok and it had a lot of interesting ideas, but Holden and Miller ended up feeling a bit too similar to me so the whole thing felt kind of like a sci fi noir detective story told by monotonous stubborn old men with little variation in tone. Desperately needed more from Julie or some other different tone of …
Rich earth girl Julie runs away to the asteroid belt and the goes missing. Tired out Belter police detective Miller is hired to find her. And dishonorably discharged Earth ex military Holden and his ragtag water hauler crew come across a ship in distress under mysterious circumstances. All three stories tie together throughout, as Holden, Miller, and the reader slowly discover what really happened to Julie, what the shady corporation Protogen is up to, and whether all out war between Earth, Mars, and the belt can be avoided.
I liked the book ok and it had a lot of interesting ideas, but Holden and Miller ended up feeling a bit too similar to me so the whole thing felt kind of like a sci fi noir detective story told by monotonous stubborn old men with little variation in tone. Desperately needed more from Julie or some other different tone of voice to break it up, especially in the middle where the details dragged on a bit.
Apparently there are sequels, and I'm mildly interested in what happens next, but neither the characters nor the cultural setting really grabbed hold of me enough to make me really care. I'd recommend Vinge's "A Fire Upon The Deep" series instead for slightly post human SF, or Brin's original Uplift trilogy for the human struggle to evolve past the solar system.
I started watching the series first. I'm not finished with it, then I saw it was a book first. Well, hell I need another book and look, it's time for sci-fi on my rotation. Well--Brad liked it, so maybe I'll like it!
Deep dive--yea this is fun. Since I read Scalzi for my last sci-fi romp it almost has a bit of his touch to it. Having characters off the television show pre-populate my head has made for an interesting expereince. I don't mind it, a bit comforting this time around even with the dissonance of belters being a bit taller and some other cosmetic shifts that a show can't account for.
There was also some harmonic changes in the stories but I like how the book unfolds. A nice rich tapestry, a bit of noir, a bit of drama, and that was just the beginning. Holy hells batman this …
I started watching the series first. I'm not finished with it, then I saw it was a book first. Well, hell I need another book and look, it's time for sci-fi on my rotation. Well--Brad liked it, so maybe I'll like it!
Deep dive--yea this is fun. Since I read Scalzi for my last sci-fi romp it almost has a bit of his touch to it. Having characters off the television show pre-populate my head has made for an interesting expereince. I don't mind it, a bit comforting this time around even with the dissonance of belters being a bit taller and some other cosmetic shifts that a show can't account for.
There was also some harmonic changes in the stories but I like how the book unfolds. A nice rich tapestry, a bit of noir, a bit of drama, and that was just the beginning. Holy hells batman this went into a direction I did not see coming. Sure I read some reviews about vomit zombies but thought it was tongue in cheek. No. Vomit Zombies. Yea. Vomit Zombies. Hoo'kay. A little Promethean twist eh? Interesting stuff here.
The drama, the politics, the light science-porn (technology that is) has been a neat ride and I look forward to both continuing the show (how in the hells are they going to tackle all of this??) and reading the next volume because after all there is a lot of crap that has to get worked through. If humanity has any track record, it's all going to hell further. :D
I started Leviathan Wakes with high hopes having been drawn in by all the hype recommendations and high scores. Unfortunately I was disappointed - even if I'd gone into the book without the hype, it is inescapably average.
Leviathan Awakes has an imaginative premise but at the same time suffers from being incredibly cliched. And not just "space opera" cliched but more worryingly American-TV cliched. The book reads like an American mainstream TV series - and thats not a good thing. We have a cast of characters that appear to tick cliched boxes - dashing captain male lead, sultry and sparky lead woman (with sexual tension thrown in), wise cracking mechanic, flawed detective etc etc. On top of that the whole plot is also cliched - without spoiling the plot, every problem has a solution and every solution comes from the unbelievably brilliant-but-also-relatably-average crew. Its frankly silly stuff.
Much of …
I started Leviathan Wakes with high hopes having been drawn in by all the hype recommendations and high scores. Unfortunately I was disappointed - even if I'd gone into the book without the hype, it is inescapably average.
Leviathan Awakes has an imaginative premise but at the same time suffers from being incredibly cliched. And not just "space opera" cliched but more worryingly American-TV cliched. The book reads like an American mainstream TV series - and thats not a good thing. We have a cast of characters that appear to tick cliched boxes - dashing captain male lead, sultry and sparky lead woman (with sexual tension thrown in), wise cracking mechanic, flawed detective etc etc. On top of that the whole plot is also cliched - without spoiling the plot, every problem has a solution and every solution comes from the unbelievably brilliant-but-also-relatably-average crew. Its frankly silly stuff.
Much of the interesting world building actually goes on in the background - war and battles and stand offs, all just mentioned as information gleamed from news services. It makes the whole world seem flat and unreal; almost unimportant to the main plot. Its a shame because the world this story inhabits is tantalising and interesting; easily the most creative aspect of the book and should have been central to it. I may have been more invested in the plot if I'd been able to inhabit the world outside its unoriginal cast. Perhaps the next EIGHT books will correct this but I must admit I'm suspicious the length of this series is another American-TV cliche - run and run the series until its not profitable anymore rather than actually having a beginning, middle and end thought out.
This book is NOT Game of Thrones in space - that monicker does disservice to that book which is intelligent and sophisticated writing at a level this book never reachs. I've also seen comparisons to Peter F Hamilton - I also think those are unwarrented; yes Hamilton also writes Space Opera but his is much more sophisticated than this and he builds his worlds in a more interesting and engaging manner.
I know this review seems harsh - I did actually enjoy the book and may read the second (although at present the books sell at an ebook premium price that is difficult to justify with better books on offer for less). I think its important to be honest about the book in the face of hype that in my view creates an unrealistic expectation. At its core this is mass pulp fiction - more adventure than sci-fi; and there is nothing wrong with that. Just don't go into this series expecting the best that the sci-fi or space opera genres can offer - you will be disappointed. Expect a somewhat silly and light space opera - very commercial with mass appeal and not much depth but enjoyable enough for what it is. I give it 3 stars in lieu of a wish to give it 2.5.
I started reading this soon after we started watching the TV series "The Expanse". The TV series departs from the book (we're about 2 episodes in) but the book is a pretty good story. I enjoyed the first book and have started the second.
Good near-future space opera with elements of horror, but not so much that someone who generally doesn't appreciate horror (me) was put off by it.
I started reading this after seeing the first four episodes of the new SyFy series based on it. Despite there being some major differences between the two, I enjoyed this story quite a bit, and plan to continue reading the series.
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.
Great? No. A fun read.
