Book Two of the Expanse series, Caliban's War finds Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante back in the middle of things, this time between sparring human factions - Earth, Mars and the Outer Planet Alliance, their nominal benefactor. Things begin to get serious when it looks like someone may have a secret project going, using the "protomolecule" from the first book. Bring on the United Nations(!), rogue corporations and secret guilds within the Earth and Martian factions.

All the while, Venus, where the protomolecule crash landed in book one ([b:Leviathan Wakes|8855321|Leviathan Wakes (Expanse, #1)|James S.A. Corey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1289046195s/8855321.jpg|13730452]), seems to be changing into some kind of living organism. While the human factions bicker among themselves, the "thing" grows stronger. Will they be able to patch up their internal differences, pull together and square off against the growing alien threat? That seems to be the question the next book will answer, as this one concentrates on the local bickering between tribes.

Bringing together many of the characters we got to know in the first book, as well as some new characters, Caliban's War is a fun read, with plenty of twists and turns and some great writing. Once again told by a different character in each chapter, it adds a couple interesting new characters, like Chrisjen Avasarala, the UN administrator, who is a powerful political force and strong tongue woman, as well as Bobbi, a "towering" female Martian Marine who is amont the first to find out the new powers of the protomolecule. It also adds Prax, a botanist on Ganymede searching for his daughter, who is, I suppose, supposed to be the newbie point of view but is in many ways kind of annoying.

But Jim Holden is the main character, about whom most of the other characters swirl. He is a deep, interesting, and conflicted character, although I think his deep "changes" are overblown and the other characters, particularly Naomi, his on again, off again girlfriend, react too strongly for what I read into it. But the crew is on their game and I love where the book ended up.

Save for overreactions to the "new" Holden, I have very few quibbles with this book. It carries the story along nicely, there are some real laugh aloud dialog bits and Bobbie and Avasarala are really solid characters that I hope we'll be reading more about in the next book, [b:Abaddon's Gate|12591719|Abaddon's Gate (Expanse, #3)|James S.A. Corey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1350327055s/12591719.jpg|17606564]. My biggest complaint about the book? I am kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I have no idea who the heck Caliban is! So I don't know who's war it is either. I could understand it if the book was called "Holden's War", as much of the book is about both the external and internal wars that Jim Holden is fighting. But I don't know who or what Caliban is - is that weird or what?

But I am really looking forward to A[b:Abaddon's Gate|12591719|Abaddon's Gate (Expanse, #3)|James S.A. Corey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1350327055s/12591719.jpg|17606564], especially after a surprise showing at the end of Caliban's War. Bring it on!