Leviathan Wakes

Original review here

This was a series I frequently saw compared with some of the all time classics of Science Fiction, such as Asimov’s Foundation or Herbert’s Dune. So I really wanted to give them a go for a while.

I have to admit the book was completely different to my expectations, but not in a bad way.

When I think of grandiose space opera classics, I kind of imagine humans expanding throughout the universe, faster than light travel and cosmical events we can’t comprehend, and technology advancements beyond compare. Of course these concepts are used in widely different ways in the genre.

In a lot of classic and modern works of science fiction, the style is usually filled with minimalist architecture, brand new tech, shiny spaceships and sterile, practical interiors.

In The Expanse’s Leviathan Wakes features Humanity expanding just in the Solar System, with more grimy and lived-in ships and stations, decades old future technology and patched up space stations overpopulated with humans, trying to survive another day. Of course, I think it’s pretty similar to the style of the Rebel Alliance from the Star Wars universe, during the original movies, and the Nostromo of the original Alien. There are some more technologically advanced structures and ships in the book but the overall look of the world is that of “a future with a past,” as George Lucas would say.1

Humans are split into three main factions, Earth, Mars and the Belt, the latter refers to people living beyond the Asteroid belt in space stations and moons, and there’s a certain tension and dynamic between them. Earth is the OG, overpopulated and with older military technology, used to gravity and such. Mars has more technological advancements, since they are still making the planet habitable and need to be on the vanguard, but they are less numbers too. The Belt is conformed by a bunch of stations and satellites, some more fancy than others, constantly farming resources both space, asteroids and such. There are pirates, there are workers, people are taller, adapted to lower gravity, and there are lots of other details and nuances, and of course, space racism.

The story follows two characters and two different plotlines, interchanging every chapter. One of them is detective Joe Miller, living in a station in the Belt, the other is James Holden, the second in command of a spaceship. As the story progresses the protagonists end up involved in lots of events unfolding one after the other, eventually crossing paths, uncovering a huge conspiracy with implications that will completely revolutionize how humans see the Universe, and pretty much have to save Human civilization by the end.

Honestly, I don’t even want to say much more than that, maybe it sounds kind of standard sci-fi fanfare, but really, the story is just too good, there is are detective noir style investigations, there are space battles, there are cosmic horror elements and of some other classic science fiction tropes. There is not as much hard sci-fi explanations as I thought there would be, it is a pretty digestable adventure that borrows from a lot of genres, and sci-fi just happens to be there.

This is an absolute page turner, chapters are short and end at the perfect spot that would made me go “I can read another one” again and again. It was a pretty fast paced book that still handled multiple plotlines with grace, and the characters had lots of great moments and developments. The last 12 or so chapters were impossible to put down for me and many in the book club.

Even if this book is the start of a series, the finale ends really well, you can leave it alone and while not every question will be answered for obvious reasons, there’s definitely a lot to enjoy if you only want to read this one. But I plan to keep going.

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.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a solid space adventure with some nice plot twists and good reveals. I was worried at the beginning - particularly during the scenes on Ceres - that this was going to be an example of a story that just uses an SF setting but isn't necessarily SF. However things really kicked into full-fledged SF mode once the initial worldbuilding of the political situation of Earth/ Mars/ Belt was rounded out, and it never looked back after that. My only other (early) worry was that the character of Holden was just too damn 'goody-good' to be true. Luckily the other characters are more grounded and cynical and call Holden on his wide-eyed worldview. It's not as cutting-edge science fictionally as, say, Paul Macauley's Quiet War series or Charles Stross's work, but it's certainly got some interesting ideas and goes quite some way to creating a believable solar-system-spanning society that's just a century or so ahead of us. I'm looking forward to reading more and seeing what the mooted TV series makes of it all.