Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, 1)

Leviathan Wakes is, without a doubt, the beginning of something amazing. I have the next two books in the series and I am looking forward to reading those as well as the additional novels I don't own yet. I owned this book for about three years without ever picking it up from my book shelf (I had pretty much forgotten about it) and I may have continued to neglect it were it not for The Expanse being produced by SyFy. Sadly, I watched the first season of the series before reading this novel and I don't like doing that...but I don't feel like it was detrimental in any way. I'd like to discuss a couple of the differences for those who have only either read the book or seen the television show before I do anything else. There are some pretty dramatic differences between the book and the series, the biggest being that the first season ends about 3/5 of the way through the narrative of the first novel, which is something I truly hope SyFy addresses with the second season since there is a lot going on in that third act of the story. The other major difference between the book and the television series is that we aren't introduced to the political environment and maneuvering taking place on Earth in the novel, though I appreciate that additional subplot from the show and actually kind of wish it had been part of the book. Beyond that, the differences are really quite minimal, some characters who don't quite line up between the two mediums (either because of descriptions that don't match up with the casting for the series or because the personalities/interactions are just a little bit off) and a couple of plot points that play out a touch differently or occasionally in different sequence...but those aren't as troubling as they could be. Written by James S.A. Corey (a fictional person, really the collaboration between Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), this is one hell of an ambitious novel, successfully weaving space opera, militaristic science fiction, and noir mystery into an exciting, intense, and sometimes even scary tapestry. The stated goal of the authors was to fill in the gap that is almost always present where science fiction is concerned. Typically we either end up with near-future cyberpunk or dystopian stories or distant future space operas and the like taking place after we have spread throughout the galaxy or even the universe itself. This book (and presumably the whole series) provides the reader with a suitably rich and detailed vision of what we have between those intervals, during the time when we are still colonizing our own solar system and only just considering setting our sights further into what we have beyond our galactic neighborhood. The interactions between Miller and Holden (as well as their separate storylines) are fantastic and well-written enough that the two protagonists really do provide vastly different lenses through which the same events are being experienced. We see a lot of that in The Expanse, but there is a lot of subtext that gets lost in translation between the two mediums. After reading this book I am determined to pick up some of Daniel Abraham's fantasy novels, which I might have ended up doing anyhow. The man is an excellent author and Ty Franck clearly learned a thing or two while working for George R.R. Martin where grand, sweeping narratives and visceral (almost punishing) inevitability in narratives are concerned. Whether you have already seen The Expanse or simply want to read an excellent science fiction novel, I have to recommend reading Leviathan Wakes.

If you like the TV series, read the books. It’s not really the same story. If the books are a chronicle of what actually happened, the series is the folk tale that evolved from it—compact, sensationalized, action packed, and contrived to serve a different narrative. After reading the whole story, the series feels like a multi-faceted disappointment. I’m glad that I watched the series first, because at least I was impressed with it for a while. If I had read the books first, the series would have been a disappointment from the start.

If the thought of reading nine 550-page books seems daunting, like it was to me, the rewards are worth the effort. I had not read a fiction book in more than 20 years. I’m reading the collected stories, Memory’s Legion, right now, so the story is still fresh in my mind.

The story is as good as science fiction gets. The setting is close to home, only a few hundred years in the future, and the premise is plausible. The world-building is thoroughly convincing and rich with detail. The character-building is equally as successful, which makes it a special treat for this genre. The story is masterfully imaginative.

The TV series is disappointing, primarily because the story it tells is not faithful to the story the books tell, in very important ways. To do the story justice, with live actors, would be a huge undertaking with a financial commitment to match. Even then, it would be difficult to portray the physical differences between Earthers, Martians and Belters that the books describe. The most sensible approach would be to make an animated series geared for adults.

Read the books.

Actually, I didn’t even know the book existed until I opened this one up on my iPad with my Kindle, unlimited plan and read the first few pages, and went holy crap. Without a doubt, the expanse was one of the best sci-fi shows ever produced -only Farscape was better – and for once, I hadn’t read the book before hand. We all know that there is no way Hollywood can ever do a good book justice, at least I thought that until now. Look what they did to Game of Thrones, or the Lord of the rings, or any Stephen King novel. Although, I have to admit, Turning Kings novels into TV or movies will always be difficult since you cannot capture the nuance of his characters, and he rarely knows how to end the story. I barely watched HBO’s version of the Game of Thrones because I knew there was no way they could do the booksany justice. And if you are one of those people who only watch the HBO version, you are missing out on probably one of the best series of novels Ever produced. I just wish they could make a movie out of Adrian Cikowski‘s children of time, but it would be impossible. How do you get spiders that don’t speak to speak? Yes I know I spelled Adrian‘s last name wrong, but I don’t have time to look it up. I cannot wait to read the rest of this series and see how they wove the story into five seasons. Well, the TV series was way out of sequence, they did a great job with a very good novel. I can recommend this book on its own. Usually, I leave my reviews for the author, but this one was so unusual in the fact that I had not read the book before I saw the show, that was going to be my primary review. To Mr. Cory, I hope you got rich off of selling the rights, and we all owe a great thanks to Jeff Bezos for making sure they finished the series – at least to the point where this first book in the series ends.

For some reason I just up and decided to read James S.A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes (Book One of The Expanse) even though my TBR stack is sky-high already. I’m so glad I did.

Julie Mao, of the ship Scopuli, was captured along with her shipmates by some sort of invader. When everything falls silent she escapes the locker she was thrown into and looks for her crew. What she finds is inexplicable and horrific–they’ve been transformed into something else. When XO Jim Holden comes with his ship the Canterbury in response to Scopuli’s distress signal, they find it’s a trap. While Jim and several other crew members check out the Scopuli, stealthed ships blow up the Canterbury. Preliminary evidence would make it seem that the Martian Congressional Republic Navy is to blame–but why? As tensions in the solar system escalate–between Earth, Mars, the Belt, and the OPA (Outer Planets Alliance)–Holden and his crew find themselves manipulated from side to side. Meanwhile, Detective Miller, a cop on Ceres station (part of the Belt) is tasked with looking for Julie, the missing girl whose parents are wealthy and influential. As conditions on the station deteriorate, he becomes obsessed with finding her. Could she be the key to finding out what’s going on?

There’s a strong element of body horror that makes itself apparent at the beginning. It then vanishes for so long that I was beginning to think it wouldn’t come back, but rest assured that it does. It turns the story into an excellent dark blend of sci-fi and horror that’s right up my alley.

The solar system is in a precarious balance, and it makes a great setting for tensions to blow sky-high. Mars and Earth are at an uneasy sort of truce. The Belt relies on others for necessities like water, so it doesn’t like to make enemies, but many Belters do see “Inners” (people from the inner worlds) as outsiders at best, enemies at worst. The OPA isn’t helping matters any, and there are various corporations sticking their noses in where they don’t belong. There’s also organized crime on Ceres station, and Miller has noted that various low-level members have gone missing lately without a trace.

The characters are wonderful. Okay, so the image of the grizzled old cop who drinks too much is old, but Miller is rescued by his obsession with Julie, which becomes more important to him than alcohol ever could be. He starts imagining her speaking to him after he’s looked through all of her belongings and files, even to a point of hallucination at one or more points. Jim Holden is great–he’s naive and idealistic, which means he doesn’t really belong in the time he’s in. Every time he finds something that he thinks shouldn’t remain a secret, he blasts it out to the universe and nearly every time triggers unintended violence. He also thinks he’s falling in love with his chief engineer, Naomi, but she’s watched him fall in and out of love with so many other people that she’s skeptical. It does become difficult to keep track of all of the characters given the scope of this book, however.

I love things like: when a couple of people suffer radiation poisoning, while it’s true that they have very advanced means for treating it, it’s still a slow, agonizing process with permanent damage caused and pills they have to take for the rest of their lives. Too often in sci-fi the treatment comes after agonizing damage, yet somehow miraculously heals all. Also, Holden’s ideal that all knowledge should be transparently available is tested deeply and in a variety of circumstances.

This is a long, complex novel with a lot going on, and it’s absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend it.

Content note: body horror, bigotry, murder, gore, suicidal ideation, mass murder.

I suppose if there was a competition between genres of fiction for who had the most sub-genres, Science Fiction would most likely win that competition hands down. One of the reasons is that authors often try to differentiate their work by inventing a new sub genre. I don't think the authors of this series have tried to do this, but I feel compelled to. I think of this type of work as "Blockbuster Science Fiction." Basically, that just means that the stories read like a big budget sci-fi film. Leviathan Wakes might just be the penultimate example of this kind of book.

I have been tempted to watch the television series based on this series of books but I wanted to try reading them first. So I finally took the plunge and dug into Leviathan Wakes. I had very high expectations and was ready to dismiss this book if it didn't really jump through some interesting hoops and razzle dazzle me. Well, it did that and more. Most importantly though, the basic story structure and character development is rock solid and doesn't try to re-invent the wheel. All the tropes here are familiar and nothing is groundbreaking in terms of building the dramatic narrative. However, all the pieces dovetail in a very slick way that makes you think of watching a supremely talented musician performing and thinking "She/he makes it look so easy!" Lately, I have noticed many of the books I'm reading will have some editing misses later in the book, like a grammatical hiccup or misspelling that was just missed in the editing process and made it through to the final product. I didn't see a jot or tittle out of place here and the story follows suit. There are no strands left hanging, plot holes or nonsensical story elements that drove me crazy. Of course, this is the first in a series so things are left open at the end story-wise but I was just impressed with the level of polish. All of the characters are fully formed and mesh very well. Again, the characters here all fall into basic Science Fiction/Fiction types, but they are polished and well developed.

This story is built with two protagonists and two slowly intertwining story arcs that meet in a very satisfying way. When reading this I could just "see" these scenes in my head very clearly. The dialogue is nice and tight and the authors don't over explain things or sail off into inconsequential avenues of exploration. I read this book straight through and couldn't wait to pick it up every time. When people use the term "page turner" it can be a cliche' but in this case, the cliche' fits.

If you enjoy sci-fi with huge backdrops but drilled down and focused well developed characters, you will dig this. Bonus points if you are a noir fiction fan. One other note: this series aims to illuminate what the authors imagine as an "in between" or middle stage of humanity's journey out of the solar system. While many sci-fi stories focus on the near future and many others use the far-flung future as the grist for their tales, The Expanse series aims to explore the era where humans have settled other planets and/or bodies in the solar system but have yet to reach beyond that stage of exploration. In Leviathan Wakes, this has set up an inner/outer dichotomy of political and social division between Earth/Mars and those humans who have been born and developed in "The Belt" referring to the area of the solar system around the asteroid belt. These humans have been physically modified by living their lives in a different gravitational environment and are viewed by planetary residents as a lesser class of human. This division informs much of the backdrop of dramatic tension in Leviathan Wakes. It's a great concept and is executed perfectly here.

I had never heard of James S. A. Corey, had never heard of his book series The Expanse . I had never heard of the Syfy series, having dropped the network in an effort to cut down on my cable bill! Now, years later using streaming services to pick exactly the networks I want and none of the gazillions of "junk" channels that both cable and satellite services stick us with, I was looking for something new to watch. Something in the sci-fi genre that didn't have titles that included Trek or Wars connected to it. I saw a listing on Amazon Prime for a series with several seasons available that looked intriguing. It took just one episode of The Expanse to hook me! The scope, the characters, the mystery of the protomolecule... I binge watched all the episodes and craved more!

This is where the books come into the picture. This is, after all, supposed to be a BOOK review! On top of that, I was coming at the series in the reverse order that is normal for me. Usually I read the book or books first and then watch the films or series and am either satisfied that the production has done a good job, or horrified at how badly they have screwed it up, and sometimes a bit of both. (yes, I'm getting to the book!) Leviathan Wakes is very well written, exciting and suspense filled adventure. The characters are fully developed and very diverse in their natures. The conflict between Earth and Mars and the relegation of the Belters to the status of second class citizens or less, is very believable. The discovery of the protomolecule and what comes of it is both horrific and strangely beautiful. I can hardly wait to read book 2! As for the question in my title... both the book and the television series are amazing, each in their own way, something that is very rare and wonderful!

First off, this is a really good book for those who enjoy expansive, well thought out, richly realized sci-fi universes with a "lived-in" style of description. For the most part, the book takes a very crime noir approach to the primary conflict, which is great, but towards the last part of the book, the narrative style starts breaking down a bit, and a satisfying resolution is not quite there.

The pros:

This particular universe is restricted to our own solar system; there's dozens of "colonies" and space stations between Earth, Mars, the moons of the gas giants, and various asteroids in the Belt, but nothing beyond that. This gives the story a perfect balance of hopefullness (humanity is finally spreading out into space) and intimacy (you understand where each colony is, since it's set in a real place, and you have an idea on your own what each place is like). This is made even more interesting by the various political entities at work in the novel, which seem entirely believable due to how simplistic they are (Earth versus Mars versus so-called Belters). So even though things take place over 150 years in the future, nothing is particulary unrelatable to the present-day reader.

The story telling takes on a very "blue collar" approach to the future; indeed, the first ship the story focuses on is aging, with a mixed-bag crew, an unimpressive past, and is really nothing more than a cargo hauler. In fact, most of the places the narrative takes you has a very "working man" feel to it, at times not sounding dissimiliar to an old-fashioned industry-based town. And on more than one occasion, something that seems otherwise unnecessary to the story happens in order to remind you that this is NOT a glossy, factory-fresh future.

Like any good "hard core" sci-fi, this book uses some real-world science to back things up. While disorienting to say the least, the author uses physics accurately instead of disregarding it for convenience; for example, space ships have to accelerate in order to produce "gravity", because there isn't any artificial gravity generators. Further, this means ships are designed with perpendicular decks, rather than the oft-used "aircraft" style layout. The rest of the book follows this same style, using plenty of jargon and slang to make things believable.

Finally, the ultimate threat that the book reveals BRIEFLY in the prologue, and then picks up later almost half-way through is something truly sci-fi in nature. The mystery surrounding this threat keeps you guessing, and before the characters finally come around to confronting it, the book reaches a maximum saturation of unanswered questions and intensity that, ultimately make the final reveal ...

The Cons:

... somewhat disappointing. Without ruining things, I'll say that any avid video gamer or sci-fi movie enthusiast will feel the main antagonist is too much rip-off and not enough homage or, better yet, originality. But that in and of itself is not that bad. The fact that it's backstory amounts to a giant sci-fi cliche, is. Still, the nature of the antagonist is not entirely ruined.

While the first half of the book is great, with few flaws worth mentioning, the second half kind of falls short of expectations. After a major event, the author seems to take too many liberties with what the characters seem to know; at one point, it just seemed like a lot of lucky assumptions on the part of the protagonists. And not long after this, the technical aspects of the sci-fi seem to fall apart a little; in the final few chapters, an event occurs with little explanation or logic that amounts to basically one character calling it "not magic". This comes at great contrast to the rest of the book's style.

Finally, the resolution of the various conflicts in the novel feel rushed, almost like the author was trying to meet a deadline, or like they wrote the ending first, and the rest of the book later. And the various improbabilities that occur during this time, coupled with some MAJOR assumptions by just about every single character involved, result in a forgettable ending.

Overall, this book is worth the price, and I will be reading the sequel here shortly. I really enjoyed the quality, attention to detail (for the most part), and working man feel of this sci-fi universe.

I picked up the first book of The Expanse after I heard the news that the SyFy channel was making it into a series. I had heard good things about it online and I think, in my fiction reading, I was needing a good dose of some science fiction space opera. The very first thing I can say about this book, is that it had me engaged from the very beginning. I was enthralled and didn’t want to put it down. This is counter to the last book I had read, which was a relief.

An amusing side story, when I purchased it from Amazon I didn’t check the details, so unknown to me this copy of the book also included a bonus book, The Dragon’s Path. I read through the first couple of chapters of Leviathan Wakes and my Kindle only showed 1% completion. I was groaning to myself that this book was humongous but kept at it. When I got to 25% completion, it felt like the story was half over, so I checked out the table of contents to see what was going on and noticed that I had a bonus novel included, so that was nice.

The story starts out with plenty of intrigue: a missing person’s case on the Asteroid/Dwarf Planet Ceres and an inter-planetary incident involving an ancient ice freighter investigating a distress signal. The two stories rock the solar system to its core through a careful narrative. Each chapter is divided between two different points of view, the detective and the XO of the ice freighter.

The pacing is really quite marvelous and this book should be studied on how not to overload a reader with heavy exposition. The entire setting is very futuristic and could have become bogged down with ease, but the writers went to great length to give bits and pieces of information about the book universe; it almost feels like you are there living it and have a good grasp of the political machinations that are occurring. The book comes to an exciting conclusion, which ended differently than I expected.

I feel the central theme of the book is integrity, or doing the right thing, but the right thing is a matter of perspective. The two main characters are foils to each other, each with their own moral compass of what they believe is right. One believes that regardless of the consequence, the truth must be revealed to everyone; the other believes in making sure you measure twice before making the cut. Each follows their own personal guidelines and make some very surprising choices that have very far reaching consequences. It really made me think about what I would have done, if I were to have been in their shoes.

The characters are very developed and their behaviors never felt out of line. I found myself curious how certain characters would react to each other when they met, which eventually happened and felt perfect. One specific character who is introduced later in the book, has almost a chilling presence and made an excellent villain.

There was one specific thing I really liked, which is kind of silly, but it is one of those things that annoy me when people use it wrong and I could tell it annoyed the authors too when people use it wrong. The authors went into great detail in one particular dialogue to explain the difference between blackmail and extortion, and about how people often incorrectly say blackmail when they mean extortion. I laughed at that, because it sounded like something I would say.

The science in this is fairly good. The authors went to great lengths to make sure technology didn’t appear too wild, and that things would behave in a realistic matter with how we understand the Universe currently. The mechanics of ship flight, gravity and general colonies in the solar system felt very good. Only one thing that really annoyed me, the fact that medical technology still felt very current and not all that advanced. With as much money we spend on medical research now compared to space technology, it just felt kind of weird.

If you are looking for a good science fiction book, with an excellent story, well written characters with a good dose of mystery and political intrigue, then you won’t go wrong with this book.

Verdict: Recommended

I have a complicated relationship with these books (have read up to book 6). On one hand, I love that the authors poured so much effort and research into the true science behind these books, that underpins everything from the plot to the character development. That these books embrace the physics that Star Wars and Star Trek just magic away, and spins an interesting tale about interacting and living and evolving in space, is what I love.

But the writing style of the books is extremely annoying. If the authors were writing about anything else, these books would be C tier indie grade at best.

My main gripes:

1. Every chapter, the authors switch between characters, most of which provide no emotional investment, at contrived, unimportant plot hook transitions. Instead of making you want to get back to the character's story, it just makes you try to remember what that character was doing in the story when you left them. The general sense is one of disjointed disorganization (even though these books are clearly anything but).

2. The authors deliberately write in a way that assumes you know what subject they're talking about, like you came into the middle of a discussion you weren't a part of from the beginning. Then they drop the subject of discussion on you two paragraphs or even pages in. Not about scientific things, necessarily, but about who is being spoken about, the topic of the individual's musings, or a point of contention between two characters. It leaves you rereading the last few paragraphs (or pages) to try to make sense of what you just read. It wouldn't be bad if this was occasional, but it happens CONSTANTLY (like multiple times or even ongoing in every chapter) and it gets really tiring.

3. The language of the belters would be really cool if the authors gave an explanation of what the belters are saying, but it's like the authors deliberately write as little context as possible so you're left guessing. If they provided a glossary, it wouldn't seem like they're condescendingly showing off their language dabblings by mixing words from dozens of different real world languages. Because anyone can use Google translate, instead of being an impressive display of knowledge, like the science is, it just comes off as annoying and condescending only because the authors never translate.

I have other complaints, but any one one of these 3 points would have been enough for me to put down the book after encountering it for the first time. The reason I stuck with these books for so long is because I love the show. The show is so much better than the books it's not even a contest, and that's coming from a guy who is always disappointed in movie remakes of books. This is the only exception I have experienced where that has been reversed, for me. I'm not sure if I'm going to finish the books in the same way that you finish a movie you force yourself to watch because you liked the book. I love the science, and I might stick around just for that.