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.

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.

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.

In "Leviathan Wakes," the interplay between Miller and Holden is a masterclass in character juxtaposition, offering a dynamic contrast that drives the narrative with intense force. The distinct moral compass of each character provides a thought-provoking examination of ethics and duty in a complex universe. Moreover, the clear, entertaining prose serves as a conduit that brings the intricacies of space and the vividness of this imagined future to life, making the read not just a journey, but an experience. This duality of character and clarity of storytelling is why I've rated this book so highly and why I would recommend it to fans of nuanced science fiction.

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As usually the book is better than the movies or series. In this case I think that the adaptation for the series is a very good surprise because although it has a lot of changes from the original history the result is so good that I have already watched it three times. But as usually the experience to read the original text from James S. A. Corey brings us much more details and puts us inside the history. And for who enjoys science-fiction is a must read.

Delivered as what expected

Absolutely love the books and the show. The character development in both is outstanding.I own the original 1st edition of Leviathan Wakes and couldn't resist getting the 10th anniversary hard cover. It's not an essential edition and doesn't add anything more if you've already read or owned the original edition, so no real bonuses here. However it is definitely a striking book, with its bold cover design and magenta pages edges.I hope they will continue to release anniversary editions for the other books in the same style to really have a impressive and audacious book collection.