Book Review: Leviathan Wakes
The incredible first book in the Expanse series by writer duo, James S.A. Corey
I loved the TV show adaptation of The Expanse. Coming in with a take so cold it’ll give you frostbite: I think it’s one of the best science fiction shows we’ve had in a very long time. In fact, I struggle to think of anything that compares, since the likes of Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis. Okay, that take might be a little warmer. Fight me. So I was very much looking forward to diving into reading the books, starting with Leviathan Wakes.
Blurb
Humanity has colonised the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.
Jim Holden is an officer on an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew discover a derelict ship called the Scopuli, they suddenly find themselves in possession of a deadly secret. A secret that someone is willing to kill for, and on an unimaginable scale. War is coming to the system, unless Jim can find out who abandoned the ship and why.
Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money - and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and Holden, they both realise this girl may hold the key to everything.
Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries and secret corporations, and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.
Review
What a marvellous book. And what an incredible job the showrunners did in adapting it. Now it’s been a while since I watched the series, but it felt like the adaptation was pretty spot on. One of the main differences I noticed in the book was that the politicking was all kept strictly in the background.
We follow two viewpoints (three if you include Julie’s in the prologue)—Holden and Miller—in an alternating pattern. And they were phenomenal. The shift from dangerous space thriller to detective noir in the overlapping plotlines was excellent.
The worldbuilding is exactly what I had expected, and I think the absence of the politics that was shown alongside these events in the show kept the book streamlined. The result is a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat thriller set in a rock solid hard sci-fi universe. It’s a blast from start to finish.
If you haven’t read The Expanse, I highly recommend picking it up. I’m absolutely going to be continuing the series, mainly because I know the TV show ended around book six, and there’s another three books worth of story left untold that I am desperate to know.
