Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey - Book Report #298

Book One of The Expanse series

My first taste of the series was of the television show.  I only watched one episode and it did not grab me.  I had the copy of the first book in my basement for years.  After hearing that the TV series has been renewed for a fifth season, and friends telling me how much I would like it, I decided to dust off book one and give it a read.

I was hooked very quickly.  This is the kind of lived-in, day-to-day, blue-collar kind of science fiction that I love.  For those of you as old as me (born in the 60's) think of what you felt when you first saw the Millennium Falcon.

This was an excellent blend of gritty neo-noir detective story and grand political drama set in a solar system that has been dominated by humans.  Mars, the asteroid belt, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn all have human presence.  And much like humanity of today we are not there for scientific reasons; we are there to make a living.  Water and oxygen are more valuable than gold to the people living and working off Earth.

An ice mining ship answers a distress call, which is a trap that starts a war between Earth, Mars and The Belt.

What I liked most about the story is how it focused only on two characters and the people that surround them.  This kept the larger story from spinning the the whole thing out of control.  It is a gigantic story and it took discipline to contain it in this first book.

This is a big series, with novels, novellas and short stories that bounce around the timeline of the novels.  I've decided to read thing in publication order to experience it the way fans from the beginning would have.

Generally I like my SF to be about humans, FTL and aliens tend to make storytelling a bit more lazy.  I like that we are stuck in our own solar system and that people have to be very careful about acceleration, maneuvering and things like the Coriolis effect.  (I had to look up that last one.)

It was well written, fun, fast-paced, believable and had lots of characters that I liked.

Highly recommended.

Website of James S A Corey - https://www.jamessacorey.com/

James S A Corey is the pen name for authors
Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck