Reviews - El Despertar del Leviatán

El Despertar del Leviatán by James S.A. Corey

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There's way too many things you could be doing right now. Think of how many times you've sat down to read a book, or watch a show, or play a game and think, "Well, I'm not really into this, I'll just go do something else instead". That's completely fair too, with all the good content being put out and blasted at you, how could you possibly tell what's worth your time?

Leviathan Wakes never left me any room to think, "I could be watching Adventure Time or playing Monster Hunter". It had me thinking, "Okay, what could they possibly do now?" From beginning to end, this book is an absolutely wild ride. The story changes dramatically over 500 pages and not once, barring the ending, does it seem implausible. The story is filled with political intrigue, horror, space fights, etc. I'd say that 85% of this book is perfect. The sci-fi jargon is easy to grasp (except when someone goes full Belter), the world-building is exceptional, and it's twists are incredibly well-done.

Along with the bulk of the story, the supporting cast of this book is what makes it so enjoyable. So many of the side characters are memorable; even if I wasn't planning on reading the sequels, I'd remember characters like Amos, Naomi, Fred. In fact, the crew of the Rocinante have the toughest job in the whole book, which is helping make the Holden POVs bearable.

Holden is my biggest issue with the book. He's one of the two character POVs we're given, and while I don't want to completely rag on the guy, he's absolutely fucking insufferable. He's a standard self insert character, which is a staple for genres like sic-fi and fantasy. He's a racially ambiguous (let's be honest here, white) MC who was in the Earth Space Navy. That's all the characterization you're going to get from HIM. In fact, you're not going to notice that he's a bad character until midway through the book, though the signs appear pretty early on.

The one moment that really struck me as genuine for Holden was when he was talking about why he was rightfully discharged from the military. He tries punching his commanding officer, misses, and hits a wall, damaging his own hand. When he recounts that story to another character he says something along the lines of, "It was just my luck that I ended up missing and hurting the right guy." That shows introspection, that shows willingness to admit his own faults, that kind of stuff leads to well-rounded and compelling characters! That's also the last time we get anything like that from him!

Holden is a paragon for the rest of the story. In fact, other characters won't shut up about how "righteous" Holden is. It's good for your character to follow some sort of ideology, but you also have to be responsible for challenging that ideology. If you don't do that, your character becomes a broken record of lip service. "That's bad and we don't do bad stuff!". The book goes as far as to set up conflicting ideologies and adversities, but he manages to weasel his way out of everything, INCLUDING CHARACTER GROWTH! The other POV, Miller, literally poses a classic "Chaos vs. Order" ideological conflict and Holden just goes, "No, I don't wanna talk about it :(((." Making your character go through difficulty after difficulty doesn't make them a good character. Having your character get hurt physically isn't really growth. It's how they react and grow from that adversity, how they're changed by it, that form a compelling and layered character. So you have 400 pages worth of a grown man complaining about things all the time, and the book demands you continue to take him seriously, as his decisions end up getting more and more people killed.

Speaking of other people, they absolutely cannot shut up about Holden for even a second. There is so much telling in this book about who Holden is. People call him righteous, people call him handsome and perfect all the time! A character literally tells Holden that every woman who was on the ship with him wanted to sleep with him. People just can't seem to stop fawning over him throughout the story, or falling to their knees in front of him, or swooning over him. Things just happen to keep working out for him. Everything he does is shown to be in a just or positive light. If the supporting cast and story weren't as good, Holden wouldn't have a leg to stand on. He'd be yet another throwaway Gary Stu sci-fi protagonist.

I have two more minor issues with the book. But they're both MASSIVE SPOILERS so read at your own risk.

Spoiler

This book plays the tired trope of "Character who's clearly suffering from PTSD, disassociation, and suicidal tendencies, sacrifices themselves in the end and dies a hero." Was that a choice? I mean, did the character choose that? Or did you purposefully not give the character any other choice? This happens a lot in media, where a character is shown to have mental health issues, but also isn't so much as imbedded into the world as they're written into it because that "type" of character is needed so they can be killed off eventually. The character hits rock bottom, and then plans to commit suicide, but alas, there's hope! For they can magically fix the plot and still kill themselves in the process, thus becoming a martyr! I feel there's no character arc or resolution in that. I have a problem with suicidal characters being "fated" to die.

Lastly, the ending was a mess. After a lot of good and reasonably telegraphed twists, like everything that took place earlier on Eros, the ending kind of just... Happens? Things just happen and they don't really happen well? The twist is super weak, and while you could say it subverted my expectations, so would getting hit by a train in the ocean. The issues get Deus Ex'd away for the most part and leave a hint of what you might be seeing in the sequel. Everything gets resolved too quickly and too nicely.

Overall, this book was an incredible experience. I'm a little pissed I've come to it so late in the game and I'm probably going to start devouring book 2 later this week! Check this one out, it's 1000% worth your time.

4.5/5. James Holden Caulfield O_0, Catcher in the Sky..???