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A review by dark_reader
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm a big fan of Daniel Abraham's fantasy novels and despite general interest in this nine book series he co-wrote (with Ty Franck, who really needs a better bio than "George R.R. Martin's assistant"), it took finding a copy of this first book on a library discard cart, plus a year of it sitting in my basement, before I finally took the plunge.
It's a very good character-focused story. The science fiction setting is well thought out, but don't expect "hard" sci-fi because ultimately the details take a back seat to the emotional storytelling. Told in alternating chapters with two POV characters, it's a very human story with space trappings. At times it felt perhaps too character-focused: while broader events were well-reported and affected by the characters' actions and vice-versa, I sometimes wanted more immersion into the system-wide conflicts going on in the background. I expect this will be relieved if I continue the series, in which new POV characters are central in future volumes, presumably expanding the readers experience of ... the Expanse.
A couple of side notes from my reading experience:
Although the two-author collaboration behind “James SA Corey” was never secret, the book’s dedication, acknowledgements, and author interview are all written from the first person singular. This is odd.
I was struck by the insertion of past and current cultural references into the future setting, without fictional future references for the characters to also draw on. There was highly specific reference to Don Quixote (1605) and Dune (1965, but with film adaptations up to 2024 so far). It's not stated how far in the future The Expanse takes place but it must be at least 300 years from now. Were there no memorable or culturally significant books or movies or other media created during that time that would supersede these for the book's characters? It felt like the equivalent of references to Gilgamesh and Charlie Chaplin in the present time, things are remembered but not precisely go-to cultural touchpoints today.
I know that invented future references would be generally meaningless to the reader, like if instead of saying, "That's the name of Don Quixote's horse," it was, "That's the name of Glorbfawn's spacecaster," that would be stupid. But it still struck me as odd and anachronistic. At least the book wasn't inundated with these, like reportedly Artemis is, but it still took an active choice to move on from this issue and resume my reading enjoyment. Then Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) came into the characters' thoughts, and I was like, come on. To be fair, it was offset in one sequence by character memories of a song from a children's TV show from their own lifetimes.
They're good references, meaningfully used, but it was still odd.
It's a very good character-focused story. The science fiction setting is well thought out, but don't expect "hard" sci-fi because ultimately the details take a back seat to the emotional storytelling. Told in alternating chapters with two POV characters, it's a very human story with space trappings. At times it felt perhaps too character-focused: while broader events were well-reported and affected by the characters' actions and vice-versa, I sometimes wanted more immersion into the system-wide conflicts going on in the background. I expect this will be relieved if I continue the series, in which new POV characters are central in future volumes, presumably expanding the readers experience of ... the Expanse.
A couple of side notes from my reading experience:
Although the two-author collaboration behind “James SA Corey” was never secret, the book’s dedication, acknowledgements, and author interview are all written from the first person singular. This is odd.
I was struck by the insertion of past and current cultural references into the future setting, without fictional future references for the characters to also draw on. There was highly specific reference to Don Quixote (1605) and Dune (1965, but with film adaptations up to 2024 so far). It's not stated how far in the future The Expanse takes place but it must be at least 300 years from now. Were there no memorable or culturally significant books or movies or other media created during that time that would supersede these for the book's characters? It felt like the equivalent of references to Gilgamesh and Charlie Chaplin in the present time, things are remembered but not precisely go-to cultural touchpoints today.
I know that invented future references would be generally meaningless to the reader, like if instead of saying, "That's the name of Don Quixote's horse," it was, "That's the name of Glorbfawn's spacecaster," that would be stupid. But it still struck me as odd and anachronistic. At least the book wasn't inundated with these, like reportedly Artemis is, but it still took an active choice to move on from this issue and resume my reading enjoyment. Then Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) came into the characters' thoughts, and I was like, come on. To be fair, it was offset in one sequence by character memories of a song from a children's TV show from their own lifetimes.
They're good references, meaningfully used, but it was still odd.