A review by yarrowkat
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

4.0

This first volume stands up pretty well to the TV series that is based on it. I am generally a "read the books first" person, but in this case was unaware of the books until I was 1.5 seasons into the show and loving it. The TV series has definitely altered some things - the structural changes are solid translations between mediums; the turning people-of-color into white actors (very noticably the navigator who is Holden's love interest on the Canturbury...who I am pleased to report doesn't actually sleep with him, also) is the usual TV bullshit.

On that note, I think Fred Johnson is functioning in this book as the "magical Negro" trope whose entire function in the book is to support the character arcs of the two white tropes, Holden (the kind of idiotic idealist) & Miller (the sad detective), and this saddens me; c'mon guys. You can do better than this.

This is otherwise a taut, compelling, reasonably well-written novel. I am told that the writing gets tighter as the duo gets more comfortable working together throughout the series; I look forward to finding out.