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A review by kp_hobbitreads
Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey
4.5
#1 Leviathan Wakes: ★★★★☆ | 4 stars
#1.5 The Butcher of Anderson Station: ★★★★☆ | 4 stars
#2 Caliban's War: ★★★★✮ | 4.5 stars
This is a fantastic follow up to the first book in this series, and it's got it all: epic space battles, political intrigue, a gripping mystery, and at the center is a small crew of people just trying to do the right thing.
The crew of the Rocinante has been working for the OPA for the past year. After a catastrophic event on Ganymede, the breadbasket of the outer planets, they arrive bring relief supplies. Soon they find themselves committing to help a scientist search for his missing daughter. But, of course it doesn't remain a simple missing person's case for long when they find ties to Protogen and the protomolecule. Holden & his crew once again find themselves in the middle of a shitstorm of epic proportions.
This book gives us three new POV's in addition to Holden's: Pax - the botanist on Ganymede who is searching for his daughter. Bobbie - a Martian marine who watched as her entire platoon was slaughtered by some kind of monstrous supersoldier. And, Avasarala - a UN politician who is doing everything she can to prevent a war between Earth, Mars & the Belt.
This takes everything I loved in the first book and bumped it up a notch. You've still got plenty of found family goodness with the Rocinante crew. But, they didn't come out of the ending of the first book unscathed. And, Holden especially is really struggling to deal with the fallout of the decisions he's made and the person he's becoming. There is a compelling mystery in Pax's search for Mei. As a parent, his grief and worry felt palpable to me. And, this story didn't shy away from the grim reality of the aftermath of what a cascading failure in space is like for regular, everyday people. And, Avasarala and Bobbie's chapters really dived into the political machinations taking place. Bobbie is dealing with the grief of losing her friends while finding herself in the middle of political quagmire she feels completely unprepared for. And Avasarala is working to undo the mess made by politicians who care more about lining their pockets than the people they are meant to serve. All of these pieces worked together to tell a really compelling story without anyone storyline feeling unnecessary or like it was taking up too much space. There wasn't a single POV that I found myself wishing there was less of.
Three Things:
1. Avasarala is a fantastic character. There is something incredibly satisfying about watching a bunch of pompous men get their asses handed to them by a grandmother in a sari.
2. Amos is still a menace. And, I still love him for it.
3. I kept hoping for some kind of resolution to the whole Nicola thing. An apology or something. What she did was cruel - and, I still want to know why. But, Pax handled it with far more grace and kindness than I would have.
The ending of this book was a gut punch in the best way possible. I cannot wait to see where this story goes from here.
content warnings: kidnapping, missing children, violence, death, gore, body horror, medical experimentation, death of a child, PTSD, injury/injury recovery, mentions of child sexual abuse, death threats, grief, loss of a loved one
#1.5 The Butcher of Anderson Station: ★★★★☆ | 4 stars
#2 Caliban's War: ★★★★✮ | 4.5 stars
This is a fantastic follow up to the first book in this series, and it's got it all: epic space battles, political intrigue, a gripping mystery, and at the center is a small crew of people just trying to do the right thing.
The crew of the Rocinante has been working for the OPA for the past year. After a catastrophic event on Ganymede, the breadbasket of the outer planets, they arrive bring relief supplies. Soon they find themselves committing to help a scientist search for his missing daughter. But, of course it doesn't remain a simple missing person's case for long when they find ties to Protogen and the protomolecule. Holden & his crew once again find themselves in the middle of a shitstorm of epic proportions.
This book gives us three new POV's in addition to Holden's: Pax - the botanist on Ganymede who is searching for his daughter. Bobbie - a Martian marine who watched as her entire platoon was slaughtered by some kind of monstrous supersoldier. And, Avasarala - a UN politician who is doing everything she can to prevent a war between Earth, Mars & the Belt.
This takes everything I loved in the first book and bumped it up a notch. You've still got plenty of found family goodness with the Rocinante crew. But, they didn't come out of the ending of the first book unscathed. And, Holden especially is really struggling to deal with the fallout of the decisions he's made and the person he's becoming. There is a compelling mystery in Pax's search for Mei. As a parent, his grief and worry felt palpable to me. And, this story didn't shy away from the grim reality of the aftermath of what a cascading failure in space is like for regular, everyday people. And, Avasarala and Bobbie's chapters really dived into the political machinations taking place. Bobbie is dealing with the grief of losing her friends while finding herself in the middle of political quagmire she feels completely unprepared for. And Avasarala is working to undo the mess made by politicians who care more about lining their pockets than the people they are meant to serve. All of these pieces worked together to tell a really compelling story without anyone storyline feeling unnecessary or like it was taking up too much space. There wasn't a single POV that I found myself wishing there was less of.
Three Things:
1. Avasarala is a fantastic character. There is something incredibly satisfying about watching a bunch of pompous men get their asses handed to them by a grandmother in a sari.
2. Amos is still a menace. And, I still love him for it.
3. I kept hoping for some kind of resolution to the whole Nicola thing. An apology or something. What she did was cruel - and, I still want to know why. But, Pax handled it with far more grace and kindness than I would have.
The ending of this book was a gut punch in the best way possible. I cannot wait to see where this story goes from here.
content warnings: kidnapping, missing children, violence, death, gore, body horror, medical experimentation, death of a child, PTSD, injury/injury recovery, mentions of child sexual abuse, death threats, grief, loss of a loved one