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

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Leviathan Wakes - The Expanse Book One by James SA Corey

5/5 loved every moment. 

Sci-fi has been a massive part of my life for as long as I can remember. So far, The Expanse is seeming like the perfect compilation of all the the best parts of science fiction - and there’s just enough real-world physics to keep me from nearly screaming every time I turn a page because there’s no possible way what’s happening is feasible under the conditions. 

I have a love hate relationship with multi-pov books bc I always find I like one character way more than the other, and only really enjoy their chapters, but I think it’s used really well here. It’s third person closed (focused on a specific character’s experiences and only uses info that character has at the time) and alternates focus between the two main characters each chapter. I found the split-focus did a really good job setting up the novel, as I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of world I was going into. It worked with one characters story line setting up the politics of it all, and the other the action, until they met up in the middle - at the same point those two parts of the story collided
- a war broke out.
 
It also worked to really build the conflict between the characters throughout the story - both “good guys” but with very different ideals and opinions about humanity’s nature - and gave the relationship much more depth and meaning.
Unless I’m going to be incredibly nit-picky and pull out specific sentence structure I would have changed - I have not one complaint. 


I’ve started the series on recommendation by my English teacher, and it’s actually kinda surprising that he got my style perfectly right based of just a couple conversations about specific books and teaching me.
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