"Leviathan Wakes" - Review

by Andrew McDonald

Photo Credit: Orbit Books

            Are you a fan of hard-boiled detectives, fast-paced action, and space zombies? Well, then do I have the book for you.

            Leviathan Wakes is the first in The Expanse trilogy by James S.A. Corey, a pseudonym for the writing team of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. For those of you interested, this book will soon be a TV series on SyFy, a network known more for their creative spelling than quality original programming, but I have my fingers crossed.

            As for the book itself, it’s an incredibly thrilling ride. Told through the alternating perspectives of Jim Holden, an XO of a mining vessel, and Detective Miller, who is searching for a missing woman, we learn that not all is what it seems in this universe and the two parallel stories begin to converge as they both discover various aspects of a dark conspiracy.

            I have to be honest and say I much preferred Miller’s sections of the book compared to Holden’s, mostly because I thought Miller was simply a more interesting character. It felt as though I was reading an old-school style noir, a la The Maltese Falcon, when reading Miller’s chapters. Which is, like, literary heaven for me – a hard-boiled noir detective in space? It’s hard to make me happier than that.

"I'll knock ya to the moon, see? They got a nice colony up there, I think you'll like it."
Photo Credit: Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans

            But even though I didn’t find Holden nearly as interesting, his chapters get all of the big, blockbuster action sequences, which are intense, thrilling, and extremely fun.

            Overall, I would definitely recommend Leviathan Wakes if you’re a fan of space opera science fiction with smarts to go along with the explosions.