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Leviathan Wakes

(The Expanse #1)

James S.A. Corey (Goodreads Author)

4.26 · Rating details · 155,987 ratings · 11,189 reviews

Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret ...more

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Paperback, 561 pages

Published June 2nd 2011 by Orbit

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Jan 17, 2011 unknown rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011, wssfbc, 52-in-2011, book-club

I complained in my review of Chasm City that the gee-whiz mechanics of space opera can't really sustain a 600-page narrative. It turns out I was perhaps incorrect: most of the lengthy examples I've sampled in the sub-genre (Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks) are of the "dark and gritty" variety, grim, nihilistic visions of the future starring amoral asshole protagonists who are impossible to sympathize with. Even with a bunch of cool ideas on display, spending 700 pages in these books is exhausti I complained in my review of Chasm City that the gee-whiz mechanics of space opera can't really sustain a 600-page narrative. It turns out I was perhaps incorrect: most of the lengthy examples I've sampled in the sub-genre (Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks) are of the "dark and gritty" variety, grim, nihilistic visions of the future starring amoral asshole protagonists who are impossible to sympathize with. Even with a bunch of cool ideas on display, spending 700 pages in these books is exhausting. Inevitably, I like them for about 400 pages and then I just... get tired.

But this book... this is the space opera I want to read. This book has the spirit of the genre's early days, characters who still marvel at the impossible immensity of the stars, but it isn't a pastiche or a throwback -- it's a natural evolution, and a remarkably satisfying one. The closest analogue I can think of is the oft-overpraised television show Firefly. Say what you will about the annoyingly zealous fanbase (or don't, you don't need the hate email); that show really did almost everything right in translating space opera to the modern age. The characters are complex, they operate in a world that is more grey than black & white, but each also has a clear moral center, so we know why they do the things they do, even when they are terrible things. You can make space opera (or epic fantasy or whatever) that is "dark" and "gritty" and still fun to read, with characters that are fun to read about. Because why would you want to explore the stars with assholes?

I'm having some trouble locking the tractor beam on my point here, but it basically comes down to this: if you want me to invest in your lengthy space epic, you better give me something more to care about than magic space technology macguffin crap, because I will get sick of that. This book gave me cool ideas and everything else: archetypal characters that nevertheless manage to be compelling and sympathetic, interesting and very well thought out politics and economics, constant narrative momentum without sacrificing character... It's the most fun I've had reading sci-fi in a long time.

I should have expected nothing less of Daniel Abraham, who is one-half of the pseudonymous James S.A. Corey; earlier this year, I gushed about the way he was able to do basically all the same stuff within the confines of the epic fantasy genre. And there is so much to like about the premise, just on the face of it: it's a few hundred years from now. Humanity has colonized Mars and invented an engine that allows fairly speedy travel, to a point. Our solar system has been colonized, with outposts on the moons of Saturn and spread across the asteroid belts, but we've gone no further because, come on, space is freaking huge and what are the chances we're going to invent warp drive and quickly stumble across the other needles in the galactic haystack? Besides, we've got enough to keep ourselves busy: colonizing space hasn't exactly united humanity, and Earth, Mars and the Outer Planets Alliance operate under an uneasy truce, with heavy prejudices on all sides.

This stuff is very well thought out. People in the outer planets have lived for generations free from the constraints of heavy gravity, and have started to differ physically from Earthers. Language and culture have shifted too. This makes racism easier. Meanwhile the sheer logistical challenges of sustaining life on dead rocks (from mining interstellar ice to diets of food manufactured from algae) mean the "Belters" are still beholden to their terrestrial cousins.

The plot is a potboiler, effectively combining space action with a noir murder mystery (the two storylines intertwined in chapters that alternate between two POV characters). The characters are, like I said, broad types in some ways, but you can do broad types very well; a stock character can still be well rounded and compelling. This book manages to star both a world-weary detective and an idealistic space captain (with a smart-mouthed love interest and some wise-cracking ship's crew in the background) and not feel like a retread, to give the characters tough moral choices (and sometimes they make the wrong ones), without turning them into unrepentant sociopaths. It goes back to what I was saying many, many paragraphs ago about honoring conventions while expanding upon them.

I don't know if I am communicating this very well, but this book is all of that and also just impossible to stop reading. It's also funny without trying too hard, and thoughtful without being overly constructed or preachy. It's the book I have been looking for every time I picked up a space epic. I just didn't know until I found it. ...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Felicia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

I've been gorking out on Urban Fantasy and Romance lately, so mixing it with a FANTASTIC Space Opera was JUST what I needed!

I loved this book because in a lot of ways it humanized a BIG SF world in a way that is normally tough. I cared about the characters, I yelled at them a lot, and I enjoyed every minute! It felt modern and current, and created a really believable world that I wanted to live in and learn about. The politics of Earth vs Mars vs the Fringers, the mystery and vaguely noir-ish su ...more

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Jan 11, 2015 Kemper rated it really liked it

Shelves: space, 2015, vast-conspiracy, crime-mystery, 5-0, expanse, 2017-reread, sci-fi, war, germs-viruses

I got nobody to blame but myself for this….

I’ve had a long-standing policy that I will not read an unfinished sci-fi/fantasy series because I spent over a decade waiting for a certain master of horror to get off his ass and finish what he started. Plus, I have no urge to join the ranks of fans of other fantasy writers who seem to spend more time coming up with excuses and side projects rather than producing new books to finish their on-going series.

Ignorance isn’t a good defense, but it’s all I I got nobody to blame but myself for this….

I’ve had a long-standing policy that I will not read an unfinished sci-fi/fantasy series because I spent over a decade waiting for a certain master of horror to get off his ass and finish what he started. Plus, I have no urge to join the ranks of fans of other fantasy writers who seem to spend more time coming up with excuses and side projects rather than producing new books to finish their on-going series.

Ignorance isn’t a good defense, but it’s all I can claim. I picked this up on a whim after hearing it mentioned on the Incomparable podcast. I was a little leery when I saw it was almost 600 pages, but I didn’t bother looking into exactly what I had gotten myself into until I started the book That’s when I freaked the hell out:

“9 novels?!? 9 goddamn novels and they’re all this long? Holy shit! Only 5 have been released? It’s an unfinished series?? IT’S AN UNFINISHED SERIES! Oh, sweet jebus what have I done? And holy shit snacks they’ve been releasing off-shoot novels! ARGGHHH!! This is a nightmare…. OK, calm down. Let’s see, there’s actually two guys writing it under one pen name. Two guys can keep each other focused and moving forward. They’ve been releasing books like clockwork and have a schedule to bring it home. That’s good news. And these off-shoots are Kindle shorts so it looks like they’re really just true extras and not them filling their pockets while dawdling on the main series. Oh, and the Syfy network is doing a TV series based on it? That could be cool. Maybe this isn’t so bad after all. Wait, one of the authors also works as an assistant to….Uh oh. Well, maybe he’s learned what NOT to do when you’re working on a series…Or maybe I‘ll end up not liking it very much and can just stop here.”

No such luck. Damn it. I’m a sucker for the kind of sci-fi where even though they’re in space the characters have dirt under their nails and skinned knuckles rather than lounging around in pristine uniforms on ships that look like corporate cube farms. I’m also much more of a believer in the idea that if humanity does make it to other worlds that we’ll be dragging all our collective baggage out there with us rather than being explorers from a utopian society. Plus, I’m a big mystery fan and one of the main characters is a burned out space detective with a cynical outlook. And I also like (view spoiler) Oh, yeah. I’m in.

I particularly liked the push/pull between the two main characters. Holden is an idealist who thinks that people will make good collective choices as long as they’re told the truth, and that contrasts well with Miller’s bleak outlook that people are stupid sheep. Put those two guys in a society built out among our solar system’s asteroid belt that is about to go to war with Earth and Mars as they try to unravel the conspiracy behind it, and you’ve got yourself a pretty damn compelling sci-fi story.

I still kinda feel like a rube though….

Update 2/7/17 - You can tell from the original review I posted that I had a lot of misgivings about starting an unfinished series back when I first read this. A few years later after re-reading it I'm happy to report that it all worked out for the best. The authors have stuck to their schedule and delivered a book a year since they started, and the entires series has become one of my favorite sci-fi things ever. I also got a bonus in a pretty damn good TV series based on the show since then which just started it's second season. So this gamble has paid off pretty well so far. ...more

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Feb 19, 2020 Emily (Books with Emily Fox) is currently reading it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

Started during my "One Week, One Shelf" reading challenge. So far I'm intrigued! I can't wait to try the show too!

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Mar 21, 2020 Petrik rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Light sci-fi & space opera readers

Shelves: owned-physical-books

Leviathan Wakes was so good; a character-driven space-opera that combines sci-fi, noir, mystery, and a slice of horror into one.

I’ve watched only the first season and a few episodes of the second season, but it was enough to make me want to read all the available books in the series first before continuing with the TV series again. Seriously, amazing movies/TV adaptations boost book sales exponentially more than anything else in the world, and I do believe that The Expanse by James S. A. Corey h ...more

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Sep 21, 2011 mark monday rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-modern, i-gave-up

EH? EH! this so-called space opera is anything but. no sense of wonder, no sense of truly divergent civilizations, no galactic span. and a clear lack of operatic emotions on display as well. perhaps this is due to the characterization, which is rote, uninteresting, and badly developed, with sub-par Firefly-style dialogue along for the ride. perhaps it is also due to the subject matter, which is confined to purely in-system politics between Earth and Mars (the two reigning superpowers) and the as ...more

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Dec 17, 2015 Jeffrey Keeten rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-to-film, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. ”Way I see it, there’s three ways this can go,” Miller said. “One, we find your ship still in dock, get the meds we need, and maybe we live. Two, we try to get to the ship, and along the way we run into a bunch of mafia thugs. Die gloriously in a hail of bullets. Three, we sit here and leak out of our eyes and assholes.”

Well, really, the story begins when some alien species shoot a payload of virus at Earth and misses. This virus is capable of turning the human race into piles of nasty, smel ...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Jessica ❁ ➳ Silverbow ➳ ❁ Rabid Reads-no-more rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, rabid-reads-reviews, space-travel, favorite-secondary-characters, diabolical, creeptastic, aliens-i-love-em, bat-shit-crazy, revolting, it-burns-us-precious

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

Here's another Jessica quirk: I LOVE sci-fi on screen, but I rarely like reading it. I have no idea why. Some things just are.

BUT. I binge-watched The Expanse last week, and it was good enough that it made me curious. There were no giant-insects-as-aliens, no surplus of tech gobbledygook, and no discernible artificial intelligence (the things that make me avoid sci-fi literature, even though I can usually handle the movie version), and what there was was mysteriously ...more

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May 13, 2018 J.L. Sutton rated it really liked it

I enjoyed the story and the world (Mars, the asteroid belt between Earth and Mars, Earth, various mining stations) depicted in Leviathan Wakes. The setting and overall atmosphere of this near-future thriller has a noir feel to it (which only becomes more evident with the appearance of Detective Miller and his investigation into the missing Julia Mao). At times, you feel like you're reading a pulp crime detective novel in the spirit of Raymond Chandler, but Leviathan Wakes does more than answer q ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 Matthew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Matthew by: Gary K Bibliophile

Shelves: sci-fi, 2019, 2020

Welcome to 2020! My first book finished this year (kind of cheating since I started it in 2019)

This book is very epic . . . and it is only the beginning.

Leviathan Wakes is book one of The Expanse series. I have seen it described as a space opera. I was not quite sure the definition of space opera - although I have seen it used many times and even read a book with that title. So, I decided to use the ol' Google machine on my internet device and this is what I came up with:

From Oxford:

"NOUN

informa ...more

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Aug 24, 2018 Christina - Traveling Sister rated it really liked it

Shelves: library

4, turns out husbands CAN be right sometimes stars!!!

This review along with a recipe for Mariner Valley skillet lasagna is now featured on my blog Recipe & a Read: https://recipeandaread.wordpress.com/...

So lets start this one off with the truth: I'm not a sci-fi fan. I don't dislike sci-fi but I have a hard time with it and it tends to get bogged down for me. But, that's neither here nor there because I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Let us begin:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, fa....nope, wr ...more

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Jul 02, 2011 carol. rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: fans of light sci-fi

Shelves: awards, male-lead, multi-culti, nebula, mystery, sci-fi, hugo, fast-and-fun

Leviathan Wakes broke my reading slump! Listlessly slogging my way through various reads--a couple of which came highly recommended--I was starting to wonder if it I had lost my book love. Then I picked this up for a Book o' the Month read. Expecting a detail dense sci-fi, within the first few pages I found myself hooked, and by page 100, thoroughly reeled in by this hefty genre mash-up. Space opera? Perhaps. Horror? Maybe. Military? Sort of. Mystery in space? Yes, definitely. And if by the end ...more

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Feb 12, 2019 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, own, paperback, sci-fi, dj-catchup-challenge

I thought it was great and sad!!

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾 ...more

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Feb 28, 2020 Daniel Greene rated it really liked it

Scifi is meant to awe its readers while expanding their minds. Leviathan Wakes accomplished both while also incorporating many elements from other genres almost entirely successfully. I am beginning to believe more and more due to stories like this that the best days of scifi are not dead. Yes, Asimov is no longer crafting his nearly perfect stories, but the genre itself continues to grow and experiment. That kind of experimentation has given us this scifi epic and I am extremely happy to experi ...more

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Mar 27, 2016 Samir rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Actual rating: 4.5 stars.

Leviathan Wakes is a joint venture of Daniel Abraham, writer of the Long Prince Quartet and The Dagger and the Coin series, and Ty Franck, George R.R. Martin’s former assistant and science fiction writer. They are writing under the pen name James S.A. Corey.

This is the first installment of The Expanse series which, at this point, has seven novels already published which means two things; the series is very successful and I’m very late to this party.

I did some research a ...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Richard Derus rated it liked it

Shelves: kindled

Okay, I admit it. I was wrong. It's a solid 3-plus star read. Not quite a four, there are a few focus issues...extended time spent in Eros's casino level, f/ex...where the point gets made a bit harder than is good for the story. But my dismissive early review is wrong.

Real Rating: 2.5* of five
**UPDATE 23 October 2018** The Kindle edition is a whopping $2.99! Even *I* would buy it at that price...if I hadn't already read it.

**UPDATE 24 JUNE 2018** I love the series, now in its third season, a lot ...more

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Jun 07, 2013 Alejandro rated it liked it

Shelves: novel, military, science-fiction

A fair option of new science-fiction book series.

FRESH SCIENCE FICTION

I have a lot of curiousity about this series since it seemed like a very good option in new sci-fi. I mean, out of the obvious well-known sci-fi space opera books in the market, this "Expanse" series sounded like a good way to read something fresh in the field of sci-fi.

And I was right. I liked the book.

First of all, maybe you already know but anyway, I want to mention that "James S.A. Corey", the author, is a pen nam ...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: cthulhu-goes-ph-nglui-mglw-nafh-ct, space-opera, 2018-shelf, biopunk, mystery, zombies-go-braaaaaaaaaains, sci-fi, worldbuilding-sf, top-one-hundred, fanboy-goes-squee

Re-read 7/1/18:

I feel like I've read this book three times now. Sure, not quite true, but I DID watch the Expanse episodes encompassing this book. So close enough. And now, after a third (sic second) read?

Pure love.

This is the gold standard for space opera. :) Everything else is just trying to catch up. :)

My original review still stands, too. :) I love it all. It's as close to genius as this kind of story can get.

Original Review:

Fantastic Space-Opera! I didn't know what to expect when I picked ...more

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Mar 08, 2018 Mario the lone bookwolf rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction-new, corey-james-s-a

This is something special because it is one the first great space operas that got transformed into a magnificent TV series and there are so many other jewels waiting to be adapted. In the best case with enough time to put all the details from the books in the series. It quite kind reminds me of Game of Thrones too, where there are these two worlds of the books and the series with their own fandoms and beef and the books are much better, thank you! A similar writing method, escalating, different This is something special because it is one the first great space operas that got transformed into a magnificent TV series and there are so many other jewels waiting to be adapted. In the best case with enough time to put all the details from the books in the series. It quite kind reminds me of Game of Thrones too, where there are these two worlds of the books and the series with their own fandoms and beef and the books are much better, thank you! A similar writing method, escalating, different points of view with known and new characters, actual effects of happenings from prior parts of the series, cliffhanger over cliffhanger, great character design, piles of Sci-Fi elements, etc. I am not even sure if a single author could create something like this alone.

Now, thanks to enough computational power, maybe soon all my beloved Sci-Fi series may come alive on the screen, walking in the footprints of Titans like Babylon 5, Star Trek and Dr. Who, making the 21 first century the age of the ultimate Sci-Fi nerdgasm.

Thank you so much, Jeff Bezos, for both saving this series and stealing my lifetime with incentives to buy too much senseless stuff and wasting my time binge-watching Sci-Fi series. The man has a huge interest in asteroid mining and beliefs that it is more important to first build a full production line than to bring all equipment from the earth, which I deem to be the best approach. And yes, I know, there is much justified critic on Amazon, but that isn´t a topic in this review, instead something positive as an alternation.

And hey, who knows, probably we wouldn´t have timely build enough space bases without our classic evil, capitalistic system and had gone the way of the dodo bird instead. Imagine no species would have brought this human madness into space, that would have been a loss for, ahem, well just for us and a win for any other sentient, peaceful species, cause I simply love to compare us with any kind of evil Sci-Fi empire.

And I mean, we wouldn´t start colonizing and exploiting other worlds again or go to war with an alien species who is interested in resources too or something. Again again. Or at least, this time not against our own species and that´s something close to a progress.

I will probably someday write a longer review and/or re-read the whole series, but for the moment, this is enough and time is precious. Omg, it is so epic, I want to re-read it immediately.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
This series has some of the most amazing and massive tropeinity I´ve ever seen.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... ...more

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Feb 17, 2018 Philip rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, space-opera, hugo, author-man

3.5ish stars.

Good, old-fashioned outer space sci-fi. It's obviously influenced by the old-school greats, and if I'm being honest, doesn't add a lot of novelty to the genre, but it broke me out of a deadly reading slump for which I'll be forever grateful. Who knew such a chunkster could be such a fast read?

There's some awesome world-building going on, particularly the disparity between the inner and outer planets, and the differences in physiology of their respective inhabitants. The tension betw ...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Becky rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, favorites, highly-recommended, leg-hump_worthy, mystery-and-thrillers, science-fiction, 2012, horror, politicalish, reviewed

Confession Time: I'm very bad at categorizing genres and sub-genres, so it didn't dawn on me that Leviathan Wakes would be considered a "space opera" until I saw it in the genre listing on the book's Goodreads page. I still don't really know what that is (space opera, not a Goodreads page), despite having read the Wikipedia page and stuff. I think of "space opera" and this comes to mind:

Probably not the same thing. But I did realize that my last attempt at reading a "space opera", The Warrior's ...more

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Aug 01, 2018 Coffee&Quasars rated it liked it · review of another edition

Edit: demoting this to 3 stars because the 4th simply hasn’t been sitting right with me and has generally been haunting my dreams.

I’d describe this novel as ‘extremely okay’. It’s well-written, has plenty of heartwarming and funny moments, likeable characters (for the most part) and plenty of action and intrigue from the get-go as well as consistently throughout. I can absolutely see why they made this into a TV show (which influenced me to read this in the first place), BUT... there’s somethin ...more

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Sep 23, 2018 David - proud Gleeman in Branwen's adventuring party rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mel-likes-it-that-means-its-awesome, space-opera, 2018-reads, accountant-buddy-reads, group-reads, science-fiction, kayla-is-awesome

5 "blinded me with science" stars!

I'll write a full review when I have time to really put all my thoughts together. But right now I can say this is one of my favorite science fiction novels ever!

I absolutely loved the way the science of this universe was incorporated into this story. From the way people had different body types based on the different rates of gravity of their worlds, to how the various types of spacecraft all worked in unique ways, the science was very well established and adde ...more

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Jan 18, 2018 Dan Schwent rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, 2018-books

James Holden is a crewman on an ice mining ship near Saturn that runs across an abandoned ship and quickly finds itself ambushed. But what does that have to do with a detective on Ceres tasked with finding a missing rich girl and bringing her back to Earth?

I'm only seven years late to the party on this but what's the point of watching a TV show based on a book without being able to annoy everyone by pointing out the differences? One of my earliest memories was watching the re-release of the orig James Holden is a crewman on an ice mining ship near Saturn that runs across an abandoned ship and quickly finds itself ambushed. But what does that have to do with a detective on Ceres tasked with finding a missing rich girl and bringing her back to Earth?

I'm only seven years late to the party on this but what's the point of watching a TV show based on a book without being able to annoy everyone by pointing out the differences? One of my earliest memories was watching the re-release of the original Star Wars in the theater 1981-ish so I've always been interested in space stories. This one was more Firefly than Star Wars but I liked it quite a bit.

Told using two different viewpoint characters, Leviathan Wakes is the story of a war unfolding between Earth, Mars, and the Belters, denizens of various asteroid settlements. Someone tries their damnedest to shift the blame around, though.

The Miller thread was by far my favorite. The down and out detective won me over with his sheer doggedness, losing everything in the process of finding a missing girl that no one actually wanted him to find. The thread with Holden and his ragtag gang reminded me of Firefly quite a bit. Their asses went from the frying pan to the fire so many times they should have been burned beyond recognition. When the two threads finally converged, I knew I was in for the long haul.

Leviathan Wakes is very hard to put down. It's written in an accessible style and is light on the science, though its portrayal of space and space travel is a lot harsher and leaning toward what life in space might really be like than a lot of science fiction. There's action, humor, intrigue, pretty much everything you'd want from a science fiction adventure story. It's not a perfect book, though. Sometimes the characters make a few too many snarky remarks and sometimes they do outright stupid things. Other than that, I've got no complaints.

I don't take a lot of chances on series that aren't yet completed but I'm glad I took a chance on this one. Leviathan Wakes is the best first book in a sf/fantasy series I've read in years. Four out of five stars. ...more

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Jun 29, 2017 Samantha rated it liked it

3.75 - This space opera meets crime noir is a great start to a series I'm looking forward to continuing!

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Jul 01, 2018 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

After watching the TV show enthusiastically, it was only a matter of time before I had to pick up the book series as well, I guess.

This first novel opens up to a colonized Solar system. Humanity has spread to the Moon, Mars, and the Belt, with the furthermost settled region to be around Uranus even. However, as is to be expected, no matter where humanity goes, its problems follow. Thus, Earth and Mars are two competing superpowers with an uneasy alliance while the Belters are the somewhat oppres After watching the TV show enthusiastically, it was only a matter of time before I had to pick up the book series as well, I guess.

This first novel opens up to a colonized Solar system. Humanity has spread to the Moon, Mars, and the Belt, with the furthermost settled region to be around Uranus even. However, as is to be expected, no matter where humanity goes, its problems follow. Thus, Earth and Mars are two competing superpowers with an uneasy alliance while the Belters are the somewhat oppressed workers with serious physical differences and a terrorist organization called OPA working hard on taking on Earth and Mars.
Enter Earther Jim Holden, a former member of the UN Navy (the UN is the government of Earth by now) who has been working on an ice hauler for the past few years. He and his colleagues receive a distress signal and go to help, only to be caught in a trap. But despite Holden and 4 of his crew members surviving, that is only the beginning of their ordeal.
Simultaneously, on Ceres station, Belter detective Miller is sent so bring back the daughter of a rich investor from Luna but that isn't as straightforward a job as he first thought either.
While there are political tensions across the Solar system, a group of scientists has discovered and is tinkering with something on a wholly different level and soon it's about nothing less than the survival of humanity.
Thus, Holden's and Miller's paths cross and we get a mad dash from one space station to another, from one horriffic incident to the next until a quite disturbing end of this first volume.

I'm a fan of scifi stories and have been for a while. Thus, I've also read a fair number of scifi books, but I can honstly say that the two authors forming "S.A. Corey" will hopefully become one of the big names soon.
From the engaging writing style and the captivating mystery of what the hell is going on to the enigmatic characters, nothing is out of place here. Add to that the solid tech as a wonderful background and you get a memorable universe about 200 years from now that is captivating readers completely.
There is the occasional light humor, coming mostly from the different characters clashing and having to find a way to work together, there is action galore, complicated politics but there is also smart science. And then there are a few scenes worthy of any horror movie what with all the creepy atmosphere. Just the way I like it.

One small comment about the TV show: it is remarkable (in the best of ways) how close the TV adaptation is to the book(s). There are some slight differences to the details and at least one scene I liked better on the show, but they are mostly the same, which in my opinion is fantastic! ...more

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Nov 28, 2017 Lyn rated it liked it

The beginning of the Expanse novels, a fantastic world building space opera.

Set in a future where the solar system has been colonized, the furthest planets – outside the asteroid belt is culturally separated from the inner planets. Mars has become a system wide power.

The authors (James S.A. Corey is the pen name for two collaborators) have done an exceptional job at imagining and describing a post-colonization universe where the technical demands of deep space exploration and colonization, and t ...more

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Apr 07, 2015 Melki rated it really liked it

Recommended to Melki by: The Unholy Trinity - Tom, Dirk and Algernon

Shelves: science-fiction, crime-fiction, thriller

This is one of the many reasons why having Goodreads friends is so awesome.

I would have never read, much less even heard of this book had it not been for some GRs buddies with impeccable taste. And believe me, it took some coaxing to get me to read a 560 page space odyssey.

It's a real page-turner, they said, and indeed, it was. You'll fly through it in no time, I was told, and indeed, I would have, had I not picked one of the busiest weeks of my life to read it. This book should ideally be read ...more

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Apr 11, 2019 Aqsa (On Hiatus) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: adapted-books, favorites

RTC.
Had a great and relaxed Buddy Read with Cassie.

I am still processing the end.

My Thoughts as I Read:
Prologue:
Wow, that was so intense. What the hell was done to Captain Darren? Did he die? Who were the captors and why did they leave?

Chapter 1: Holden
(view spoiler) ...more

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Nov 13, 2017 Choko rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

*** 4.25 ***

A buddy read with the Fantasy Buddy Reading Group! Because at times Sci-Fi is just what the Doctor ordered:)

This was much better than I expected. I am not sure why all the positive reviews and the blurbs did not give me much confidence, but I am very happy to be proven wrong. The writing is top-notch. It is stripped of embellishments and very reminiscent of the old Pulp-Noir of the first half of the 20th century and as such, I am a big fan:) It reeks of testosterone and is a bit vag *** 4.25 ***

A buddy read with the Fantasy Buddy Reading Group! Because at times Sci-Fi is just what the Doctor ordered:)

This was much better than I expected. I am not sure why all the positive reviews and the blurbs did not give me much confidence, but I am very happy to be proven wrong. The writing is top-notch. It is stripped of embellishments and very reminiscent of the old Pulp-Noir of the first half of the 20th century and as such, I am a big fan:) It reeks of testosterone and is a bit vague on the Science side of the Science-Fiction, but the characters pop off the page and it lacks the typical for the genre info-dumps, which keeps it dynamic and engaging. The change of POVs also helps with giving us the different sides of the conflict developing in this first full novel of the series.

"...“There were two sides fighting—that was true enough—but they weren’t the inner planets versus the Belters. They were the people who thought it was a good idea to kill people who looked or acted differently against the people who didn’t.”..."

A revolutionary discovery of a drive propels Humanity into space and expansion, although for now they have been limited to the Solar System and the Asteroid Belt, the people living there being called Belters. The population has exploded, despite the efforts to limit births and give extra incentives to those who choose to have a multi-parent families for only one child. Air and water are precious commodities and their transport a lucrative way to make money in a system where the few have a lot and the many have close to nothing. Captain Holden is an Earther born in Montana to 5 fathers and 3 mothers (awesome, right?!), who was raised with the good old American values and belief in right and wrong, fervent in his sense of justice as only one who has never been done wrong by the established justice system could be - naively and devotedly.... He is the captain of a space ship which carries icebergs to the Belt for the vitally needed water. When his ship gets lured in by a"Help" signal from another vessel, theirs is irreparably damaged and Holden, following his overlarge sense of "justice" and the right of all to know the "truth", publicly broadcasts the little information he has, which implicates Mars in trying to sabotage the Belt and their receiving what they need to survive, inadvertently starting a war between Mars and the Belt. This same misguided impulse that he knows what is right for all later leads him to involve Earth and almost any other planet in the war as well... Needless to say, I had a ton of issues with this character. He was well meaning at all times and his mates even call him Righteous, but that did not make him smart. Every time he had a clue he never stopped to think about if it is true or not, if someone was trying to misdirect him, if it was planted on purpose, or at all what the consequences of his actions might lead to. Completely impulsive and irresponsible! I am not sure why everyone thinks of him as a hero!!!??? What is heroic about acting without thinking and possibly causing the lives of millions of people? I don't get it...

"...“There's a right thing to do," Holden said.
"You don't have a right thing, friend," Miller said. "You've got a whole plateful of maybe a little less wrong.” ..."

Then we have Detective Miller... Talk about coming out of the age of the old Noir detective books and thrown into a dystopian Space-Opera! I loved everything about the guy! Completely screwed up, imperfect, jaded, about fifty years old, divorced, with little to live for except the job. Humanity might have left being Earth-bound behind, but all the old hatreds for those who are different, the poverty and the drive to survive, have made crime just as prevalent, if not even more, as it is today and ever was... We might try to leave Ugly behind, but Ugly lives in us, so it is going nowhere... Miller knows that, he lives with it day and night, and still tries to be a good cop, despite all of those around him thinking he is a washed-out has-been... As he discovers the sad truth of his career, he becomes obsessed with a case of a missing young woman, July, who has joined a Belter rebellion group and put her rich and powerful family behind her. His instincts lead him to believe that the newly started war might have something to do with her and follows her trail all the way to a meting with Holden and joining his crew and agenda. This is how Oil and Water get together and the rest is a good story of two very different people with different set of values trying to do the right thing and save the world.

"...“He’d seen unequivocally that the chaos he’d dedicated his life to holding at bay was stronger and wider and more powerful than he would ever be. No compromise he could make would be enough. His death-self was unfolding in him, and the dark blooming took no effort. It was a relief, a relaxation, a long, slow exhale after decades of holding it in.
He was in ruins, but it was okay, because he was dying.” ..."

Overall, I loved the story, the writing stile and many of the characters, but I did have a real issue with the main "Hero" and wanted to kill him with my own two hands just so I can stop the ideological drivel coming out of his mouth with no real sense of what could really happen... I hated, just HATED when he decided he had any right to judge Miller for the actions he took, when the detective was a 100 times more aware of what is going on and what the consequences of his every move would be and would lead to. To me, Miller was the real hero of the story, and I regret that Holden is the main character in the series, as far as I understand... Despite all that, I would heartily recommend this to all Sci-Fi fans, as well as the fans of Detective stories and those who just like a good adventure and the possibilities of the occasional Vomiting Zombies showing up, just to make things more interesting:)

"...“Posthuman. It was a word that came up in the media every five or six years, and it meant different things every time. Neural regrowth hormone? Posthuman. Sex robots with inbuilt pseudo intelligence? Posthuman. Self-optimizing network routing? Posthuman. It was a word from advertising copy, breathless and empty, and all he’d ever thought it really meant was that the people using it had a limited imagination about what exactly humans were capable of.” ..."

Now, I wish you all Happy Reading and may you always find what you Need in the pages of a Good Book!!! ...more

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“There's a right thing to do," Holden said.
"You don't have a right thing, friend," Miller said. "You've got a whole plateful of maybe a little less wrong.” — 116 likes

“What kind of half-assed apocalypse are they running down there?” Amos said. “Give ’em a break. It’s their first.” — 87 likes

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