Caliban’s War (The Expanse, #2) in Adventures in SciFi Publishing

Jun 17, 2015 Mr. Matt rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, aliens, 2015

A young girl on a Ganymede space station is kidnapped. Shortly thereafter the fragile peace between Mars and Earth is broken when a mutated human attacks and single-handily destroys not one but two squads of Space Marines. Distrust between the two powers runs high and it is not long before that erupts into a shooting war. Both suspect the other of nefariously plotting to turn a secret supply of the protomolecule into a weapon of mass destruction. Meanwhile, back on Venus, the protomolecule is bu A young girl on a Ganymede space station is kidnapped. Shortly thereafter the fragile peace between Mars and Earth is broken when a mutated human attacks and single-handily destroys not one but two squads of Space Marines. Distrust between the two powers runs high and it is not long before that erupts into a shooting war. Both suspect the other of nefariously plotting to turn a secret supply of the protomolecule into a weapon of mass destruction. Meanwhile, back on Venus, the protomolecule is busy transforming the planet - building something. It is in this simmering stew of distrust and tension that Jim Holden is tossed into. Chaos ensues.

This book was not as strong as the first. Partly, I think, this is due to the fact that a lot of mystery has been taken out of the equation. I know that the protomolecule is an artifact of an alien civilization. I know that it is programmed to hijack organic matter. I know that bad people in faceless corporations are willing to bend the rules to make a quick buck off of this terrifying thing. I know that unscrupulous scientists want to study it. If they can only crack the code they can fundamentally transform human evolution. The only mystery left is what exactly is happening on Venus, but that is pretty much left out of this story.

Caliban's War is largely more of the same. An unscrupulous corporation has sold a sample of the protomolecule to a rogue element of the UN military. They hope to develop it as a first strike weapon for use against Mars. Unfortunately, people keep forgetting that they just can't contain or control it. Things go awry and all hell breaks loose. Toss in Jim Holden, the quest for the little girl, and his urge to share everything with everyone and you have bedlam.

Three and a half stars rounded down to three. A little long. Too much focus on politicians. Felt like a bit of a rehash of the first book. Did like the ending, however. That perfectly set up the next book and went a long way to unraveling what the heck was happening on Venus. What is intriguing to me is mystery. There was not enough of it in this book.

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Aug 06, 2013 Timothy Ward rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014, science-fiction, space-opera

Reviewed at Adventures in SciFi Publishing

Caliban’s War, the second book in James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse series, is at times the best Space Opera I’ve read, and in others hard to keep reading. It took me ten months to finish. Part of that could be that the ending was partially spoiled, another because it is a big book to lug around. There is an element to the story telling that contributed to the ten month span, but it’s hard to put my finger on.

George R.R. Martin calls this Space Opera the wa Reviewed at Adventures in SciFi Publishing

Caliban’s War, the second book in James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse series, is at times the best Space Opera I’ve read, and in others hard to keep reading. It took me ten months to finish. Part of that could be that the ending was partially spoiled, another because it is a big book to lug around. There is an element to the story telling that contributed to the ten month span, but it’s hard to put my finger on.

George R.R. Martin calls this Space Opera the way it should be written. In many ways I agree, this is as professional and realistic as one could ask for in a story about futuristic, interplanetary battles. The power struggle between Earth, Mars, Belters and the strange, alien monster is both well-thought out and epic in consequence. This is humanity in the next age struggling to survive and I love experiencing their time. On the other hand, I often found myself on the verge of boredom, wading through lines of reasoning, science, military strategy, etc. I wouldn’t take these parts out because this aspect is one of the traits of James S.A. Corey’s series that makes it so lifelike, but it does show me the kind of fiction I prefer is one with less talk and details and more on surprises and action. Most of the dialogue is very well done, and is one of his sharper tools for building his unique characters, so when I say I prefer less talking, I mean I prefer less of the boardroom planning type scenes, of which there seems to be many. I’m okay with characters discussing what they should do and politicians talking through both sides of their mouth (is that the right idiom?), but the way it is done in this book sometimes left me apt to put the book down instead of on the edge of my seat to find out what would happen. Some of these sessions ended with the sense that the writer was working from an outline and needed to show me the pieces fitting together, and other times I enjoyed conclusions I didn’t see coming.

My favorite aspect to Corey’s fiction is the action scenes. They are fast, real, detailed and pulse-pounding. In Caliban’s War, our mysterious alien invades a planet; our heroes break into a lab with pieces of the same Alien-type monster, their ship is breached, and eventually they will find a larger source of this monster and the vomit zombies it produces. All of these scenes were well done, but they often felt overshadowed by the talking that took place before and after.

To compare endings between the first book, Leviathan Wakes, and Caliban’s War, I’d give the nod to Leviathan as having a greater climax and punch to the gut both emotionally and in how it expands the conflict and scope for the next book. Caliban’s has that, but the action at the end was not that great—it felt too quick—and the emotional response wasn’t as much as I want from investing in this large of a book and series.

To pick three stars would indicate too much that this is an inferior book. It is not. Where it didn’t work for me is purely subjective. I am excited to read more books in this series and at times I was really impressed and enjoying myself. The characters are real and the whammy at the end of this book means I have to pick up the next, Abaddon’s Gate, and see what they do in light of the new conflict.

Adventures in SciFi Publishing interviewed James S.A. Corey on AISFP Podcast - 238. ...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Peter rated it it was amazing

Caliban’s War was everything I could have hoped for as a sequel to Leviathan Wakes. There’s a tendency for second novels in a trilogy to be fillers, serving merely as a bridge between the first and third books. But this is not the case with Caliban’s War — we are given greater plot complexity, more and better-developed characters, and a war between cultures that becomes real conflict instead of a mere backdrop.

One of the two viewpoint characters from Leviathan Wakes returns: Jim Holden, the good Caliban’s War was everything I could have hoped for as a sequel to Leviathan Wakes. There’s a tendency for second novels in a trilogy to be fillers, serving merely as a bridge between the first and third books. But this is not the case with Caliban’s War — we are given greater plot complexity, more and better-developed characters, and a war between cultures that becomes real conflict instead of a mere backdrop.

One of the two viewpoint characters from Leviathan Wakes returns: Jim Holden, the good-natured, but internally conflicted captain who has been contracted by the OPA. We are also introduced to three new viewpoint characters: Prax, a divorced father and prestigious botanist living on the Jovian moon, Ganymede; Avasarala, an elderly, peace-seeking, foul-mouthed UN diplomat; and Bobbie, a spunky Martian marine who is on Ganymede when disaster strikes.

When a protomolecular creature strikes Ganymede, the UN and Martian marines are annihilated and Bobbi finds herself as the lone survivor. When the creature is destroyed without evidence, the UN begins to suspect that the attack was orchestrated by the Martians, escalating the cold war between them. Avasarla is desperate to keep peace and hires Bobbi to help discover the truth behind the attack.

Meanwhile, Prax discovers that his daughter, Mei, has been kidnapped by her doctor. Her strange autoimmune disorder seems connected to the latest conspiracy with the protomolecule, but Prax doesn't understand why. With the help of Holden's crew, they embark on a mission to find Mei and once again find the source of the latest biological attack.

Caliban's War is everything I expect from a novel. The characters are flawed and have to overcome their own fears and shortcomings to resolve their external conflicts. The dialog is sharp and the action scenes are riveting. There are two major plot threads (searching for Mei and protomolecule attacker) that interweave nicely. Yes, it is entirely contrived that all four of our viewpoint characters encounter one another and some of the science seems to fall a little short, but none of this detracts from the novel. It is a fantastic blend once again of space opera, mystery, and horror that has a very similar flavor to the previous novel.

I am very excited to read the next book in the series, but I am really hoping that it takes a large step in terms of being different and more complex. We don't need another daughter to be kidnapped and I would like to see some resolution in the conflict between the Belters, the Earthers, and the Martians.

If you enjoyed Leviathan Wakes, you should be delighted in this follow-up novel. It doesn't stand alone very well, so I would recommend new readers start off with the first book in the series. There really isn't enough space opera in genre fiction today and Caliban's War broadens the series into an epic scale that I can wrap my teeth around. I recommend you do the same.

This review was originally published at Odd Engine
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Apr 02, 2013 Arun rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, space-fiction, military-fiction

First book that held me hostage for over 7 hours straight.
Three POVs, intricate political webs woven to carry out machinations of the powerful, mixed with self-righteous serving the humanity's will to be alive, go on, keep the wheels of civilization running. This second book in The Expanse trilogy will leave the reader soaked in interesting and perfect explanation of near-future, the one when humanity should face biggest threat yet, before it could set sail to the distant stars. ...more

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