Leviathan Wakes: The Expanse begins at 5G speed

Leviathan Wakes has a lot going for it.  

Among other things, it has one of the qualities I value most in science fiction: I can believe in the universe where it takes place. Its rules, settings and human behavior feel plausible.

We could get there.

And it isn't a simple universe built on made-up rules.

In this case, we're not 20,000 years in the future in a galaxy far, far away. No.

Here humanity is still trapped in the Solar System, but it has already colonized Mars, the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and much of the surrounding region. I'll sometimes refer to it as the Belt and to the people born there as belters, because “belt people,” as the Spanish translation renders it, sounds pretty ugly to me.

Earth is still Earth, only far more crowded and with neighbors it doesn't get along with particularly well.

James S. A. Corey —the pen name of two writers, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck—builds a future that works very well as a bridge between our present and the much more distant science fiction we're more used to.  

There are spaceships, but they don't come close to the speed of light; colonies, but none that are terraformed; battles that are anything but epic or heroic, and an extraterrestrial threat.

There are also laws of gravity, political problems, and humans who have changed physically after generations of living away from Earth.

All of it wrapped in an adventure novel where something is always happening.

Sometimes, even too much.

The plot of Leviathan Wakes

The story starts from two different plotlines.

On one side we have Jim Holden, second in command of a ship that hauls ice through the Solar System and ends up, through no fault of his own, caught in an incident capable of upsetting the balance between Earth, Mars and the Belt.

On the other is Miller, a detective on Ceres who is tasked with finding Julie Mao, a missing young woman. What initially looks like a routine job suddenly turns out to be connected to something much bigger.

I won't go any further because it's relatively easy to spoil things in Leviathan Wakes that you're better off discovering for yourself.

What matters is that both stories travel the same road from completely different starting points. Holden is right in the thick of it from minute one, while Miller reaches it from the outside.

And meanwhile we get immersed in the book's real strength: the Solar System the authors have built.

Earth, Mars and the Belt are clearly differentiated. They have different interests, different resources, and their own strengths and weaknesses. Because of those differences, the conflicts between them feel credible rather than like a mere excuse to have a space war in the background.

Mars has its goals, Earth has others, and the people of the Belt have spent too long oppressed and dependent on the inner planets not to feel resentment.

And those differences aren't only political.

Belters are taller and thinner after generations of living in lower gravity. In fact, someone raised on Mars or in space can't tolerate the same physical conditions as someone born on Earth either.

These details make the societies in the novel feel as though they have genuinely evolved in different ways. That, together with the challenges of travel—and space battles—and several other aspects in which Leviathan Wakes has a touch of hard science fiction.

But don't be fooled: this is a space opera through and through. Adventure and everything tied to the plot are what matter most here. Especially once people start shooting.

By the way, the title, Leviathan Wakes, refers to the awakening of something ancient and monstrous, with a clear reference to the biblical Leviathan. In the novel, that idea is tied to the protomolecule, an extraterrestrial threat that begins to reveal itself behind the human conflict.

Two perspectives, lots of action, and a few things that don't quite hold up

Almost the entire novel alternates chapters between Holden and Miller, and the choice works.

Although the two are somewhat archetypal characters and aren't especially well developed in this first book, they have their moments.

Holden stands out more for his intuitions and Miller for his deductions. Two ways of approaching decisions. They're quite different characters, but both are driven by an idea of justice, which they reach from opposite ends.

One thing worth mentioning is that Miller's detective storyline adds a noir tone that I honestly don't think the book needs. In any case, it works as a tool to create contrast and move the story forward.

That said, when it comes to the characters, the most interesting supporting one is Fred Johnson.

His past as an Earth military officer earned him the nickname Butcher of Anderson Station, and that is always hanging over him, as are his military intelligence and political vision. 

You're never quite sure what's really going through his head. In fact, he often seems to want to resolve certain situations differently, but holds himself back because he has something more important to defend than his own impulses.

He's a great leader and the character you're left most wanting to know better.

Naomi also carries quite a lot of weight in this first novel. Together with Amos and Alex she makes up “Holden's crew,” but she stands out more than the other two. There will be time to get to know her better in later books in the series.

And if the characters aren't the strongest part of the work, the action certainly is.

The battles between ships are very well told. At times they feel more like naval battles than the typical movie space fight with laser weapons. Distances matter here, trajectories matter, aiming at another ship isn't trivial, and accelerating and maneuvering have consequences for the people inside.

There are several moments when you genuinely feel the tension and relax when they're over. This is where the book really shines. Because these specific moments—from certain deaths to particular chases—leave a lasting impression.

And it's curious that it does, because if we're talking about the kind of science-fiction novel this is, we're at the opposite extreme from writers like Asimov, who can spend pages developing a single idea through conversations between two characters. 

Not here. In Leviathan Wakes every time you finish understanding what just happened, something else is already happening.

The book moves at 5G speed—an easy joke if you've already read it and know what I mean.

It's clear the authors know how to accelerate, though they're not quite as good at hitting the brakes. In fact, some of the quieter passages—there aren't many—drag a little, which is slightly contradictory with what I'm about to say next:

The book tries to tell too much.

Which sometimes makes the plot hard to follow. 

You'll have to stop. Reread the last bit and reconstruct the whole chain of events that led to the current situation.

And the truth is that some moments are genuinely brilliant, but they pass by more unnoticed than they should because you haven't finished processing one before you're already racing toward the next event.

I think the book would have been even better with fewer action beats and more emphasis on some of them.

To give you an idea, the adaptation into the TV series “The Expanse” took a season and a half: 15 episodes. And that's after the series simplified some plotlines.

What I mean is that there was enough material for two novels, with room to tell certain things more calmly instead of compressing everything into a single book.

Of course, that lack of development in certain areas also leads to two or three solutions that I didn't quite buy.

There are deductions—especially Miller's—that are pure magic. And some of the solutions Holden or Naomi come up with are a bit like that too. They don't break the suspension of disbelief or the credibility of the universe, but they do jar slightly against the novel's otherwise high level.

One last point to consider is that the authors clearly have some intention of venturing into horror with the protomolecule, the pseudo-extraterrestrial enemy they face.

For me, these more horror-oriented parts work somewhat less well, falling far short of what, for example, the Alien.

franchise manages to achieve. In this first book it mainly works as the excuse that sets everything in motion. That said, the series has time to develop this better.

Leviathan Wakes, book vs. The Expanse TV series

For me, there's no debate. You shouldn't have to choose between the book and the series.

No, because the two complement each other quite well and, in fact, experiencing both helps you understand certain parts of the universe better regardless of which order you choose.

That said, there are differences between them. For example (without getting into major spoilers):

• The book focuses much more on Holden and Miller, while the series broadens the number of viewpoints from the start.
• The series introduces characters and political storylines earlier than they appear in the books.
• The series cuts, rearranges and changes parts of the novel, and I think quite a few of those decisions help maintain good television pacing.
• The book makes the physics of this future much clearer, especially gravity, the acceleration and turning of ships, and the way travel and space combat work.
• The physical differences between belters and people who live on planets are much more pronounced in the novel.
• The protomolecule part seems clearer and better developed to me in the series.

That's why I say that, if science fiction is your thing, enjoy both, because they give you different perspectives on that excellent universe.

The best and worst of Leviathan Wakes

The best thing about Leviathan Wakes for me, is the universe it builds. With its three factions, the politics and the physical side of it.

The shared structure between Holden and Miller also works very well. It helps you see a complex problem from two different viewpoints.

And then there's the action.

There are some genuinely good chapters, the kind where you feel the tension and keep reading because you want to know how the hell they're going to get out of it. Or whether they're going to get out at all.

The battles, some of the chases and certain dramatic moments show that James S. A. Corey knows how to tell a story very well when all the attention is focused on one particular scene.

The main flaw is that it tries to tell too much.

Something is always happening, which makes the book very entertaining, but it also means some ideas don't have enough time to develop, leading to two or three major resolutions that feel like deus ex machina moments that I didn't quite buy.  

I also think the characters lag well behind the plot. Here, actions matter more than psychological depth, even for the protagonists.

Finally, if you read it in the original, the English can be a little more demanding than it looks. I read it that way and found it quite a bit harder than most books. Vocabulary, important things conveyed in a short sentence, omissions…

The dialogue, by the way, has some very clever moments. That's another small point of contact I find with Asimov, even though the authors use dialogue in completely different ways.

Conclusion: is Leviathan Wakes worth reading?

Yes.

Especially if you like science fiction, but also if you simply enjoy a good adventure novel.

For me, the great strength of Leviathan Wakes is that it makes the path from our world to spacefaring science fiction believable. That foundation is so good that, in fact, it interests me more than the mystery driving this first book.

And it's hugely entertaining.

It isn't a perfect novel. Too much happens, which means some ideas, characters and resolutions get less room than they deserve. But it also has fantastic scenes, excellent space battles and chapters capable of genuinely stressing you out.

The ending also achieves something important for the start of such a long saga: you feel that one part of the story has ended and hasn't been left unfinished, while it is clear that there is still much more to tell.

Leviathan Wakes fact sheet

Item	Information
Title	Leviathan Wakes
Series	The Expanse
Book	1
Author	James S. A. Corey
Authors behind the pen name	Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck
Genre	Science fiction, space opera
Original publisher	Orbit
Original publication	June 15, 2011
Length	592 pages in Orbit's current US edition; may vary by edition
Setting	Colonized Solar System
Main protagonists	James Holden and Josephus Miller
Rating	4/5