Reviews

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

Only show reviews with written explanations

ryancull's review

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adventurous funny inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

iambto's review

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4.0

After watching the first season of the Expanse, I was excited to read this book. I expected a hard sci-fi political thriller along the lines of C. j. Cherryh meets Carol Sagan. Instead I got a rollicking good swashbuckling tale with a hint of Noir. The tv series follows pretty close to the book, but I found the book to be more light hearted and humorous (still some dark moments). I really enjoyed both the tv show and the book, but found them to be different enough that I want to continue with both for their unique feels.

sarahjo142's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Strong start to this series. Excited to continue reading. I found Miller to be a bit frustrating, but he got better toward the end. I just found his mental relationship with Julie to be strange. Otherwise a good time.

acrickettofillthesilence's review

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adventurous mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

yarrowkat's review

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4.0

This first volume stands up pretty well to the TV series that is based on it. I am generally a "read the books first" person, but in this case was unaware of the books until I was 1.5 seasons into the show and loving it. The TV series has definitely altered some things - the structural changes are solid translations between mediums; the turning people-of-color into white actors (very noticably the navigator who is Holden's love interest on the Canturbury...who I am pleased to report doesn't actually sleep with him, also) is the usual TV bullshit.

On that note, I think Fred Johnson is functioning in this book as the "magical Negro" trope whose entire function in the book is to support the character arcs of the two white tropes, Holden (the kind of idiotic idealist) & Miller (the sad detective), and this saddens me; c'mon guys. You can do better than this.

This is otherwise a taut, compelling, reasonably well-written novel. I am told that the writing gets tighter as the duo gets more comfortable working together throughout the series; I look forward to finding out.

ingi's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

apollofortynine's review

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3.0

I was not a fan of this book. The space combat was laughably bad (every fight ended after one salvo), and the story dragged on during the second half of the book.