Our discussion of Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

The group really enjoyed this book! We liked the story, characters, and world-building. It’s a good thing there are five more titles in the series (at last count) to keep the story going. A few of us have seen the new SyFy series Expanse that is based on the books.

Impressions:

• It was a “ripping yarn,” a true space opera.
• We were concerned about the “vomit zombies,” but the book didn’t take the zombie idea too far.
• The book got into horror - it was probably good we didn’t have to experience the virus infecting Julie and could just see the result.
• We were limited in the book to Holden or Miller for POV. The television show added another perspective which was helpful.
• The book (and show) have some similarities to Firefly with the inner planets versus the outer planets, rebels, etc.
• The book had a lot of humorous lines throughout. We liked the cheese-smuggling passage.
• The proto-molecule must have held the knowledge of how to move the asteroid. Perhaps humanity was meant to find the proto-molecule when it could do the most damage to us?
• Some of the writing was repetitive: “Miller knew he was missing something…”, but just when it was about to get really annoying, the references would stop.

Characters:

• Miller was “Sam Spade in space.”
• We only get hints of Holden’s backstory, “Don’t be a hero again…” (We learn more about him in the other books.)
• Jim Holden was a lot like Jim Kirk.
• Dresden was the epitome of corporate greed. It wasn’t explained how he could remove the ethical component of the scientists, but it was clear he had the ability to brainwash people. It was probably good that Miller shot him – he was a danger to the human race.
• The authors did a good job of showing how the different races were treated, such as Havelock the Earther on Ceres.
• The Belter patois was a good touch. Belters were the scrappy ones who made do with what they had – they were pioneers and explorers. 
• Holden and Miller were good foils for each other. Holden believed in transparency as shown by his off the cuff broadcasts into space which may have started the war. Miller believed that things are not always how they appear and that Holden played right into the bad guys’ plans.

Please add any additional thoughts or comments you may have about Leviathan Wakes. We gave this title the codes SOP, XEN, COP, AHRO, POL, HRO, and HIT with an average rating of 4.5.