By Dahl Botterill
Leviathan Wakes is set in a just distant enough future in which humanity has advanced technologically enough to have expanded into the solar system but no further, and without really solving a lot of the issues that plague us today. This juxtaposition of growth and stagnation results in a setting filled with new and exciting environments populated by characters and factions with easily recognizable motivations and flaws. It all manages to feel familiar despite being full of spaceships, railguns, and alien bioweapons.
The author—James S.A. Corey is a pseudonym for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck writing together, but for simplicity, I'll refer to them in the singular—also does a great job of using actual science without drowning the story in it. The extra effort lends the story some extra credibility without ever slowing it down.
Leviathan Wakes is written in the third person but plays with this perspective a little, shifting its focus back and forth between two characters in alternating chapters throughout, bookended with a prologue and epilogue that focus on different characters entirely. The first of our two primary characters is Miller, a past-his-prime detective working on Ceres station when he's assigned a missing persons “kidnap job.” His focus on this task becomes obsessive and drags him all over the solar system, where he eventually crosses paths with James Holden. Holden is the book's other focal character, who's in a relatively dead-end job as the executive officer on an ice-running ship when a nearby distress beacon turns his life, along with the lives of a few crew members, upside down. The story starts small but grows quickly and inexorably from a bit of mystery and intrigue to a potential interplanetary war between Earth, Mars, and the fledgling Outer Planets Alliance.
The growth of the story showcases a real strength of Corey's—Leviathan Wakes is brilliantly paced. It starts out interesting and manages to maintain its momentum throughout its considerable length. It isn't always shootouts and chases, but it's always drawing the reader forward, whether through direct action, political intrigue, or just fascinating science fiction. As the first book in an ongoing series, this is a good sign, and the success of both The Expanse as a book series and the television show based on it seems a good indication that James S.A. Corey manages to keep that pace up over time. I'm certainly looking forward to reading more.