Leviathan Wakes
The first thing that you need to know is that the author is not one guy. Don’t go looking for James Corey anywhere. It took me two books to figure this one out, but I was so engrossed with reading that I really did not care. Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck are the co-authors and they have created a very creative mix of characters with a good science fiction story to follow. The way the story is told is through the eye of one character for a given time period. Some overlap from their point of view, but this turned out to be really interesting way to tell the story. Leviathan Wakes is a great book title enticing you to think how something horrible is awoken.
When
Leviathan Wakes takes place in a world that does not seem that far off. They talk about hand terminals just like we talk about phones. All the technology that is being used really seems like we could do it right now. Earth is still the center of knowledge and appears to be thought of the know it all. Mars is the red headed step child, while the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) is the foster kid in and out of trouble. Overpopulation on earth and treating people differently is all part of the playbook that is being run by Corey (I am using the one name just to make it easier.) There are some made up terms for things and not a great explanation of others, but it is science fiction.
Characters
Jim Holden was on a ship that went out to investigate a distress call. He took along and engineer, pilot, and soldier. While out in a shuttle, their original ship was blown up by mysterious forces. Holden, who will become known for his loud mouth, want nothing more than to find those people and bring them to justice. The story for explaining why those ships were destroyed are being built by Miller, a rent-a-cop on a station that gets caught in the middle of something way above his pay grade. The two find themselves working together with the OPA leader to find out where a truly oppressive biological weapon was stored and unleashed. This is where Leviathan Wakes comes into play.
Corey does a great job of filling in blanks and building the characters so that they are not only interesting, but does so in such a way that makes you know that there are more stories coming in this series. I have read some of the other books and found that even though the characters are being built up, this does not mean that he will not get rid of them just as quickly. You firmly believe in that character staying around and being important, but their death makes a huge mark on the story. Julie, dies very early on, but is a main character in the story throughout the entire book.
Finale
I really enjoyed where Corey took the book. It is 500 pages of fun where I laughed out loud a few times and also wanted to stop as it because intense as well. The characters oppose each other and work together well. The story is fully fleshed out and you feel like you got a complete story instead of knowing that there is more in other books to come. Take a look at this book and I think you will enjoy it.