My thoughts on the first book of the Expanse series, a space opera that hooked me faster than the speed of light. Seriously though.
After a friend mentioned he was liking The Expanse—in reference to the TV Show—I mentioned there was a series of books of the same name, and we pretty much decided to start reading it together. Some other friends joined us too, and I inadvertedly started a book club, using a Signal group to stay in touch.
This was a series I frequently saw compared with some of the all time classics of Science Fiction, such as Asimov’s Foundation or Herbert’s Dune. So I really wanted to give them a go for a while.
I have to admit the book was completely different to my expectations, but not in a bad way.
When I think of grandiose space opera classics, I kind of imagine humans expanding throughout the universe, faster than light travel and cosmical events we can’t comprehend, and technology advancements beyond compare. Of course these concepts are used in widely different ways in the genre.
In a lot of classic and modern works of science fiction, the style is usually filled with minimalist architecture, brand new tech, shiny spaceships and sterile, practical interiors.
In The Expanse’s Leviathan Wakes features Humanity expanding just in the Solar System, with more grimy and lived-in ships and stations, decades old future technology and patched up space stations overpopulated with humans, trying to survive another day. Of course, I think it’s pretty similar to the style of the Rebel Alliance from the Star Wars universe, during the original movies, and the Nostromo of the original Alien. There are some more technologically advanced structures and ships in the book but the overall look of the world is that of “a future with a past,” as George Lucas would say.1
Humans are split into three main factions, Earth, Mars and the Belt, the latter refers to people living beyond the Asteroid belt in space stations and moons, and there’s a certain tension and dynamic between them. Earth is the OG, overpopulated and with older military technology, used to gravity and such. Mars has more technological advancements, since they are still making the planet habitable and need to be on the vanguard, but they are less numbers too. The Belt is conformed by a bunch of stations and satellites, some more fancy than others, constantly farming resources both space, asteroids and such. There are pirates, there are workers, people are taller, adapted to lower gravity, and there are lots of other details and nuances, and of course, space racism.
The story follows two characters and two different plotlines, interchanging every chapter. One of them is detective Joe Miller, living in a station in the Belt, the other is James Holden, the second in command of a spaceship. As the story progresses the protagonists end up involved in lots of events unfolding one after the other, eventually crossing paths, uncovering a huge conspiracy with implications that will completely revolutionize how humans see the Universe, and pretty much have to save Human civilization by the end.
Honestly, I don’t even want to say much more than that, maybe it sounds kind of standard sci-fi fanfare, but really, the story is just too good, there is are detective noir style investigations, there are space battles, there are cosmic horror elements and of some other classic science fiction tropes. There is not as much hard sci-fi explanations as I thought there would be, it is a pretty digestable adventure that borrows from a lot of genres, and sci-fi just happens to be there.
This is an absolute page turner, chapters are short and end at the perfect spot that would made me go “I can read another one” again and again. It was a pretty fast paced book that still handled multiple plotlines with grace, and the characters had lots of great moments and developments. The last 12 or so chapters were impossible to put down for me and many in the book club.
Even if this book is the start of a series, the finale ends really well, you can leave it alone and while not every question will be answered for obvious reasons, there’s definitely a lot to enjoy if you only want to read this one. But I plan to keep going.
I’ll start second one very soon, probably finish the whole thing, as I’ve heard it maintains its quality in every entry. The only reason I have not started already is that there’s a book I’m already reading, and I have to get it out of the way first—it’s a great book too, I’ll review it soon enough. 😉
I honestly didn’t know how to refer to this style, all I knew was Alien and Star Wars, anyway this quote is from a great article written by Mark West. ↩
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