Leviathan Wakes (Corey)
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
I watched the first season of The Expanse when it first aired on Syfy. I have to admit, I was somewhat lost and couldn't follow a lot of lost was going on. I couldn't even understand some of what was being said. Had I thought about it, I might've deleted the timer I had set for the series. However, I forgot to, so it taped the second season, which I watched and enjoyed more. I think a third season aired on Syfy before it moved to Amazon.
I considered suggesting the first book recently for my book club. I rejected the idea for two reasons: first, since it's been around for a decade, anyone with an interest might've already read it. Second, the length of it -- if I didn't like it, I'd have to slog through 400+ pages before our next chat.
Still, I reserved it from the library. Even after all this time, there is a wait list for the book. Reading it on my own would allow me to bail if I didn't like it.
That was not a problen in the slightest. Yes, the length bothered me -- when is this going to end? But the book moved. It just didn't move by the time my loan was up, so I had to shut the wifi off on my ipad and finish half the book in about three days.
I didn't remember much about the first season of the show, other than the ship and some parts on Earth with Shohreh Aghdashloo. Yes, I just looked up her name, but I remembered her from 24 at the time the show first aired. Oddly, her role is NOT in the book. In fact, none of the book takes place on Earth at all. Earth is only referenced, and we hear reports from there.
In fact, the entire thing, after the prologue with Julie Mao, is told through the perspective of either Holden, the Rocinante captain, or Miller, the Belter cop. It even switches perspective when the two of them are together. Also in the book, Holden's crew, Naomi, Alex, Amos and Shed, don't have a problem with him. He was the XO of the Cant and now he's the captain and Naomi is the XO. Furthermore, he relies on Naomi for a lot. (TV Holden isn't trusted immediately despite having been on the ship for a long time. He's got nowhere else to go.)
Julie is a rich girl who defied her parents and joined the OPA (Outer Planets Alliance, i think). She's on the Scopuli when it's hijacked by terrorists. A fake distress call brings the Canterbury to the rescue. They send a shuttle and a crew of five to check it out. They realize it's a trap. A ship using Martian stealth tech ignores them and destroys the Canterbury. The shuttle is then rescued by the Martian ship Donnager, which is then attacked and destroyed. But not before Holden and his crew get off in a Martian attack shuttle.
Someone is trying to start a war to cover their own tracks, and Julie Mao is in the middle of it.
Miller was given the case to find Mao and drag her home. He discoveres that she isn't on Ceres. He's told to let it go but he can't. He falls in love with Mao from reading her files and her emails.
Space adventures, of the hard sci-fi variety, ensue. The entire story happens "out there" between the Belt and Saturn. It's discovered that the Earth should have been destroyed two billion years ago by a biological weapon that accidentally was caught up in Saturn's gravity well on its way to Earth. The race that created it were already gods then. Scientists here (the ones without morals) want to be able to duplicate the programming of the virus so that the human race could be on equal footing and make our way out into the galaxy.
Saner heads prevail. Mostly.
I enjoyed this and started rewatching the series on Amazon. I immediately noticed differences in the narrative, so which just moved the story along and some that didn't seem to have a point. I assume that the Earth sequences are to set up characters for later books in later seasons. I have the second book on reserve. Hell, at this rate, I should probably put the third book on reserve as well. Or maybe when I'm done with that, I can get the next Sue Grafton book. I think I'm up to T.
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