DNF Review – Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, Book 1) by James A. Carey (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 571 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: June 15, 2011
ASIN: B0047Y171G
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in The Expanse series
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Humanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in The Expanse series. I got borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: I read the first 40% of this book and just wasn’t enjoying it so I decided to set it aside. I have had this book on my TBR list since it released and kept putting it off because I thought it might be too hard sci-fi for me. I finally put it on my list of “10 books to read this year that I’ve had on my TBR list for ever but haven’t gotten to”. It wasn’t really too hard sci-fi, but it still wasn’t for me.

The first part is a bit confusing. The story starts with prologue from one POV, which I found interesting. However, after that you jump between two different POVs; that of Jim Holden and Detective Miller. I didn’t really like either of these characters. Holden didn’t have much personality and Miller was depressing. I found the members of Holden’s crew to be relatively interchangeable as well.

The pacing was incredibly inconsistent; things are slow, then super fast paced, then slow again. As soon as the story gains momentum, you are left on a cliffhanger and switch POV. By the time you get back to the “cliffhanger” POV, the story has lost its momentum. I never appreciate when an author uses the “cliffhanger” device as a way to keep the reader reading (either at the end of the book or at the end of a chapter). I always feel like the story should be interesting enough on its own that you want to read it, not that the author should force you into reading it.

I am not a huge fan of hard sci-fi, and to be honest, this has enough other things going on that it isn’t solely hard sci-fi. There are a lot of politics, imminent war, and a missing person’s investigation. It was a lot going on, and jumping back and forth between the stories (while not that confusing) felt scattered. I am sure everything eventually comes together and starts to make a cohesive story, but it was a long and slow journey there.

I know people say later books in this series are much better. However, I didn’t really like anything about this story in the first 40% so I am going to say this world isn’t for me. Giving it a neutral 3 stars in case the second half is amazing.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this wasn’t for me. The pacing is all over the place, the characters weren’t engaging or interesting, and the story feels scattered, like it is trying to be too many things at once. I stopped reading at 40% in and am completely fine with not knowing how the story progresses, which tells you how much I just didn’t care for this. I don’t plan on reading any more books in The Expanse series.