Leviathan Wakes

Maybe kinda nearer to 4.5 stars? Honestly this book was just such a fun time from start to end. One of the quotes on the cover of my ebook copy compares it to a “Hollywood blockbuster” and frankly I can see it. It's just got the right amount of action, humour, personality, plot, and everything in between.

While the book does have its serious moments and has a few amazing quotes, the plot flirted with being formulaic - but just enough so that you have a frame of reference to know where you're probably going before the rug is pulled under your figurative feet as Corey brings the story in a direction wilder than anything you expected.

Holden and Miller make such a great duo, each complementing the other's flaws and crabbiness. Holden is almost your stereotypical white knight, believing wholeheartedly in his ideals with an almost annoying naivete even when it leads him to make decisions that screw people over. Miller is your jaded detective straight out of film noir, coming to terms with the fact that people now see him as a has-been and that he's not as ahead of the game as he thinks himself to be. When they do eventually meet, they both dislike each other for obvious reasons but do come to form a partnership that is convincing and, dare I say it, even heartwarming.

Naomi is also one of the stand-out characters that I've become fond of, much more so than either Holden or Miller. She's just the right amount of spunky but without trying to behave like she's a #girlboss or that she's independent and doesn't need companionship. She's not even above admitting that she has a crush. She's literally the voice of reason in the whole book - we might as well have Holden and Miller wearing “What Would Naomi Do?” bracelets.

I also loved the Solar System politics in this one. It's a little confusing at first but quickly becomes legible. Although human beings have colonized Mars and the Kuiper Belt for so long that the descendants and now-natives of these planets/asteroids have become their own faction with their own cultures and even physical builds, there's something still innately human about all of them and Corey utilises this humanness to build up some very realistic politics between the 3 major forces of the Solar System.

I'm a pretty new reader in science fiction but I've come to enjoy it because I liked how philosophical and abstract a lot of it can get. Leviathan Wakes is nowhere near as philosophical as other sci-fi books and series, but it's taught me how a damn good space opera can read on the page too. Absolutely will check out the rest of the series.