Leviathan Wakes
(Expanse #1)
by James S.A.Corey (aka Daniel Abraham)
Space opera
copyright 2011
read in June 2021
rated 6/10: read to pass the time
5/10: readable but only if there's nothing else
10jan24: I'm re-reading. And I've re-rated. Here are some key points:
... There is a clear feeling that the author thinks, I am so much more clever than the reader. Things such as the I'm-so-modern slang which he then has to explain. The incomplete conversations which the author then has to explain. The background of science which says, I have read a lot more Wikipedia than you have. Really, it's just an overall, vague but definite impression of author ego.
And the plot -- is clearly never going to reach a conclusion. A lot of wham-bam action with no clear purpose... except to provide a long-term flow of income for the author.
Oh, it's exciting but who cares. A small group of main characters, some of whom are quite likeable ... but not likeable enough to care whether they live or die. Anyway, the magic medi-tech will fix all injuries.Then there's the "love interest". Not the man who is in love with his imaginary long-dead stranger, that makes some sense. But the human man and woman, good grief, are they really human?
From my first review and vague memories I know that something odd will happen. I'm two-thirds of the way through this nonsense of a book. I may not last much further.
It's a made-for-TV-syndication potboiler.
===
Here's the plot for the first half of the book:
Nice people are chased by people who want to kill them. Nice people are injured, escape, get mostly healed, gain armour or other protection which will make their lives a bit safer. And then...
Nice people are chased by a new lot of people who want to kill them. The new lot are slightly nastier, the new protection barely works. By luck and skill etc the nice people are injured, escape, get mostly healed, gain armour or other protection which will make their lives a bit safer. And then...
Repeat. Over and over.
On the third or fourth repetition I almost gave up.
Half way through the book it seems that there is, in fact, a slow build-up to a complete plot. Thank goodness. The repetitive nature of the action scenes becomes tedious.
Finally... there is a scene where I'm muttering desperately, Kill him! Kill him! It seems obvious... Then the characters spend many pages on guilt or justification. There's a lot of that: how much violence is justified in order to reach a possibly-worthwhile end?
Nice try but, well, I would have been happy with the space opera violence... without the angst.
And then the science fiction becomes magic. It does not help that one character keeps telling us, This is not magic. With no explanation, no forewarning, no logic except, The alien is a very superior being... it may as well be magic. Just call it magic.
Now that the alien can use magic... every human being is doomed. Of course. Talk to the flaming alien, I mutter. That works in nine out of ten humans-are-doomed stories. Just... talk.
Sorry if this is a spoiler, but... it works. Of course it does -- because nothing else would work.
Good news: There is a twist. A good twist. It makes some sense of a lot of the prior confusion. Well done :-)
And then the magic returns. With no logic. No explanation. No clear reason. But a lot of colourful special effects. (There must already be a signed movie deal.) The magic is a lead-in, I guess, to book two.
I'm reading this book from my public library. I have the next two books lined up, ready to read.
If I were paying -- buying -- these next two books... I would not bother.
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
... Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
===Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere ... Chinese proverb
Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com/ :-)
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