Review: Leviathan Wakes

 Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Blurb from Goodreads: 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. 

This book took me longer than it normally would to finish because I have been really busy finishing up summer semester. But every time I picked it up, I went "Oh yeah! Why haven't I been reading more of this? It's awesome!" It had a whole Firefly vibe going on, which I really loved.

The book was narrated by two different characters, which I think was the most interesting aspect to me, mostly because their viewpoints were SO opposite. One is described as "righteous," but interestingly enough, his actions are ultimately responsible for a lot of the war. The other is a world-weary cop whose mission and experiences drive him to do, well... less than "righteous" things.

Also, it did not end the way I expected it to at ALL. Woooo for plot twists! The ending left me wanting to know more about what happened, which is convenient because the next book in the series, Caliban's War, just came out. Overall, I thought this was an exciting, fast-paced read.

I read this book along with The Sword and Laser (which you should definitely check out if you like sci-fi/fantasy!)