Our look at the best of 2011 continues with James S.A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes, the first novel in a science fiction series that is sure to be a classic among aficionados of space opera in the classic mode.
Corey (actually the pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) pens a tale of war and political intrigue set against the backdrop of our own solar system. Mars, the moon and beyond are hosts to successful colonies, but rivalry between the outer and inner planets constantly teeter on the edge of all-out war. When a long-haul ice freighter is destroyed by what may be a Martian warship, an interplanetary crisis is set into motion that may result in the deaths of millions. A routine missing persons case brings a burned out police detective into the middle of the conflict, and what he and a group of desperate spacers discover could change the universe forever.
Leviathan Wakes is just the right mix of action and closed-door politics. Both inform the other in a plausible future where laser guns, robots and faster than light travel are the stuff of movies, and a failure in diplomatic relations is a bigger threat to human life than aliens or mystical super powers.
George R.R. Martin blurbed Leviathan wakes as a “kick-ass space opera”. Who am I to argue?
[...] Expanse series is already off to a good start with Leviathan Wakes (it was one of my choices for the best books of 2011), a book that none other than George R.R. Martin praised as a “kick-ass space opera”. [...]