Science Fiction
![James S. A. Corey - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B004AQ1W8Y.jpg)
Leviathan Wakes
From a New York Times bestselling and Hugo award-winning author comes a modern masterwork of science fiction, introducing a captain, his crew, and a detective as they unravel a horrifying solar system wide conspiracy that begins with a single missing girl. Now a Prime Original series.
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.
"Interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written." -George R. R. Martin
The Expanse
Leviathan Wakes
Caliban's War
Abaddon's Gate
Cibola Burn
Nemesis Games
Babylon's Ashes
Persepolis Rising
Tiamat's Wrath
Leviathan Falls
Memory's Legion
The Expanse Short Fiction
Drive
The Butcher of Anderson Station
Gods of Risk
The Churn
The Vital Abyss
Strange Dogs
Auberon
The Sins of Our Fathers
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.
"Interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written." -George R. R. Martin
The Expanse
Leviathan Wakes
Caliban's War
Abaddon's Gate
Cibola Burn
Nemesis Games
Babylon's Ashes
Persepolis Rising
Tiamat's Wrath
Leviathan Falls
Memory's Legion
The Expanse Short Fiction
Drive
The Butcher of Anderson Station
Gods of Risk
The Churn
The Vital Abyss
Strange Dogs
Auberon
The Sins of Our Fathers
Editorial Reviews
"It's been too long since we've had a really kickass space opera. LEVIATHAN WAKES is interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written." --- George R.R. Martin
"This is the future the way it was supposed to be." --- The Wall Street Journal
"As close as you'll get to a Hollywood blockbuster in book form." --- io9.com
"An excellent space operatic debut in the grand tradition of Peter F. Hamilton." --- Charlie Stross
"If you like science fiction with great characters and set in real space, you'll enjoy this one." --- Jo Walton, author of Farthing
"This is the future the way it was supposed to be." --- The Wall Street Journal
"As close as you'll get to a Hollywood blockbuster in book form." --- io9.com
"An excellent space operatic debut in the grand tradition of Peter F. Hamilton." --- Charlie Stross
"If you like science fiction with great characters and set in real space, you'll enjoy this one." --- Jo Walton, author of Farthing
Readers Top Reviews
ﾘﾄﾙ ｸﾚｯｸﾞMr. P
A solid story great by itself and as an intro to the larger universe of The Expanse. I was late the party having watched the series first, but the novel did not disappoint. Looking forward to reading the next in the series.
Don ﾘﾄﾙ ｸﾚｯｸﾞMr
I bought this book because I enjoyed the show. I was pleased with both. The show introduced a 3rd character that covered the future setting and political machinations. It was well adapted for the screen, but if your favorite character was the president of the UN, she is not in the book.
Troy WatsonDon
The most believable humans I have read about in ages. Excellent pace. Wild new universe within one we think we know. Space travel presented uniquely and in depth, but still digestIble.
Jason GalbraithTr
At the end of "Leviathan Wakes," it's up to a trigger happy, functionally alcoholic ex-cop to save humanity. He does so by telling the woman he loves, "You're smarter than it is." And it turns out that sure enough, she can control the forces beyond imagination that the bad guys have unleashed. You can debate whether he really knew her, but a chapter or two earlier he talks about how he was never able to have faith in a higher power. He puts the lie to that. Even though not (entirely) supernatural, she IS his higher power. And the water hauler XO-turned-corvette-captain Jim Holden is a pretty good character too. Five and a half stars.
KPJason Galbraith
Leviathan Wakes is the first book in an epic science fiction space opera series that takes place a few hundred years in the future when humanity has colonized the solar system including the Moon, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt. Jim Holden is the XO of a mining vessel which transports ice from the rings of Saturn to stations in the Belt. But, when they hear a distress call from a ship called the Scopuli, things go south - fast. Jim & his crew come into possession of a secret worth killing for that has the ability to launch the entire system into war. Detective Miller is assigned a case by his captain on Ceres Station - find a missing girl and ship her home. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) a group of rebel Belters fighting for independence from Mars, Miller discovers that the girl may be the key to a much larger mystery. The world of Leviathan Wakes is messy. There is a lot animosity between the inner planets and the outer planets. In the Belt, water and air are worth killing for. And, as Miller regularly reminds people, Ceres has cops - not laws. Belters resent Earthers for talking their resources and being able to breathe air freely. Earthers have a hard time thinking of Belters as humans. And, Mars wants to be the superpower, not Earth. One of the most interesting things about this story is that for the first half of the book, it's like a two-in-one deal: one half epic space opera and one half noir detective novel. The story jumps back and forth between perspectives - and I was always bummed to leave one story line, but so excited to get more information about the other. The characters are fantastic. They feel real. They are flawed and complicated and unbearably human. Holden and Miller provide such a great contrast to each other. Holden is idealistic - almost to the point of naivety. While Miller is cynical and prefers his morality with more gray. But, I find their world views work for their story lines. Holden's crew needs someone to look to, and Miller needs that gritty world view to help him navigate his case. Neither is right, but neither is wrong either. And, that makes for compelling storytelling. Three Thoughts: 1. I love the found family vibe of Holden, Naomi, Amos & Alex. And, I think the story needed that to keep it from being too emotionally draining. They provided a bit of counterweight to all the bad stuff that was happening. 2. Amos is a menace. And, I love him for it. 3. Despite the massive scope of this story, it never felt overwhelming. And, I think you can credit that to the characters. They grounded the story and kept me invested until the very last page. Overall, I think this is a fantastic start to a series, and I can't wait to pick up Caliban's War to see where the story goes next.
Short Excerpt Teaser
Leviathan WakesBy Corey, James S.A.OrbitCopyright © 2011 Corey, James S.A.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780316129084
Prologue: JulieThe Scopuli had been taken eight days ago, and Julie Mao was finally ready to be shot.
It had taken all eight days trapped in a storage locker for her to get to that point. For the first two she'd remained motionless, sure that the armored men who'd put her there had been serious. For the first hours, the ship she'd been taken aboard wasn't under thrust, so she floated in the locker, using gentle touches to keep herself from bumping into the walls or the atmosphere suit she shared the space with. When the ship began to move, thrust giving her weight, she'd stood silently until her legs cramped, then sat down slowly into a fetal position. She'd peed in her jumpsuit, not caring about the warm itchy wetness, or the smell, worrying only that she might slip and fall in the wet spot it left on the floor. She couldn't make noise. They'd shoot her.
On the third day, thirst had forced her into action. The noise of the ship was all around her. The faint subsonic rumble of the reactor and drive. The constant hiss and thud of hydraulics and steel bolts as the pressure doors between decks opened and closed. The clump of heavy boots walking on metal decking. She waited until all the noise she could hear sounded distant, then pulled the environment suit off its hooks and onto the locker floor. Listening for any approaching sound, she slowly disassembled the suit and took out the water supply. It was old and stale; the suit obviously hadn't been used or serviced in ages. But she hadn't had a sip in days, and the warm loamy water in the suit's reservoir bag was the best thing she had ever tasted. She had to work hard not to gulp it down and make herself vomit.
When the urge to urinate returned, she pulled the catheter bag out of the suit and relieved herself into it. She sat on the floor, now cushioned by the padded suit and almost comfortable, and wondered who her captors were-Coalition Navy, pirates, something worse. Sometimes she slept.
On day four, isolation, hunger, boredom, and the diminishing number of places to store her piss finally pushed her to make contact with them. She'd heard muffled cries of pain. Somewhere nearby, her shipmates were being beaten or tortured. If she got the attention of the kidnappers, maybe they would just take her to the others. That was okay. Beatings, she could handle. It seemed like a small price to pay if it meant seeing people again.
The locker sat beside the inner airlock door. During flight, that usually wasn't a high-traffic area, though she didn't know anything about the layout of this particular ship. She thought about what to say, how to present herself. When she finally heard someone moving toward her, she just tried to yell that she wanted out. The dry rasp that came out of her throat surprised her. She swallowed, working her tongue to try to create some saliva, and tried again. Another faint rattle in the throat.
The people were right outside her locker door. A voice was talking quietly. Julie had pulled back a fist to bang on the door when she heard what it was saying.
No. Please no. Please don't.
Dave. Her ship's mechanic. Dave, who collected clips from old cartoons and knew a million jokes, begging in a small broken voice.
No, please no, please don't, he said.
Hydraulics and locking bolts clicked as the inner airlock door opened. A meaty thud as something was thrown inside. Another click as the airlock closed. A hiss of evacuating air.
When the airlock cycle had finished, the people outside her door walked away. She didn't bang to get their attention.
They'd scrubbed the ship. Detainment by the inner planet navies was a bad scenario, but they'd all trained on how to deal with it. Sensitive OPA data was scrubbed and overwritten with innocuous-looking logs with false time stamps. Anything too sensitive to trust to a computer, the captain destroyed. When the attackers came aboard, they could play innocent.
It hadn't mattered.
There weren't the questions about cargo or permits. The invaders had come in like they owned the place, and Captain Darren had rolled over like a dog. Everyone else-Mike, Dave, Wan...
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780316129084
Prologue: JulieThe Scopuli had been taken eight days ago, and Julie Mao was finally ready to be shot.
It had taken all eight days trapped in a storage locker for her to get to that point. For the first two she'd remained motionless, sure that the armored men who'd put her there had been serious. For the first hours, the ship she'd been taken aboard wasn't under thrust, so she floated in the locker, using gentle touches to keep herself from bumping into the walls or the atmosphere suit she shared the space with. When the ship began to move, thrust giving her weight, she'd stood silently until her legs cramped, then sat down slowly into a fetal position. She'd peed in her jumpsuit, not caring about the warm itchy wetness, or the smell, worrying only that she might slip and fall in the wet spot it left on the floor. She couldn't make noise. They'd shoot her.
On the third day, thirst had forced her into action. The noise of the ship was all around her. The faint subsonic rumble of the reactor and drive. The constant hiss and thud of hydraulics and steel bolts as the pressure doors between decks opened and closed. The clump of heavy boots walking on metal decking. She waited until all the noise she could hear sounded distant, then pulled the environment suit off its hooks and onto the locker floor. Listening for any approaching sound, she slowly disassembled the suit and took out the water supply. It was old and stale; the suit obviously hadn't been used or serviced in ages. But she hadn't had a sip in days, and the warm loamy water in the suit's reservoir bag was the best thing she had ever tasted. She had to work hard not to gulp it down and make herself vomit.
When the urge to urinate returned, she pulled the catheter bag out of the suit and relieved herself into it. She sat on the floor, now cushioned by the padded suit and almost comfortable, and wondered who her captors were-Coalition Navy, pirates, something worse. Sometimes she slept.
On day four, isolation, hunger, boredom, and the diminishing number of places to store her piss finally pushed her to make contact with them. She'd heard muffled cries of pain. Somewhere nearby, her shipmates were being beaten or tortured. If she got the attention of the kidnappers, maybe they would just take her to the others. That was okay. Beatings, she could handle. It seemed like a small price to pay if it meant seeing people again.
The locker sat beside the inner airlock door. During flight, that usually wasn't a high-traffic area, though she didn't know anything about the layout of this particular ship. She thought about what to say, how to present herself. When she finally heard someone moving toward her, she just tried to yell that she wanted out. The dry rasp that came out of her throat surprised her. She swallowed, working her tongue to try to create some saliva, and tried again. Another faint rattle in the throat.
The people were right outside her locker door. A voice was talking quietly. Julie had pulled back a fist to bang on the door when she heard what it was saying.
No. Please no. Please don't.
Dave. Her ship's mechanic. Dave, who collected clips from old cartoons and knew a million jokes, begging in a small broken voice.
No, please no, please don't, he said.
Hydraulics and locking bolts clicked as the inner airlock door opened. A meaty thud as something was thrown inside. Another click as the airlock closed. A hiss of evacuating air.
When the airlock cycle had finished, the people outside her door walked away. She didn't bang to get their attention.
They'd scrubbed the ship. Detainment by the inner planet navies was a bad scenario, but they'd all trained on how to deal with it. Sensitive OPA data was scrubbed and overwritten with innocuous-looking logs with false time stamps. Anything too sensitive to trust to a computer, the captain destroyed. When the attackers came aboard, they could play innocent.
It hadn't mattered.
There weren't the questions about cargo or permits. The invaders had come in like they owned the place, and Captain Darren had rolled over like a dog. Everyone else-Mike, Dave, Wan...
