Caliban's War (The Expanse, 2)

I liked Leviathan Wakes, but contrary to how most sequels play out, Caliban’s War really takes things up a level in terms of quality and story. The stakes are higher, the writing feels more focused, and the new characters are all strong additions. Avasarala in particular might be one of the best characters I’ve read in a long time. She could have been done in a really cringe inducing way, but I feel the authors nailed it. I found myself wanting her chapters more than Holden's. Bobbie’s also a standout. Everyone feels more fleshed out this time around. There are still a few corny bits (the crew always needing to get sappy with each other and tear up), and some of the science gets a little hand-wavey (did they just slingshot around a moon like a car drifting around a small house?) but overall it sticks to hard scifi and great paced thrills. As for the physical book from this listing: it came as expected, ISBN matches, and the cover is that newer flexible matte material that I think holds up really well over time. Solid purchase overall. Cant wait to read the rest of the series.

*** This is the SECOND book in this series *** As was the case with "Leviathan Wakes" (the first book in this series), the author manages to weave a narrative that is captivating for its mystery, frankness, and interesting characters, but also suffers some signficant, though not fatal, shortcomings in the actual writing of that story. PROS: The author's narrative style, as before, evokes a sort of dirty, well-lived-in, working-man's space drama not unlike "Firefly" or "Star Wars"; there's no window-dressing, no near-magic technologies, no shiny glass-and-polished-metal architecture. In that sense, it's a nice spin on the "new frontier" genre. Things are relatively simple, straightforward, and easy to understand and grasp. Everything feels realistic. The story continues with the same characters as before, only now their social group has been solidified far more; now it's less "people thrown together through circumstance" and more "people pursuing a common goal out of common friendship". To this end, things seem a little clearer and more jovial between the crew members of the Rocinante. And now it's less about a "borrowed without permission" Marian ship, and more about how the Rocinante IS their ship, no question. Again, think of "Firefly" here. And as before with "Leviathan Wakes", the author creates a thoroughly mysterious string of events that are not completely resolved until almost the very end. This keeps the reader wanting to read, even when some scenes slow down or get a bit bogged down with too many details or such. CONS: Some of the same narrative problems from the first book are present here. As before, the author repeatedly offers too little description of certain things, events, or environments. For example, later in the book the characters arrive at a secret base for a final showdown, so you'd expect some scene setting ... instead, it's mostly portrayed as: "Characters exit ship, characters run across landscape, characters go into airlock." We're not given a description of whether this secret base is above or below ground, what it looks like, how big it is, number of people, etc. And this kind of thing is not a one off; this happens on a fairly regular basis throughout the novel. And it's not that the author doesn't know how to be descriptive; there are many scenes where there are no questions as to what's happening, and others where the author actually breaks down the tech or physics involved to make it easier to imagine things. This doesn't happen often enough to break the narrative as a whole, but it does happen often enough to be frustrating. Also as before, the author does a great job of mystery and story building, but when it comes down to the final moments, things just kind of ... end. Not in a "Sopranos", ends in the middle of a scene thing, but "just ends" in the sense that there's no dramatic standoffs or large-scale final shootouts. All the threads are tied-up, and final questions are answered (and a new threat emerges right at the end), but things just happen too fast. The author could do a better job of building situational drama. All in all, this is a good book. Despite various shortcomings and mild frustrations, the author has a captivating narrative style that just kind of pulls you in. The characters are unique and interesting, there are various truly comedic moments to lighten the oppressive atmosphere, and things just feel relatable.

While I very much enjoyed the first book in this series, I think this, the second one, is even better! The plot is very tight and interesting, and the various POV threads come together elegantly. I admire the subtleties here; too often in space opera there's the Good Guys and the Bad'uns, and while that is true here to an extent, the Good Guys also have factions, some of which head into Bad'uns territory, and many of which are at odds with each other more for political than moral reasons. The characters are also very well-drawn, better than they were in #1 in my opinion. We get to know Holden's crew more than we had, and their characters developed even more than they had in #1. The new additions are also compelling. Bobbie is a Martian Marine forced by circumstance to broaden her worldview. Prax also has to grow past what he thought he was capable of, and he does, though not necessarily happily. And- there is Avasarala, who I completely adore. She is unique in my reading as being: a devoted grandma; a loving wife to a poetry professor; and an Indian woman who insists on wearing saris even to business meetings... and also one of the top powerful politicians for Earth, and ruthless in that job- plus she swears like a sailor. After encountering each other, she and the other Good Guys do bat heads about priorities and values- but they are also capable to listening and working out functional compromises. I had not realized when I started this series that it's 6 books- I'd thought a trilogy! But I am eager to read #3. Very recommended for fans of space opera who appreciate some thinkiness therein! I think you could start here, but reading #1 will give you more background.

James S.A. Corey’s Caliban’s War (The Expanse, 2) follows shortly on the heels of Leviathan Wakes. When we last left off, the mysterious alien mass on Eros had been diverted to Venus by appealing to the remaining bits of humanity in the woman whose infection started the whole chain reaction. Now, on Ganymede, a Doctor Strickland abducts four-year-old Mei as well as other children who all have major immune system problems–and he does it several hours before everything goes to hell. Gunnery Sergeant Roberta (Bobbie) Draper, a Martian Marine, is the only person to survive the attack on Ganymede’s surface by a vicious, deadly monster that can’t be stopped–and that seems to have something to do with the “protomolecule” that caused the alien infection that’s on Venus now. Somehow, at the same time a shooting war has started between Earth and Mars in Ganymede’s orbit–it’s the major source of agriculture in the solar system and no one’s willing to give it up even as it’s being evacuated. As the situation deteriorates, Captain Jim Holden, who’s been working for the OPA with his crew, is sent to check out what’s going on. When he meets scientist Prax Meng, Mei’s father, he and his crew decide to rescue the girl. Meanwhile, UN politician Chrisjen Avasarala is doing her damndest to tamp down on hostilities between Earth and Mars–but the further things go, the more she realizes that some of her own people are trying to out-maneuver her and trigger outright war. We get plenty more on Holden and his crew. They’ve been working for the OPA by rounding up pirates, and Naomi is not so happy about how this is changing them. Holden seems to be taking after Detective Miller these days by being quick to shoot rather than talking things out as he used to. When they inevitably come into conflict with Fred–as usual, Holden jumps to conclusions with no real proof of anything–they get fired, and they’re going to need to come up with a means to pay their way. I have to say, having a sci-fi book that includes the futuristic equivalent of a GoFundMe to help find Mei is just delightfully hysterical! Avasarala makes me so happy. She’s a little ol’ grandma with a foul mouth who enjoys playing political “games” while still trying to do good. She has so much depth to her–a husband she adores, grandkids she spoils, and a tendency not to realize when maybe the politics has progressed beyond games. She ends up hiring Bobbie after Bobbie is brought to Earth to testify about the monster she saw, and the two of them, although there’s some friction at first, become a fascinating team. She also has access to much surveillance information on Venus, so she discovers that at the exact same time that the monster on Mars attacked, the alien mass on Venus responded in some way. The politicking is intriguing and definitely not boring! We finally meet Julie’s father, and he’s even more of a terrible human than we gathered from her actions. In fact, there are a number of terrible people involved in the goings-on. We already know that one company had deliberately altered its scientists to be sociopathic so they could be convinced to engage in horrific experiments. Now we find out how much further they’ve progressed in their work. I’m totally enjoying this series and am absolutely going to read the next installment! Content note: child death and bloody monster attacks.

This is definitely another very good book in the Expanse series. Most people will probably consider it as good as the first one. I think it was almost as good as the first one but I will get back to that. Holden and his friends are back. Unfortunately all the dirtbags that wanted to turn the alien protomolecule into a weapon without much thought about the potential consequences were not cleaned out after the events in the first book. So, it is up to the good guys to save the day…again. As with the first book in the series this is a quite well written book. The story is good and each of the characters are very well done. So much that you really enjoy reading and following them even though you might not really like the characters themselves. Although having said that, most of the characters that you follow any closer you probably will like most of the time. Again this book is more of a futuristic thriller than a space opera where we get to follow the various players while they slowly discover and foil the latest devious plot by the bad guys. That is not to say that the book is missing action. It has that as well, both in space and on the ground. After the events in the last book Miller is gone but two other players are introduced and although they, well at least one of them, are rather different from Holden and his team the author(s) manage to make reading about them as enjoyable as the other ones. Also, as with the first book this one arrive at a decent enough conclusion without ending in a real cliff-hanger but at the same time it opens a huge door into the next book at the end which makes you look forward to the next one. So why did I write that it was almost as good as the first book? Well as you know if you have read any of my reviews I just hate politics. While the first book managed to keep the politics present but at the same time in the back it is much more in the foreground in this one. It is especially brought to the front by the fact that one of the persons we are following is smack in the middle of the despicable political and treacherous game. Having said that, she was one of the persons that I liked the most. She is a real bitch but a very likable one, and she is on the side of the good guys. While I am at it I also have to say that I miss Miller as a counterpart to Holden which, when standing on his high moral horses and whining, can be rather tiresome. Actually I think holden is the character, among the good guys, that I like the least. Bottom line is that this is a very good book though. Now I have to make up my mind if I am going to read something else in between or just dive straight into the next one.

Caliban's War is the second novel in the huge "The Expanse" series, and it continues the ever larger story of humanity's first real contact with the larger universe. NOTE: I WILL AVOID SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW. IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK YET, REST ASSURED THAT THIS REVIEW IS SAFE! To anybody who liked the first book, you will find much to like in the second book as well. It has the same frantic pace (and doesn't even take the first 20% of the book to slowly set things up - the action starts right away and never quite slows down), edgy sense of humor and the gritty feel of the solar system as a frontier. As far as story goes, though, a good pace is the best thing I can say about it in this book. Without giving away anything from the plot, I can say that it brings nothing new, and that by the end of the day, if one were to skip this entire book and continue reading from the 3rd book, they wouldn't have missed much (I state this as a fact - a friend of mine did that by mistake and understood perfectly well everything that was going on in the 3rd book). Despite the size of the events taking place - whole armies are involved, like in the first book - the meta-plot of the protomolecule is barely important in this book. On that front the book fails, and this is the reason I dropped a star. Now, usually a lackluster story would be enough to drag a book down much more than a single star in my rating, but this book has an excellent saving grace - the 3 new point of view characters. The new people are so fun and interesting (one of them in particular reaches Tyrion levels of fun and could have been dropped right in King's Landing and do well there), that I'd read a 900 pages long epic about them sitting around a table sipping tea. Luckily that's not the case in this book, and each of them gets to really shine in their respective fields - soldering, science and politics. The new characters are great and fun, and they quickly steal the spotlight away from those characters who made it through the last book. Overall, I'd highly recommend reading "Caliban's War", (I tore through it in half a week, which is very fast for me), and of course it does enrich the setting further. So far though, it is the weakest of the three books to be published in the series, and I hope it will remain the weakest in the series as a whole.

The Expanse series continues with Caliban's War, the sequel to Leviathan Wakes. Familiar characters are back and we're also introduced to some new points of view as James S. A. Corey continues to weave the tale of humanity, the protomolecule and the solar system. As a fan of the first book a lot of the same qualities carry over to the sequel including a overall dark, gritty, realistic feel to the galaxy, political intrigue, and good old science fiction. At a high level for this basic review the book picks up right where Leviathan Wakes leaves off. The protomolecule survives on Venus and life continues in the solar system. That is until strange events occur on Ganymede leading Earth and Mars back into battle against each other. James Holden and company return and get right into the middle of things after visiting Ganymede to investigate on the behest of the Outer Planets Alliance. I've said it to many people, one of my favorite aspects of The Expanse series is the sense that it is not that farfetched. Corey makes a concerted effort to tie this science fiction universe back to real world physics and technology. From the aspects of travel time, the problems with executing high G accelerations and maneuvers, and the physics of space combat to name a few. This sense of almost realism really connects the reader to the story in a different way from when reading or watching a Star Wars or Star Trek type of sci-fi. The story continues to be told in point of view chapters simply titled with the character's name. While in Leviathan Wakes we were treated to only 2 dueling points of view Corey takes things up to four characters in this installment including James Holden, Praxidike Meng, Chrisjen Avasarala, and Bobbie Draper. While the simplicity of the original books two view points (and their contrasting ideals and personalities) was nice the system continues to work when adding in additional characters. You have a general understanding of what to expect when reading from each point of view which helps frame the events that occur. With the addition of the new characters this installment in the series adds in a much more expanded view of the political intrigue and battles going on via Avasrala and Bobbie's chapters. While Leviathan Wakes certainly highlighted the political tensions occurring within the solar system having this deeper insight is much appreciated and helps the reader get a better sense of the forces at work beyond just the battles. Gaining the understanding of just how torn and divided humanity is underscores the true peril caused by the protomolecule. While the initial portion of the book felt almost a bit predictable and cliche it really evolves into an intriguing story as you get further along in the story. The characters develop along the way and the story takes a few unexpected twists and turns to keep things interesting. I will say one of my biggest knocks on the book is it almost felt like there was too much emphasis on the early events in the book and a rushed feel to the ending. Not to say the ending was bad, it was just condensed into fewer chapters than I would have liked and I feel it could have been fleshed out a bit more. All in all I was pleased with this installment in the series and I feel that I enjoyed it even more than Leviathan Wakes. The addition of new point of view characters provided good context around all the events occurring and allowed me to feel even more involved in the universe rather than just riding on the shoulders of Holden and Miller. The story develops into something truly exciting and the universe of the Expanse continues to enthrall me with it's more gritty and realistic approach to science fiction; I can't wait to read more.

Since Amazon is inexplicably tethering Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate together where reviews are concerned as if they are different formats of the same book, I am just going to post the two of them together here. Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey (really Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) picks up not altogether too long after the final, captivating events of Leviathan Wakes and it smoothly carries on with the story of the relatively near-future narrative that is The Expanse. The absence of Miller from the story is made up for in large part by a Holden who has become more like the detective than he would have thought possible judging by how harshly he had criticised Miller's methodology and personality during the first novel. This internally conflicted characteristic makes Holden a more interesting and substantial protagonist than he was in the first book though it does produce some difficulties on board the Rocinante. Fans of the television show would be gratified to see Chrisjen Avasarala finally making her appearance in the literary version of The Expanse. Though she is more vulgar in the book than in SyFy's adaptation, the core of the character is there...a ruthless and often cold political force to be reckoned with who manages to compartmentalize her personal and professional lives with impressive skill. The new characters added into the narrative are well-developed and easily as interesting as those from the first novel, which is something I hope they can keep up through the additional books in this series (including the ones as yet unwritten). It says something about the intense and dangerous nature of the events unfolding in this book that an alien biological machine terraforming Venus according to entirely unknown programming takes a backseat in the minds of the characters and that same dismissal carries over to the reader...at least until the end, when it can no longer be ignored. I am very much looking forward to reading the next installment after the way this one ends and I am even more so looking forward to seeing how the television adaptation will tackle things as the events of this book make it onto the screen during either the latter portion of season two or the beginning of season three depending on how they put everything together. Abaddon's Gate takes The Expanse series through the first tentative steps toward becoming a full-fledged, interstellar space opera. From this point on in the series, humanity will no longer be confined to the solar system we're all too familiar with and the surrounding void between our local system and other stars. This is, surprisingly, the first time religion really gets brought into the books...and there is quite a bit of it, as well there should be. This is a series of novels that is largely predicated on first contact, and that would damn well shake up religious thought all over the world. Not only are we dealing with first contact, but first contact with an unknown species that was around billions of years before we came down from the trees and who have the ability to manipulate matter and energy in ways we have only ever imagined possible. We stumbled upon something truly alien to us, waiting out at the edges of our solar system and disastrously attempted to weaponize it because, of course we would...we're notoriously short-sighted and impulsive when it comes to thinking up ways to kill one another in real life and the odds of that changing over the hundreds of years separating us from the fictional future of The Expanse are pretty slim...and if none of this had an impact on us as far as theology is concerned, these books would require far too much suspension of disbelief. By the time Abaddon's Gate starts off, there is a giant ring structure (assembled on Venus by an alien intelligence before lifting from that planet's surface) between the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, looming there and just waiting for us to cross the threshold...and it stands to reason that Holden would be one of the first to cross over into somewhere truly awe inspiring in what it represents. Along with the novelty of having a religious perspective tossed into the mix we get a whole new cast of characters to populate the narrative since Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are the only major ones carried over from the previous novels into this one...and none of them feel like throwaway bit parts, which is something the authors have excelled at so far through the series. This third volume of the series answers a number of questions that have been collecting since the first novel, but it certainly adds just as many new ones that will hopefully be just as exciting to answer in reading what follows.