Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
A captain, his crew, and a detective are introduced as they piece together a terrifying solar system-wide plot that starts with a single lost girl in this contemporary science fiction masterpiece. The solar system, including Mars, the Moon, the asteroid belt, and beyond, has been colonized by humans, yet the stars remain out of our reach.
James Holden is the XO of an ice miner that travels between the Saturnian rings and the Belt mining sites. He discovers a mystery they never intended to have when he and his crew discover the Scopuli, an abandoned ship. A secret that someone is prepared to kill for—and kill on a scale Jim and his crew can’t conceive.
Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
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Until he discovers who fled the ship and why war is about to break out in the system. The girl that Detective Miller is hunting for. One girl among billions, yet her parents are wealthy, and wealth talks. He knows that this girl might hold the answer to everything as the trail takes him to the Scopuli and rebel supporter Holden.
The odds are against Holden and Miller as they attempt to negotiate with the Earth government, Outer Planet revolutionaries, and covert businesses. But in the Belt, the laws are different, and one tiny ship has the power to alter the course of the cosmos.
A few hundred years in the future, after humanity has colonized the solar system, including the Moon, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt, Leviathan Wakes is the first book in an epic science fiction space opera trilogy.
Jim Holden serves as the XO of a mining ship that ferries ice from Saturn’s rings to outposts in the Kuiper Belt. But, things quickly turn sour when they receive a distress signal from a ship going by the name of the Scopuli. Jim and his team discover a secret that is worth dying for since it has the power to incite war throughout the entire system.
At Ceres Station, Detective Miller’s captain gives him a case to work on: discover a lost child and return her to her family. Miller learns that the girl might hold the answer to a much bigger mystery when the trail takes him to the Scopuli and the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA), a group of renegade Belters fighting for independence from Mars.
The setting of Leviathan Wakes is disorganized. The inner planets and the outer planets are quite hostile to one another. Water and air are worth dying for in the Belt. And Ceres has police, not laws, as Miller frequently points out. Belters dislike Earthers because they can freely breathe air and talk about their resources. Belters are difficult for Earthlings to relate to as people.
And Mars, not Earth, wants to be the superpower. One of the most intriguing aspects of this story is that, during the first half of the book, it functions as both a noir detective fiction and an epic space opera. The narrative switches between points of view, and I was never happy to leave one storyline but always eager to learn more about the other.
Fantastic characters are present. They seem genuine. They are painfully flawed, convoluted, and human. Miller and Holden offer such a wonderful contrast to one another. Holden has optimistic views that border on naivety. Miller, however, is cynical and favours morality that is more nuanced.
