Calibans Krieg

Continuing my reread of the series (or half series, as I just have the first three e-books that were on sale for a couple dollars each on bn.com), the best thing about this book is the introduction of new characters. I enjoyed the first book immensely, but I did feel on the second (or maybe this is the third) reading that the female characters were not that well developed, which wouldn't be a surprise from a book written by two men. Although you could say that about all the characters except Miller. In any case, this book introduces two women who could be the best two characters of the series, plus a nerdy Asian scientist, which actually has been underrepresented so far, and he is funnier than I remembered (I did read the book before watching the series but still I think seeing the actors has plastered their faces into my reading visualization). In fact, overall this book has more humor than the first, so it feels like both the characters, in all their scoobygangedness, and the authors are hitting their stride.

I don’t really think this will be a long review, this book is part of The Expanse series and by itself, it’s probably not as thought provoking or insightful as some of the other books I’ve read.

This is straight up awesome world building, characters, great action and cool science fiction, further developing the universe that I got introduced to since the first book Leviathan Wakes.

In this book we get introduced to three new characters that get involved in a plot where the events of the previous book have basically turned reality on its head, and Humanity is trying to make sense of things it still can’t comprehend.

We have Bobbie, essentially a Spartan from the Halo universe who goes through some rough stuff, Prax, a botanist whose daughter gets kidnapped for mysterious reasons, and Avasarala, a politician who is trying to keep the delicate balance of relative peace between the different factions of Humanity. And of course, the original cast, which remains as awesome as ever.

I won’t say much more of the plot, which is great, develops characters and relationships further and kept me and my book club turning pages for a while.

Each character gets a moment to shine, in fact, like the first book where we have two concurrent plots from the point of view of two characters, here we do the same, but with four! And despite how confusing that may seem, it just works, and keeping the thread of the general plot is not difficult, at least not for me.

Basically, if you liked the first book, the second one is just as good.

I don’t think of this as ground-breaking, philosophical, thought-provoking stuff, even though as a whole it kind of is. What I mean to say is that this is much more action heavy, with cool moments, great sciencey stuff, tremendous world building, and fun characters, it is a journey I want to follow for as long as it keeps my interest, and so far it has managed to achieve with absolute success. It really is like watching the best action blockbuster ever in book form, and I am loving it.

This continuation of the story of The Expanse universe maintains the pace set in the first volume, Leviathan Wakes. It also continues the writing technique of switching the viewpoint character with every chapter. This might sound confusing, but it works because the plot involves the interaction of different characters in different places on this wide canvas. Returning characters include Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante. And a wonderful new character, Chrisjen Avasarala, makes an appearance here. She is a very smart politician in the U.N. and she manages to play a crucial role in preventing an interplanetary war. Then there is the alien presence represented by the proto-molecule that was the focus of the first book. It is up to something, but just what? A little bit of that mystery is hinted at, but there is much more to come. Now at this point I should admit I have not yet watched the TV series made from this. I prefer to read the source material first. But I have all of the DVDs ready for when I make it to the end of the books. This is a series of novels worth your time. There is not a lot of good SF these days that is set in the solar system, but this has the feeling of reality that makes you think it could actually work out like this.