Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate, Leviathan Wakes

I bought this box set because I liked the TV series so much. Little did I know what was in store for me... These books are brutal, funny, beautiful, and ugly - and I devoured them all very quickly. Abbadin's Gate, in particular, shook me to my core in so many ways.

I love this series so much. I cherish all of these novels.

Came in great condition, but to my surprise it wasn't the USA printed format of the series, but instead a UK version. To tip it off the books were not bound in the box that that box sets are normally are, but instead they were wrapped together. It is still a good price I hope, but then again, the material for the cover seems to be cheaply made unlike the US edition. This review is solely on the quality of the merchandise, not the written content. But I will say I have read a page or two so far, and the writing is heavenly. I haven't found a science fiction novel like this since Enders Game. This seems to be a fine story for any story collector.

I started reading this series because I enjoyed the first season of the show. Needless to say, I'm loving the books even more... don't have to wait for season two to be released!

The writing is so well done, you feel empathy and fear and excitement for the characters. Definitely a book you can dig into.

I missed science fiction. A lot of it is just explosions and flashy ships. The Expanse is thoughtful with very deep and complex, characters who drive the plot forward organically. The writing is fun, fast-paced, and really grabs you in. I'm a big Firefly fan and at some points it reminded me of the tone of that show. Really, really enjoy these books! I'm not quite done with them all but am still recommending them to everyone i know who likes to read!

This series is entertaining. Smart, intelligent writing and epic storytelling. Read all 3 books in less taffeta a month, then read the 4th. About to start the 5th, and can't wait for the release of the next one pare this year. I hope the adventures of the crew of the Rocenante go on for a very long time.

The picture makes it seem like there's a case for all 3 books, and I won't lie- it played a role in whether or not I bought it.
It doesn't have a case. That being said, for all 3 books you can't beat the price. The cover artwork is decent and the books are incredible.

I bought this series after reading about it on a non-related forum. It turns out to not be my kind of SciFi. Too many coincidences in the plot line and technology as magic, it just works with no explanation, Almost more of a monster story. It didn't really grab me like some books do. I'm 2/3 through the second book, and I'll read the third also. Perhaps after I've read all three, and give it some time, I'll have a better opinion of it.

WARNING! On the spine of the books the title and author are swapped when compared to books bought individually. If you plan to put them on display it's going to look awful because you will have Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War, Abbadon's Gate, followed by the books James S. A. Corey, James S. A. Corey, and James S. A. Corey! This is going to annoy me to no end, I'll probably space myself.

See photo (book three not pictured because I'm in the middle of reading it and couldn't be arsed to go get it).

This series will take you back to the Lucky Starr (Asimov) asteroid belt space pirate novels of the nineteen-fifties if you are of a certain age, as I am. TO be honest the strength of my review is somewhat biased based on the writers hitting that internal chord.

As the theme (The Expanse) of the series indicates this story is told on a grand scale that encompasses the frictions of the mother planet (Earth) who needs the resources that are found in the 'Belt', juxtaposed against the oppressed miners and denizens of the Belt, and those of Mars; who feel that they should have sway in the orbits beyond earth. In Leviathan Wakes we find the solar system on the brink of war, a plot is set in motion with a distress call received by an ice freighter from an apparently disabled ship. On investigation, the rescue party discovers a false beacon and that an attack is underway that destroys their mother ship. In a parallel storyline, a detective on Ceres is tasked to find a kidnapped heiress who has spurned her birthright for a commoners existence as a crewman on a mining vessel. The first book deals with the seemingly unconnected events that bring these two plotlines together at the end.

The second book, Caliban's War picks about a year after the end of the first book. THe lovable crew of the Rociante, Holden, Nagato, Amos, and Alex are back doing the bidding of the OPA's chief Fred Johnston. Aversarala the UN bigshot also has a meatier role in this book.The plot driver here is the persistence of the alien mutagenic virus/protomolecule that turns humans into monsters, and its apparent deployment by an unholy cabal formed by a business man, and a renegade UN admiral. A key new character- Bobbie, the Martian Marine who is seconded to the UN after her team is wiped out by the monsters, is also introduced and carries a lot of the action. Scenes in which she appears are the best in the book. We end on a cliff-hanger as a ship infected with the protomolecule that crashed into Venus midway thru the story launches a ring-shaped construct into the outer reaches of the solar system.

Abbadon's Gate, the third major book in the series, deals with the three major powers reacting to the events of the cliffhanger ending of Caliban's War, where the original threat of the protomolecule has evolved into something larger - the gate of the book's title. Nobody really know what it is but everyone knows they must control it. Space battles ensue!

THe good stuff-
The writing is solid, but not inspired.
The 'future' of the Expanse is a little worn out and grimy. I like that.
The tech stuff is well researched and plausible, and the writers don't bore us with trying to explain how it all works- thanks for that!
THe overarching storyline - a war between the planets and a possible conspiracy to deploy an alien virus, is very compelling and drives the action at a good pace. I stayed up late reading these books!

The not so great stuff-
In the first book, except for the lead characters- Detective Miller, and Captain Holden characterization is pretty weak. I would expect a little more from someone who has worked with George RR Martin- just sayin! The second one improves on this defect quite a bit. We find out a lot more about Holden, and a litte bit about Nagato. Bobbie is a great character that is well developed as the plot unfolds.
The first book teeters with throwing too many space battles and shootem-out scenes at you. There is a point about two thirds of the way through where the action scenes consume chapter after chapter. They started to lose me before this was done and the story moved on. The second book is also very action oriented, but it didn't seem to bug me as much as the first, as my attention never wandered while I was reading it.

Bottom-line. I think you will find this is some of the best scifi you have read in a while. THe writers manage to paint a realistic picture of what life in outer space might be like a few hundred years hence, and of the conflicts that will surely arise as Earth planted colonies mature and choose their own destinies. This series ranks as my favorite scifi of the last few decades. No higher praise can be given.

Highly recommended!

I’ve been reading SF for about 50 years, but lately reading is difficult because I can’t find enough authors who write like Gene Wolfe. So I chose some space opera, which is usually exciting. The Expanse series is definitely exciting, and although it bothers me a lot, I keep reading it. I’m less than halfway through it.
It’s stunningly old-fashioned. I don’t know if it was intended to be, but prefer to believe it was. It’s either a pulp update or a hard SF backdate.
The writer is James S.A. Corey, who is Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. I was already an admirer of Abraham’s work. Franck is unknown to me, but he’s worked as George R.R. Martin’s assistant, so he knows a thing or two about storytelling. I’ve been reading Martin since the 70s and I’m a huge fan of his recent work.
The story involves three uneasy human societies in their three locations in the solar system: Earth and Luna, a terraforming Mars, and the Outer Planet Alliance, the “Belters.” Murderous political intrigue enters, all centered around a mystery artifact that is Other. The story is fun, the horrors are indeed horrifying, the pace is fast, the writing is solid if unimaginative, and the characters are amusing if sometimes poorly drawn. The main protagonist, Chief Officer and now Captain Jim Holden, struggles with his transformation from honorable Nice Guy to self-appointed hanging judge, and in the second book must face the romantic consequences. Another protagonist from the first novel, Detective Miller, falls into hopeless love with one of Other’s first victims. So far in my reading, all of the other characters remain unchanged through ordeal after crisis after ordeal.
The characters are types, I’m afraid, and not subtle ones. The military types exude authority and threat, the diplomatic types know what each other will say before they say it, the girlfriend knows her boyfriend better than he does, and the big engineer, rough and gruff, has a heart of soft gold. A Samoan-sized (but beautiful, of course) female marine demonstrates some growth or complexity, while the military leader Fred Johnson most certainly does not, and is all cartoon. His jaw clenches when he’s angry. As for the Captain:
“James Holden, the man without secrets. The holy fool who’d dragged the solar system into war and seemed utterly blind to the damage he caused. An idealist. The most dangerous kind of man there was. And a good man too.”
Who else do we know who is a great dad and husband and got maybe two hundred thousand people killed … no, the authors wouldn’t have; Holden is described as “pretty.”
Besides a few distinguishing traits such as a drawl here or a potty mouth there, all the characters speak with the same vocabulary, which is probably the daily one used by the authors themselves, those two guys who gave us a well thought out story inhabited by people who weren’t given the same benefit.
Another thing I found most peculiar – but finally charming – is the low tech that is everywhere in this spacefaring civilization, what a Wikipedia author called “realistic,” and a GeekDad writer called “easily recognizable.”
Early on I noticed the lowT floating by and thought it curious, but the first anomaly that clanged an alert was a security camera broken by punks on an asteroid station. The setting is 200 years ahead at the very least, when the colonial population of Mars is four billion. Although many things can go wrong off-planet, an easily-broken security camera seemed rather clunky. This is the future; they would be encased in something impervious to punks if not undetectable. Then the cops smoking in the police station, the earbuds, the ubiquitous hand terminals that require action to connect to a station’s network, as in: “He set up his terminal, turning the camera on himself.” Maybe he had a little table stand from the store Off Planet. And then the use of shotguns on spaceships. The use of coffee filters on spaceships.
I have a memory from the first book wherein the authors exposit that all upgrading development on the small stuff was forgotten in favor of the big stuff upon the appearance of the ship drive that enabled the Expansion. I’m not buying it. And a reasonable argument could be made that things such as earbuds and coffee filters can’t be improved, and are the final word in efficiency, the satisfying end of technological convenience. But I don’t make that argument.
Instead I see it all as deliberate. The Noir is there, so why not hold back time a little bit to get its stale smell in the air? It goes well with the cardboard perfume wafting from the characters – which I’m mostly fine with. I like the genre fusion, and although the lowT often whacks my sensibilities, I like this series. The copyright date of 2011 isn’t so long ago that Virtual Reality and quantum familiarity wasn’t already an Ikea-like presence in the sub-genre’s furniture, so I choose to see the lowT as an admirable touch of retro, very outré and a devilishly clever form of steampunk.
I hope my criticism doesn’t discourage anyone from reading this series (soon to be a well-deserved SyFy original series in December 2015, and my congratulations to the authors). It’s huge fun. SF grew progressively headier when I started in the 60s, but what originally drew me to it was space and the ships that sailed it, and I thank the authors for returning me to the original Wonder.

The first book was great, the second book was okay, and the third book goes off the rails and crashes horribly - no survivors. Unfortunately the third book wraps up the story line of the first two. Even at that I couldn't finish the last few chapters.

So, this isn't exactly great reading. Characters are pretty bland and one-dimensional. The authors (James S. A. Corey is the pen name for a duo of authors) were assistants to George RR Martin. I am convinced they had a talk with him and he said "Look boys, my agent is telling me that they need a Sci Fi series. If you guys can deliver a halfway decent manuscript in 6 months, you're guaranteed a TV deal". And that's what happened.

It's ok sci-fi. All the elements are there. But it just goes through the motions. There is no heart in this.

Reminds me, in a good way, of Asimov's Foundation series, with considerably more action and movement. They have some of the same facility that Asimov did, with a bit more flair for action. There's a good deal of suspense to be found here, particularly in the first book, "Leviathan Wakes," which I found impossible to put down. Other reviewers here note that character development is mediocre in the Expanse series. Compared to Jonathon Franzen and Michael Chabon, definitely. But you have to consider the genre. Most science fiction/space opera stuff isn't character-driven, it's plot-driven, and the characters' development is secondary. Look at John Varley, the earlier Heinlein, and pretty much all of Asimov (just to name a few). We're not talking Tolstoy here. These books are big, luscious bon-bon space operas. I think this set is above average and a sure thing if you want to chill out with books that keep your interest and keep things moving. These do. Closest thing I can think to compare it to is the second Battlestar Galactica, a TV space opera of the first order with unusually strong character development.

These are the first three novels of The Expanse series, written collectively by two writers using the pen name James S.A. Corey. The stories are carefully plotted, fast-moving, and feature multi-dimensional characters. Drama and humor are nicely balanced. The writing is striking visual, making it easy for the reader to picture scenes as they unfold. The novels need to be read in order because each builds upon events in prior novels.

Leviathan Wakes combines a classic space opera with a hard-boiled mystery, then flavors the mix with a bit of horror. The novel begins the story of Jim Holden, who manages to evolve as the series progresses. Holden deals with interstellar politics and an alien presence called a protomolecule that, among other things, melts people into glue, but the story’s power lies in its poignant exploration of a crisis involving a security officer named Miller.

The second novel, Caliban’s War, lacks the poignancy of the first, but it maintains the first novel’s energy. The novel’s drama centers on Holden, who is trying to make sense of the protomolecule as well as his changing life. Corey juggle multiple storylines and adds new characters to keep the series moving. The writers again balance human drama with blistering action, humor, and low-key philosophy.

Philosophy plays a greater role in Abaddon’s Gate, in which Miller (sort of) returns. A bunch of new characters are added as Holden assumes the role of reluctant hero. A good bit more about the protomolecule is revealed in this volume. There is no shortage of action in the third novel, but it also tackles themes of forgiveness and redemption that give the mind something to chew upon.

I was impressed by, and enjoyed, all three volumes. I note from the store reviews that some readers had a different reaction, although some of those reviewers might be guilty of taking themselves a bit too seriously. In particular, some objected to the introduction of a religious character in the third book, as if writers are not supposed to notice that there are religious people in the world. I’m not religious but I don’t understand why a writer should pretend that religion does not exist or that it does not have an impact (both positive and negative) on people’s lives. In any event, the book is far from religious, even if one of the many characters in the novel happens to have a religious motivation.

The series is fun and, while it advances some serious themes, it clearly isn’t meant to be anything other than fun. If you are a science fiction reader who can loosen up and enjoy a good story, you’ll probably like The Expanse. If you the kind of sf fan who perpetually indulges a sense of outrage about things that really aren’t very important, you might dislike The Expanse, as well as all the other things in life that so easily offend you. I particularly recommend The Expanse to science fiction fans who have outgrown their insecurities and enjoy a good story.

I would give the series 4 1/2 stars, but I'm round it up to 5 because the first three books of the series are an impressive accomplishment.

First book: marvelous.
Second book: still great.
Third book: more plot holes and horrible half-baked characters than I could ever imagine.
Do yourself a favor and don't bother with the last book here.

There are already plenty of reviews of the content of these books. My five star rating reflects how much I like the three books included in this boxed set.

I wanted to leave a few notes on the packaging and the physical books themselves, for anyone who will be using these to begin or complete their collection of Expanse novels. The books included in this set are softcover, and as far as I can tell they are largely the same format as the other soft cover Expanse novels that you would purchase on the store US or your local US bookstore. One of the books I received in this set was also noticeably imperfect: not terribly imperfect or imperfect enough to affect the reading experience but more imperfect than I would expect from a retail product.

The format has two minor differences from my copy of Cibola Burn (book 4): on the spine, the title is more prominent than the author name; there is a "'The Expanse', now a television series on the SyFy network" (or something to that effect) imprint on the front cover of each book. I'm not sure if all current printings are formatted this way, or if this format is unique to books printed for this boxed set.

The box itself is made of something like thin card stock. It doesn't seem like a collector's item or anything more than just the least expensive way to package three retail units into one retail unit. I tossed mine away.

I'm very happy with my purchase of this set! It's basically exactly what it looks like: a way to purchase the first three novels of the Expanse for the price of two novels.

Having just finished the 3 books I must say I enjoyed most of it. I had a hard time stying focused towards the end of the third book. I lost interest when things turned a tad more religious and a tad less scifi. I was also disappointed with what was found inside the gate (I'm trying not to spoil it for people who haven't read it yet).

I really did like the story up to that point but felt like the authors kinda just wanted to finish the story, just get it over with. Perhaps they wanted to make it more relatable by bringing in the religious players at the end, and perhaps that just put me off a little. Others will disagree, I suspect. This is just my opinion on how I felt towards the end.

If you like scifi no doubt you'll like these books. I must honestly say I enjoyed MD Cooper's The Intrepid Saga a little more, though.