Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

The Expanse is a science fiction series that comes from the minds of co-writers Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham under their clunky pseudonym James S.A. Corey.  I had never heard of the series until I listened to an episode about the world of the Expanse on the podcast Imaginary Worlds called "Politics of the Expanse." Leviathan Wakes is the first book in the series.  This is also a relatively well-regarded television series on the Syfy network. Unbeknownst to me, my husband was watching the first season while I was ordering the book from the library. Now that I've read the book, I might watch the series with him, too.

A basic plot summary of the novel is that Mars and Earth are the big players in the galaxy with the Asteroid Belt providing a lot of the much needed supplies that keep humans alive on the planets. Tensions arise. There are official governments, giant corporations, and rebels (or are they terrorists?). We follow two main dudes, each of whom is going to be important to figuring out if humanity will survive.

I'm not going to lie here, people. I thought this was brilliant. It was a bit hard to follow at first, but that was part of the journey. I knew that eventually all the threads would connect and I knew from the solid  writing that I was in good hands. I'm going to watch the television show with my husband and I'm going to read the next novel in the series. I am going to hope we eventually get a female character who is more than just a person who tells a man that he is making a stupid move, but I'm positive Corey will get there eventually. Strong thumbs up from me.