mtvessel | Well, That Escalated Quickly

May 2021
Leviathan Wakes - James S.A. Corey – Hachette Digital, 2011
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Streaming services have undoubtedly increased the range and, in some regards, the quality of TV programming, but there are several of them and they almost all require a regular subscription. As someone with limited time for entertainment, an accountant father who taught me the value of money, and habits formed by many years of parsimonious student living, I refuse to subscribe to more than one of them. This means that when shows move between services, I often lose access to a series that I have been following. The Expanse is one of those. I enjoyed its plausible setting (Earth, Mars, and asteroid-based colonies, where humans born and raised in low-gravity environments have formed a distinctive culture known as Belters) and the science-fictional craziness of its conspiracy thriller plot, so it was a shame when the show jumped after its first two seasons to another service that I refuse to pay for. Fortunately the show is based on a sequence of novels by the authors Ty Frank and Daniel Abraham, and books, at least for now, are still universally available.

The biggest weakness of the TV show was the characters; the two leads, Earther space captain James Holden and Belter cop Joe Miller, were as bland as their names, and the secondary characters were under-developed bundles of quirks. Sadly this is an accurate reflection of the book. However, the plot pacing works much better when it doesn't have to be spread over ten hour-long episodes.

I did admire the clever way in which the worldbuilding was introduced. The book starts with two seemingly disconnected plots: Holden, second officer on ice freighter The Canterbury, is sent to investigate a distress signal from a ship drifting in space, while on Ceres space station, detective Miller investigates the disappearance of runaway heiress Julie Mao at the behest of her parents. By cutting between the two viewpoints in successive chapters, we soon learn all we need to know about the cultures and politics of Earth, Mars and Belters. The last in particular are interesting - they are the underclass in the solar system pecking order, in part because of their reliance on Earth and Martian corporations for vital supplies of air and water, but also probably due to their distinctive appearance (they are described as skinny and over two metres tall, a detail that the TV series wisely ignores) and their unique patois. Unsurprisingly a Belter workers'-rights-cum-independence movement known as the Outer Planets Alliance, or OPA, has come into existence. The Earth and Martian cultures are less clearly delineated - Earth has culture and political leadership, Mars has better technology - but there is no time for more in-depth worldbuilding or character development because very dramatic things start happening almost immediately. Holden finds himself in charge of a small crew of secondary characters, while Miller has to contend with OPA-instigated riots on Ceres after Holden broadcasts his findings to the whole solar system.

There's not a lot more to say, really. As a science fiction thriller it definitely works, but as is so often the case with thrillers, the focus on the escalating plot means that characterisation doesn't get much of a look-in, to the extent that some of Holden's and Miller's actions in the second half appear to be the result of the necessity to advance the story rather than deriving naturally from their personalities. It would also have been better if one of the two viewpoint characters had been female - there is one token woman in Holden's crew, with whom of course he develops a romance, but the only other female character of note lives in Miller's imagination. If the other books in the series are similar (there are now eight of them), I wouldn't say that they are a vast improvement on the TV series. But at least I can choose to read them if I wish.