Leviathan Snoozes

Since I spent a good part of last year plowing through Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (pen name for co-authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) I thought I'd write up how I fared with the book version of one of my all-time favorite television series, The Expanse. This show features interplanetary adventure from the male perspective, so lots of battles and tech and testosterone in abundance -- Guy SF, for short -- but it has a stellar cast, and great characterizations by the actors. By season 2 I was riveted.

The book? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Okay, some backstory first: a friend who shall remain nameless swapped some SF dvds with me, which gave me all three seasons of The Expanse to watch. At first I had a lot of vibes from the show that reminded me of Alien and 2001 a Space Odyssey, but the characters began to grow on me. My favorites were Chrisjen Avasarala (UN under secretary from Earth, and a political genius/viper), Detective Joe Miller (a disillusioned cop on an asteroid belt station) and ship's mechanic Amos Burton (still not entirely sure what his history is, but he's definitely psycho).

In season 2 Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper (Martian marine) came along and I was permanently dazzled and hooked. Of course because I enjoyed the show they cancelled it after the third season, and then Amazon got hold of it, reaffirming my dismal luck when it comes to being a fan of anything. I do highly recommend the first three seasons of the show; all are wonderfully done.

I decided to invest in the first book the series was based on mainly to see if it compared to the tv version. At 561 pages, it should have and then some. My first surprise was discovering that Earth and Mars are only mentioned in passing and Avasarala, one of the main players in the series, doesn't show up at all. Neither does Bobbie Draper, my very favorite character from the series. Huge letdown. I should have paid more attention to the cover art, which features the thinly-veiled erect phallic symbol of guy SF I'm probably not going to like.

To be fair, Leviathan Wakes does follow the basic story of the tv series; it's set in a semi-far future universe where Earth, Mars and the Belt (stations occupying and mining the ring of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter) are independent nations at odds with each other. The plot follows the adventures of James Holden, who I am absolutely sure was named as an homage to the protagonist of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, which I have never liked. The Holden in the book is supposed to be the same hero as on the show, but with his constant and boring introspection (and endless whining, which he doesn't do in the show) he really washes out by comparison.

Holden is working on an ice hauler in the belt when he and his crew stumble across what eventually becomes the driving conflict of the series: a singularity in the form of a virtually omnipotent, almost indestructible alien pathogen, and a dreadful science experiment gone wrong by humans desperate to understand what the pathogen does and why. Said humans all want to weaponize it, of course. This sets up a three-way conflict between the major players, all of which is exciting in the tv series.

In the book Holden's adventures plod along as he introspects and whines his way through the story. Zero tension or excitement. No humor whatsoever. It reads almost as if he keeps stumbling into disasters and discoveries while he meanders after the pathogen, getting lots of people killed in the process. He then steals a Martian ship and uses that to blunder on with his crew of misfits, this time with considerable firepower, becoming the Captain James T. Kirk that I imagine every male SF author wants to be. Holden even has James as his first name, see? Ha.

The writing is competent, and at times good, although mostly along the lines of Stephen King with endless character introspection and stories within stories. The action and dialogue is supposed to be gritty and real, I guess, but often came off as pretentious and fake (and this ties in with the pacing, which is dreadful.) I'm sure all of the science involved is correct or plausible; I certainly got repeatedly bludgeoned with huge info dumps of it. I kept reading a few pages a day but the story couldn't hold my attention at all -- and remember, I love the tv series. If I'd read the book first I probably never would have bothered with The Expanse, so I'm glad it came after I watched the show.

The authors must have had a single male character template stuck in their brains they couldn't shake, for most if not all of the characters have remarkably identical stories. To be a part of the male cast, you do something drastic, horrible or unforgivable, switch sides in your allegiances, and then meander aimlessly into redemption by some measure of self-sacrifice. I'm not kidding. Holden? Yep. Amos? Same. Alex? Check. Fred? Oh yes.

All of the female characters, on the other hand, are definitely guy SF standard chick template. None of the story is told from the female perspective. A dead but beautiful woman is the catalyst of the conflict (the object of all male fantasies, apparently.) Far future whores are regularly mentioned or featured, which is as tiresome as ever. I endless muttered Yes, yes, we wheedled you out of the Garden of Eden; punish us for that forever by casting our gender as the ruthless snakes that we are (not.)

Some of the women in the book are set up in interesting roles, but turn out to be tools to inspire the men, provide them with sex, rescue or betray them. Sometimes all four things happen in the course of their relationship. Bottom line, the ladies are cardboard Liliths, or simply cardboard. Even the dead chick. Shame.

As for Holden and Miller, who pause every few pages to wax reminiscent about better or worse times, their perspectives just aren't all that interesting, so all the introspection reads like filler. Weeding out unnecessary head time could have cut a good 200 pages from the book, and the story wouldn't have suffered.

I'm not sure why I kept reading the damn book, to be honest. I think at first I kept hoping it would pick up the pace. Once I reached the middle, and saw that it probably never would, I was halfway to the end. I considered tossing it in the Friends of the Library donation box about a dozen times, but kept going to see if anything would redeem the book for me. Alas, nothing did. In the end, all I can say is that it's a competently written, rather misogynistic ho-hum yawner.

To summarize, I think if you're not a feminist but you're having trouble sleeping at night Leviathan Wakes could help you nod off. Otherwise I don't recommend it. Watch the tv series instead; the story is told better, faster and with more excitement, the cast is balanced, the male characters are likable, and the female characters aren't conniving whores.