Leviathan Wakes: To Read or Not?

I bought this gorgeous anniversary edition of the first book in the Expanse series hoping I’d love it. And….spoiler alert: I didn’t quite like it.

I was surprised to hear that James S.A. Corey was actually an author duo and felt some apprehension since reading that in the intro as my experience with author duos has not been the greatest. I always wonder if it’s going to read like a single, cohesive story or whether I’d be able to spot any breaks in the narrative and the author’s switching. Whilst there’s not a clear distinction of voices, I preferred some chapters to others and I’d be curious to know if the authors alternated in writing them. I’ll look into that later.

I wanted the book to focus on Julie, not on Miller and Holden. I think Julie’s perspective would be very interesting to see. Holden was so annoying, acting rashly without thinking of the consequences and generally contributing a lot to the space opera aspect of the book. Miller was more interesting and I could argue his actions are a tad more thought out. My favorite character was actually the side character Naomi. There’s some hope yet for our set of unlikely heroes with Naomi around.

The plot is trying to do a lot, but the buildup to one of the biggest events was not nearly as suspenseful as I’d hoped. I also saw the plot twist coming and I prefer to be surprised.

One thing they did right is describing the atmosphere in the station, not that I’ve ever been in a space station but I could picture large number of people in a small enclosed space pretty well and my claustrophobia didn’t like it. Points for atmosphere.

Overall, not very impressed with this book after all the praise I’ve been hearing. I don’t think I’ll continue with the book series, but I definitely plan on watching the show. Feel free to convince me otherwise in the comments.