#16 Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Ahhh The Expanse. I had given up on the later books by the time this series came out. This book sent chills through me when I read the story. This was a realistic future, using science, tossed with a bit of detective story, action, sci-fi, and a touch of horror.

I really wished the horror aspect of the creatures had been tossed in the TV series, the horror of what they saw was missing. It made him want to destroy and all involved and was missed.

But I get ahead of myself. An ice hauler is out gathering ice chunks for colonies in the rim of the solar system. It gets an sos, gets at the scene, sends a few crew. Then a highly advanced ship pops into appearance and nukes their ship. They believe along with evidence from the scene that is being done by the human colonized Mars.

They cobble together a broadcast with their evidence, expecting to die there. Accusing Mars of the first actions in a war. They get an order to rendezvous with the Martian flagship, and are followed by a number of smaller ships.

The martians take them in as prisoners, and get ready to start interrogating them when they are attacked by the smaller ships. They are escorted away as the ship is overrun, and led to a swift assault ship. One of the five that had been rescued was a former martian pilot. They jump out with the small ship, and their adventures begin.

In the middle of all this, someone has released an organism. The best way of thinking of it is from John Carpenters “The Thing”. I love that show. The organism has a purpose, and it uses living matter to get there. Reprogramming the DNA to make what it needs.

There is also the secondary detective story of a washed up police officer hunting for a rich girl that was the patent zero for the Thing virus monster. He wants to find her, then find out who did this to her, using her as a biological weapon. To the point of becoming obsessive.

I loved this story almost more at the beginning of the novel, towards the end it slides into the background. As it needed to. However this leads to conflict in the three groups. Earth, Mars, and the Belters. A fantastic story. I did find it ran a bit long, and even after loving the first book I eventually gave up on the last book. I was burned out. i don’t know if it will return, but the first book is fantastic.