Caliban's War

By: James S. A. Corey

Narrated by: Jefferson Mays

Length: 21 hrs

Publisher's Summary

The second novel in James S. A. Corey's SF New York Times best-selling Expanse series. Now a major television series!

We are not alone.

On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system.

In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun....

Caliban's War is a breakneck science fiction adventure following the critically acclaimed Leviathan Wakes.

©2012 James S. A. Corey (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Great Book of Great Series

Really nice second book in the Expanse series. I found it just as good as book one. The story and characters continue to evolve as does the proto-molecule. There are a lot of characters in this novel and they are all fleshed out and dynamic. There is action and tension. The science is interesting and believable. The politics are interesting. This is rapidly becoming one of the best series in Sci Fi.

The narration is wonderful and adds to the characters and excitement of the novel.

I'm Cpt Holden of the Rosi and I endorse this book

This series competes with the multitude of other distractions on my phone -- podcasts, reddit, games -- and wins.

Thrilling, exiting, surprising.

I arrived to this book series after watching the TV show first. I was happily surprised more than a few times. The book reads (listens!) Like a fine political thriller with some good sci-fi sprinkled over it. Listening to this entry was enough to make me buy the rest of the series.

AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY

1,000% better than the TV series

Glad it was the TV series I came across first, because now that I've listened to the book series on audible, watching the TV series just makes me want to kick its writers a$$es, for so needlessly departing from the character dynamics and details of the infinitely superior books.

Favorite narrator, favorite scifi author

Great, one if the best, scifi writers... But seriously, this male narrator does a fantastic profanity-laced Indian grandmother.

I liked Leviathan Wakes; I loved Caliban's War.

What made the experience of listening to Caliban's War the most enjoyable?

I really loved how the writing improved for this book. Leviathan Wakes depended much on the words being spoken, but Caliban's War does a lot to let you understand how those words are spoken, and goes deeper into characters' minds. The additional characters -- Bobby, Avasarala, and Prax -- were all incredibly enjoyable. The plot was also great in a way that builds on the first book without really compromising any of it.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I really loved Prax. I loved seeing into his mind and how it works. But the author did a great job of building a lot of new characters, while also really developing Amos, who was previously very simple. I still think Holden can be obnoxious (but the book is sort of self-aware with that) and it annoys me how Naomi is simplified into an extension of Holden, but the rest were great. Prax, Bobby, fucking Avasarala! All were really fun getting to know. And again, the depth that they added to Amos is really great. Alex took a bit of a backseat in this book, so I am hoping he sees some character development in the books to come.

Which scene was your favorite?

While I REALLY love the space battles -- they are written so well and in an exciting way -- I absolutely loved seeing Prax and Mei get reunited was truly heart-warming. I figured, like Prax did, that she was dead or that if he found her, it would be too late. But he actually found her, and they were actually safe. It was sweet, not bitter sweet, and it felt great.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Humanity has found alien technology, but is set on using it to destroy eachother.

rivets

maybe the top 2, Dune being 1. Highly believable near future- perfect match between my understanding of today' science and politics and a fantastic rendering of a future where Earth is crowded bloated and lazy and still seeking to dominate and exploit every resource and human it can, throughout our solar system. complete with disastrous consequences of human greed. can't say enough good about these books.

Not my fav in the series, but very strong read

Corey isn't what I'd call an insightful writer. Don't expect to experience epiphanies. What he does really well is create admirable, somewhat complex characters you want to root for, despite their flaws. He does this without a whole lot of "inside their mind" sequences of reflection. It's very deftly done, way more show than tell.
And the settings, scenes, and tech are extremely well imagined. There is pretty much nowhere that you think, "No, it wouldn't be like that" or "That character has no reason to do that."
It's not soulfull writing, but it's smart writing with enough warmth and humanity to strongly engage... and is sometimes truly moving.
I'm pretty sure I'll read them all.
Corey knows his readers are not idiots who have to have everything way over-explained, which I also appreciate.
There are lots of places where I felt here comes a cliche in motivation or dialog, but Corey almost always catches these and breaks from the cliche at the last second. These moments are fun and often humorous, and increase my respect for his work. It's like he thinks, we all know what's supposed to happen at this moment, so I'm just going to have the character do/say this instead--gotcha! The characters seem more human that way, too, since real people are often surprising in lots of small ways.

Better Even than Leviathan Wakes

Expands the world of the Expanse, and gives us much needed connections to the inner planets. In spite of war in the book, I'm sure that it's the calm before the storm.

great second installment

more character driven than the first, which worked well for me. moving on to book 3 immediately.