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Leviathan Wakes  By  cover art

Leviathan Wakes

By: James S. A. Corey
Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
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Editorial reviews

A colossal and staggering take on the future of mankind, James S. A. Corey brings his latest and arguably his best, Leviathan Wakes: The Expanse, Book 1 as a full and unabridged audiobook, narrated by the brilliant Jefferson Mays. This series depicts a populated solar system and the demise of Earth’s resources. Planetary unrest is brimming between the colonies, human and alien alike. With the fateful discovery of a deeply-rooted secret, a full-fledged war could be the ultimate ending of it all. This is utterly spellbinding. Available now from Audible.

Publisher's summary

Humanity has colonized the planets - interstellar travel is still beyond our reach, but the solar system has become a dense network of colonies. But there are tensions - the mineral-rich outer planets resent their dependence on Earth and Mars and the political and military clout they wield over the Belt and beyond.

Now, when Captain Jim Holden's ice miner stumbles across a derelict, abandoned ship, he uncovers a secret that threatens to throw the entire system into war. Attacked by a stealth ship belonging to the Mars fleet, Holden must find a way to uncover the motives behind the attack, stop a war and find the truth behind a vast conspiracy that threatens the entire human race.

©2011 James S. A. Corey (P)2014 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

"It's been too long since we've had a really kickass space opera. LEVIATHAN WAKES is interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written, the kind of SF that made me fall in love with the genre way back when, seasoned with a dollop of horror and a dash of noir. Jimmy Corey writes with the energy of a brash newcomer and the polish of a seasoned pro" (George R. R. Martin)
"A winning blend of old-school space opera and modern sensibility... Corey combines no-nonsense storytelling with hard-boiled dialogue as the novel races to a truly cosmic ending. An excellent start to a promising new series" ( The Telegraph)
"Corey... has created a refreshingly blue-collar tale, with well-drawn characters and a compelling narrative sweep. Roll on Book Two." ( Financial Times)
"If you love tales packed with worldbuildy details like how humans cored asteroids, pumped them full of atmosphere, and spun them up for gravity's sake, then you'll love this novel to pieces" ( io9)

What listeners say about Leviathan Wakes

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

First book on audible.

Loved it. Different than The Expanse series in TV, but I liked the crew dynamic in the book more.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wow of a story and production.

Second time for this book and will follow all books of the Expanse. I'm so hooked. Thanks guys.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Worst book i ever listened to

Might as well have copied and pasted the book on one of those programs that read it out loud with a robot voice.

There is zero acting, zero character diversification, i don't know who's talking and if it's a female, a male, a old man or a kid untill at the end of the sentence he says ".... Name said". It's awful.

I'm 9 hours into it and so far the story is about problems not solving themselves and stacking up to a point that i'm staeting to forget how it started.

How did this series get so many positive reviews?

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Formulaic and clunky

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Make it more like Peter F Hamilton. I did not care about the characters and it did not grip me.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

It did have a clever take on advanced bio tech, but not worth slogging through entire book for. And I really grew to hate hearing about Pachinko machines.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jefferson Mays?

And the narrator was horrible, hated listening to his voice.The guy who does the Peter F Hamilton books.

Could you see Leviathan Wakes being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No, I hope not.

Any additional comments?

It was a novel trying to be a great space opera I guess. The author needs to learn from Peter F Hamilton. The story needs to feel real, to be alive, I guess you need to create an alternative world the reader can get lost in. It needs something truly sc-fi not cobbled together from 21 century earth ideas, but something truly born of the future, from its seeds in the past. I thought the Belters etc were shallow and uninteresting, I found the rivalry between Earth and those living in the Asteroid belts and Mars unconvincing, boring and pointless. I got what the author was getting at, but it was not a fun entertaining story, at least for me, and I have been reading sc-fi fi for 35 years, and love Asimov, Heinlein etc...
It sort of read like those boring military stories.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good read

Really enjoyed the world building. Miller was MVP, looking forward to seeing where the story goes after that final scene

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

One day I'll be nostalgic about this story

A little slow to start with, a lot of action and not enough character chemistry for my taste. However, once it picked up it reminded me of Firefly, and the rest was smooth sailing.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Glims to the future of space

i love a science fiction that pay so many attention to details.

i have never imagined politics in space like. now i have seen it. well, listened it.

i really like how the news are presented in the book. different people/faction will report different point of view of the news and thus it feels very real life.

i have never seen clash of ideas between characters. it is quite thought provoking when the two main characters come together and discuss an action. Both have solid, but drastically different point of views. it was hard for me to decide who is right or wrong.

the book feels like a detective story. keep digging through layers of facts to expose the real truth.

one of the character, Miller, has a really good character arch. don't want to say too much here, but i did not know it is so interesting to see a character spiraling down.

Highly recommend this book.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Even Better

Huge fan of the TV show, but the book and narration just blew me away. I do like the book more, but it was fun imagining characters from the show. Can't wait to listen to the other books!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

No idea how good the book is ...

... but I could not get myself to listen to the monoton narrator... fudbdiehcbsixbsjzbcjdnxbdj
Dnxisbxjdbdjxbdbxjdbdjdndndj
Dncidbdidbdjxjdosjdbdisndjxj

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

a great look at humanitys future plus aliens

A great look at the social and economic issues that humanity will have to deal with as we venture into our local star system.

honestly wondering why the author felt the need to include the alien oogyboogie but at least it's interesting in its own right.

would have loved to seen this type of nearish future story without added improbabilities but please don't let this stop you from listening to this.

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