Leviathan Wakes

I picked this book up based on the growing amount of noise I was hearing about it - it was similar to the noise around A Game of Thrones that prompted me to start reading it. When everyone starts talking about it, it must be interesting. Also, the TV show was on its way.

It turns out it's pretty good, but no Game of Thrones. It borrows a little, stylistically, but it very much it's own story, with much less murky morality and complex characterisation. It's set in a technologically stagnant future, where humanity has colonised parts of the solar system, but isn't doing much to expand its domain, but rather is starting to look inward. It tells the tale of a few ordinary people put into extraordinary circumstances, and the huge consequences of their actions.

In this first book of the series, there are really only two viewpoint characters - Holden, the naive and idealistic first officer of as ice transport ship; and Miller, the jaded and very film noir detective working for a private corporation on the asteroid Ceres. It's a fast paced book - I kept being surprised as I read it that there was so much still left to read, since a solid novel's worth of plot had been unpacked before the book was half-way done. The worldbuilding was excellent - it is a complex world but everything holds together and makes sense. Through it you can clearly see the things we did wrong in our time that led to this rather disappointing future.

It's not A Game of Thrones, but it's worth a read. It sets up a very interesting situation for the following novels in the series, so I'll be interested to see where it goes.