Leviathan Falls

, #9

by

English language

Published Nov. 29, 2021

ISBN:
978-0-356-51039-2
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4 stars (3 reviews)

The Laconian Empire has fallen, setting the thirteen hundred solar systems free from the rule of Winston Duarte. But the ancient enemy that killed the gate builders is awake, and the war against our universe has begun again.

In the dead system of Adro, Elvi Okoye leads a desperate scientific mission to understand what the gate builders were and what destroyed them, even if it means compromising herself and the half-alien children who bear the weight of her investigation. Through the wide-flung systems of humanity, Colonel Aliana Tanaka hunts for Duarte’s missing daughter. . . and the shattered emperor himself. And on the Rocinante, James Holden and his crew struggle to build a future for humanity out of the shards and ruins of all that has come before.

As nearly unimaginable forces prepare to annihilate all human life, Holden and a group of unlikely allies discover a last, desperate chance …

3 editions

reviewed Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #9)

A decent ending which does not try to be more than just that

3 stars

Every saga has to end, for sure. The saga, as art form, is problematic, because the individual installment will often not convince as novels. That is especially true for thing like "the expanse" when the narrative sets out to follow a set of characters linearly over decades of in-story.

But we, the readers, have little right to complain: It is the sort of story we crave after all, because we crave a deep immersion into the narrative.

"Leviathan Falls" stays true to its predecessors: It shies away from potential narrative arks to focus on its characters and do them justice. Overall, that is the right decision.

The "closing of the gates" ending must have felt too defeatist to authors, so they added an epilogue where humanity is traveling between the stars again. It kind of works.

A decent ending which does not try to be more than just that.

reviewed Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #9)

Review of 'Leviathan Falls' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Awwww. I was heavily emotionally invested in this and overall enjoyed the read but it all fell a bit flat for me.

SPOILERS

Having just come off the back of reading some of Le Guin’s Earthsea cycle, a series that purposefully avoids the deeply limited and flawed rubric of killing the bad guy to save the day, the way the whole collective consciousness thing is over from killing Duerte was highly disappointing. Like surely it should be harder than that, and what kind of plot is that!

The existential threat of the unknown aggressors never really felt powerful enough. I mean what they can do is powerful but I never really felt it, the fear, the crisis.

The sphere/ring space/gates drawing power from from another universe had been hinted at already and rang true but again, the actual idea that the gates were doing active harm to other sentient forces …