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Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
This book described badly: two guys quit their jobs, then space zombies in a casino.
This is the first volume in The Expanse series by the writing duo Dan Abraham and Ty Franck who make up James S.A. Corey.
The series is a solid science fiction political epic that follows James Holden who constantly pokes at the political entities who want to mostly exploit the first contact with extra-terrestrial life that humanity encounters.
In an approachable, engaging, exciting way, it explores a bunch of heavy science fiction concepts in thought-provoking ways without allowing those concepts to overshadow the story. Ideas like:
- The economics of expanding outside of Earth’s stratosphere.
- If we encountered an alien intelligence, would we recognize it?
And stuff.
It’s a now-complete nine-volume series. If that sounds daunting, then you can actually think about it as three trilogies. There’s a satisfying arc in the first three books, etc.
The main character is the only weak part of the series. We read this series for all the side characters, because they are solid.
Worth the headspace. Good take on zombies.
