Caliban's War (Expanse #2)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes. blogspot.wordpress.com by  Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Caliban's War
Series: Expanse
Author: James Corey
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 583
Format: Kindle digital edition

Synopsis:

The protomolecule is transforming Venus at a ferocious rate. So much so that everyone, Earth, Mars and Belters, are extremely worried about it.
At the same time someone has figured out how to weaponize the original piece of proto-crap into controllable super soldiers. All they need is children with completely compromised immune systems. But of course, things don't quite go as planned and everything begins to spiral out of control.

Now it is up to the crew of the Firefly, errr, Rocinante, a U.N. official, a Ganymedian soybean scientist and a Martian Marine to stop the badguys, save the kids and give humanity a chance to collect its breath before Venus takes everyone out.

My Thoughts:

Hot diggity! I am enjoying this series like it is a huge bowl of vanilla bean icecream. It just hits the spot. Thankfully this time around Holden isn't as much a dew'y eyed idealist and I liked this kick ass version of him better, even if he and his Belter lady didn't.

The number of viewpoints increased and I was worried that it would make things confusing or unstable. Never happened. Having the extra viewpoints of the soybean scientist, UN official and martian marine simply expanded the scope of the story.  I also felt like "Corey" summed up politics really, really well. A game to those who play.

By the end of the book Venus has become it's own player in the story and we see its opening moves. But of war, exploration or a game, we don't know. I am really looking forward to the next book when it comes through my reading rotation in about 2 months.

On the tv side of things, I figure I'll read "ahead" to the 3rd book before starting the tv series. I like the books enough that I'm actually hesitant to watch the tv show as it'll put limits of my imagining of the characters and everything. Once I watch the tv show, I'll be picturing those characters as I read the rest of the books. Sometimes that can be good but sometimes it can be pretty bad.
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Leviathan Wakes (Expanse #1)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission.
Title: Leviathan Wakes
Series: Expanse
Author: James Corey
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 583
Format: Kindle digital edition

Synopsis:

There is Earth. There is Mars. There are the Belters. All living together in an uneasy truce of shared humanity.
That truce is shattered and war and chaos ensue. The crew of a freighter somehow ends up in the middle of it all right from the beginning and begin to piece together a conspiracy that could change life itself.

My Thoughts:

Firefly, welcome back! That was what I kept thinking as I read along.

This was pure fun, pure space opera. I didn't try to make connections, or get upset at the characters or wonder how things were going to work out. I was simply along for the ride. Lots of things were implausible and there was a lot of ridiculousness floating around but I never really noticed it because I was enjoying myself so much. That says a lot.

I gave this the Horror tag, not so much because it was scary  but because of the vomit zombies and the whole mass reknitting of human flesh and bone into something else.
It was creepier than those faux-horror Star Wars books released years ago.
I also put on the Tv Tie In tag because of the tv show. I would really like to watch it now but I think I'll wait until I've read the series. I don't want the tv show to accidentally spoil something in the book for me. Book spoiling movie, I am A-OK with that however.

Thoroughly enjoyed this and am looking forward to the rest of the series.
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