Leviathan Falls

, #9

Paperback, 518 pages

English language

Published Feb. 9, 2023 by Orbit.

ISBN:
978-0-356-51040-8
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3 stars (1 review)

The biggest science fiction series of the decade comes to an incredible conclusion in the ninth and final novel in James S.A. Corey’s Hugo-award winning space opera that inspired the Prime Original series.

“An all-time genre classic.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Hugo Award Winner for Best Series

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 …

3 editions

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.

Subjects

  • Fiction, science fiction, action & adventure
  • Fiction, science fiction, alien contact
  • Fiction, science fiction, space exploration
  • Fiction, science fiction, space opera