I just finished Leviathan Wakes, co-written by the excellent Daniel Abraham, and thought it was fantastic. It’s the first in a series (“The Expanse”), the ninth and last of which is due out this fall (although this first one functions fine as a standalone, so reading it doesn’t necessarily commit you to reading the rest). More people probably know it as a TV show at this point, but I’d rather read the books first (and probably exclusively, in practice, since TV/movies don’t usually hold my attention).

The world-building reminds me of early-to-mid Larry Niven. It has realistic physics, eg no FTL, and pays decent attention to engineering and orbital mechanics, although none of that is really the focus of the book. The prose reminds me of plenty of classic sci fi authors: excellent but generally not flashy. It particularly reminded me of Iain Banks, although Banks gets more poetic. And the characterization owes a lot, I think, to Joss Whedon’s “Firefly”: the characters are quirky and a bit over-the-top while still being plausible, and they’re very sympathetic and engaging.

I’m very much looking forward to starting the next one 🙂