Paperback, 514 pages
English language
Published Feb. 7, 2023 by Orbit.
Leviathan Falls is a science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and the ninth and final book of the series The Expanse. The title and cover art were announced by the authors at a virtual fan announcement on September 16, 2020 and the book was released November 30, 2021.
I'm bittersweet about this series' ending. Not every story should have a happy ending, and I'm glad that this one ended the series with closure, despite the loss.
The epilogue made up for the sadness though.
The resolution is satisfying, and I felt that the parallels with Leviathan Wakes were a good send off for the whole series. I felt it was denser than volumes 7 and 8, but it might just be because it wrapped up the series
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 …
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 wasn’t really explored. The ethical dilemma of the sins of the father, of what to do about knowing this technology is causing harm yet it being necessary for progress etc just wasn’t there. I mean I can understand it, but the book didn’t explore it, it never lent it any emotional weight. Whether it be climate change or colonialism, the story of our time is very much about how we live with and in the ruins we have made. Surely the ring gates could be great way of exploring this but the authors have nothing really to say on it.
Destroying it all felt inevitable and without weight or depth. The whole crew/family are pretty gritted against loss over the 9 books so emotionally, that everyone isn’t weeping over each other rings true for the characters but unfortunately, I didn’t care that much either. Weirdly, the stakes, and in reality we’re talking about the fate of the entire human species, didn’t feel high enough.
Finally, the little epilogue was kinda fun and silly but also really bad. I guess it was necessary, being a series about humanity’s expansion into the universe and having destroyed the gates, we needed the payoff that we’d make it back out there in the end, but Amos being there was even more unnecessary and silly.
So that makes it sound terrible. I think I’m negging because I am disappointed but, I did enjoy the read, just not where the journey ultimately took me.
On a more positive note, the characters are still great and the relationships get to play out nicely and you do feel the warmth of the crew/family.
