It’s been more than a week, but I’m finally back with my thoughts on the second Expanse book, Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey. Because this is a review of the second book in a series, there will be spoilers for the first book. I can’t help that. So if you haven’t read the first book in the series and you think you might pick these up, read on at your own risk. You can also check out my review for the first book, Leviathan Wakes, over here.
Caliban’s War picks up a year and a half after the end of Leviathan Wakes. Earth and Mars are on the brink of war; Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are working for the Outer Planets Alliance; and everybody is watching Venus, which is doing some weird things. Then someone releases a human modified with the protomoleckle onto Ganymede, and everything explodes. Mars and Earth tip ever closer to war, and Ganymede, the breadbasket of the solar system, swings toward a total chaotic collapse. Holden quits working for the OPA and instead joins forces with a botanist from Ganymede whose five-year-old daughter was kidnapped at the same time the protomolecule was released on Ganymede.
At the same time, Bobbie Draper, a Martian marine who witnessed the first attack on Ganymede, joins forces with a high-level U.N. operative, Avasarala, to try and stop imminent war between Earth and Mars.
This book is really fast and exciting. As with the first book in the series, I loved the world building, but in this book Holden finally got some good character development, and the plot really pulled me in. It had both the personal stakes, the missing child, and the galactic stakes, the protomolecule threatening to destroy all of the everything. Also, there was a ton of political intrigue, and I loved watching Avasarala and Bobbie moving through that world and pretty much just kicking butt all the time.
In short, this was the book that really drew me into the series, and now I’m really excited to get the next one and see what happens.