Reviews with content warning for Death - L'Éveil du Léviathan

Reviews tagging 'Death'

L'Éveil du Léviathan by James S.A. Corey

88 reviews

m_hates_reading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Leviathan Wakes - The Expanse Book One by James SA Corey

5/5 loved every moment.

Sci-fi has been a massive part of my life for as long as I can remember. So far, The Expanse is seeming like the perfect compilation of all the the best parts of science fiction - and there’s just enough real-world physics to keep me from nearly screaming every time I turn a page because there’s no possible way what’s happening is feasible under the conditions.

I have a love hate relationship with multi-pov books bc I always find I like one character way more than the other, and only really enjoy their chapters, but I think it’s used really well here. It’s third person closed (focused on a specific character’s experiences and only uses info that character has at the time) and alternates focus between the two main characters each chapter. I found the split-focus did a really good job setting up the novel, as I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of world I was going into. It worked with one characters story line setting up the politics of it all, and the other the action, until they met up in the middle - at the same point those two parts of the story collided

- a war broke out.

It also worked to really build the conflict between the characters throughout the story - both “good guys” but with very different ideals and opinions about humanity’s nature - and gave the relationship much more depth and meaning.

Unless I’m going to be incredibly nit-picky and pull out specific sentence structure I would have changed - I have not one complaint.

I’ve started the series on recommendation by my English teacher, and it’s actually kinda surprising that he got my style perfectly right based of just a couple conversations about specific books and teaching me.

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jessgj's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

So the first thing you need to know about this book is that it feels like 2 books happening at the same time. The book moves between two narratives, the space opera and the futuristic noir. For the space opera, we're in the head of the idealistic (Some might say naive) Jim Holder, th leader of the surviving crew of the Canterbury. The noir follows Miller, a nihilistic cop who has seen better days who was assigned to find a missing girl, Julie Mao.

Sometimes the book gave me whiplash from the tones from the two POVs but in a good way. The book is very much a slow burn, which isn't my style but it does give you enough room to understand both characters and their very flawed and at times, tragic thinking. And while the book does have some old-school sci-fi feels, it does a good job of setting up some toxic "romantic" tropes in the genres and then calling both characters out for them.

Also, if you're worried about finishing the book but not feeling compelled to continue with the series, don't worry. It does answer the questions contained in the book while setting up a much bigger and more dangerous world for our characters.

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theblerdnewsletter's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I had this on my TBR for almost 10 years and my partner started it and got me into it. This was a bit slow to start, as most good sci-fi is, but picked up really quickly. The audiobook format is pretty good, with the voice actor doing different voices for each character. I loved it honestly.

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yoursupremereads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

You know how when you read a Crichton novel you felt like you were smart because his books had a way of just laying out the scientific rules of the worlds he created? Well James S. A. Corey has done that but based everything in Leviathan's Wake on actual science. This is an adventure on a galactic scale. Literally.

Humanity is spread over the Milky Way from Earth all the way to the asteroid belt and the consequences of that expanse (ha see what I did there?) of space when it comes to the analysis of this world's political intrigue was awesome. If something was happening in the Belt, because humans have been colonializing asteroid satellites in our galaxy's asteroid belt for generations in this world's timeline, then news about what's happening there would take lots of time to reach other pockets of civilization spread across the galaxy. Add to that a crew of of Belters and Earthers who are set up to solve a mystery regarding a newly discovered alien bioweapon that threatens to throw the galaxy into full out war and you have yourself an modern sci-fi epic that's deeply captivating and arresting.

Content Warnings

mazomazli's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The premise was super interesting and I enjoyed the mystery aspects. It could’ve been a 4.5 star rating if it weren’t for the constant gross man writing. I was so exhausted from being constantly pulled away from the story to hear about underaged or unlicensed ‘whores’ who were constantly brought up by the detective main character the entire book despite never meeting one of these characters. Both of the main perspective characters were not very likable to me mostly because of how they interacted with women. It was extremely weird. When Holden starts describing how ‘exotic’ Naomi was and breaking down her ethnic background I legit sat there listening to this book going ‘don’t do it don’t do it oh my god stop don’t do that’.

Also

did the authors REALLY have to have cosmic horror coming out of a dead woman’s VULVA?! What was the reason? WHAT WAS IT?

I still really enjoyed the mystery but I will not read any more of these books. I do not want one more chapter in the head of these authors. I will however check out the TV show and maybe it will be less blatant without the narrator going off on unnecessary horny and weird tangents.

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annailles's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

idksamiguess's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

amandabcook's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

thecolourblue's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A strong start by the authors coming to symbolise modern sci-fi. The Expanse has it all: complex characters, moral quandries, political intriques, class warfare, intriguing sci-fi concepts... I hope the rest of the series is as good!

Content Warnings

dwellordream's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

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