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

I read this after a Sanderson kick, so maybe I’m comparing apples to oranges, but if Sanderson is apples, these are tiny mouldy oranges left at the bottom of my lunch kit as a child. The first section of the novel, despite having the highest stakes possible, was hard to care about or believe in. From there, you’re met with a slog of exposition – telling and not showing, telling and not showing, and more telling and not showing – to the point that I felt exhausted. And, while I know one of the heights of sci-fi for some people revolve around its explanation of the science in the world, I couldn’t love the overexplanation of every little piece of technology. (Also, for a book in outer space, I really had to hear a lot about these two men’s balls. Please. Never again.)

Characters: 2.75⭐️/5

I would love to give this a higher mark, but how do you have so many characters and so few female characters that stand out? They really felt like accessories to the men: ready to make them look good, ready to be set down when the moment wasn’t right for them, and ready to be picked back up to adorn them at the end. We also follow two men who, despite trying to do their best, are so concerned with playing hero that they felt a bit fake – and incredibly boring.

Plot: 3⭐️/5

Did I enjoy the parts of this plot dedicated to being sexist? Not particularly. Do I have to hand it to the authors for making a story I couldn’t quite predict? Maybe. I did enjoy parts of the plot and, at certain moments, I almost started to love it. Of course, it was usually in those moments that we resorted to sexist tropes, unnecessary exposition, and/or the defilement of a woman’s body. Is there something interesting happening in this novel? Most certainly. I’m just not certain I would recommend it based solely on that.

Who Should Read This Book?

Fans of sci-fi who aren’t balked by a little sexism/misogyny

Content Warnings?

Body horror, death, gore, grief, war, genocide, suicidal thoughts, rape, sexual assault, misogyny, sexism, murder, blood, injury, injury detail,

Post-Reading Rating: 3⭐️/5

I wanted more from it, and also so much less.

Final Rating: 2.75⭐️/5

Content Warnings

nrhernan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

You can definitely tell this is written by men, but they also seemed to be trying to write women well. Also, the benevolent sexism didn't cross over to gross for me, but I can see where others would disagree, especially where Miller's obsession with Julie is concerned. One mitigating factor for me is that it's clear pretty early on that he can't really hurt her no matter how obsessed he becomes.

Content Warnings

singalana'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? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

From the back cover of this book: “Praise for the expanse: “The future they way it was supposed to be.” - Wall Street Journal”. Hell, if this is Wall Street Journal’s idea of what the future is supposed to look like, then sign me OUT. Oh boy, where to begin with this one. The main feeling after finishing this book was confusion. Maybe it was too smart for me, or perhaps this is just the prelude to the series. But this book is over 500 pages long, and I felt like I ended up with more questions than I started with.

This is a space warfare sci-fi and a detective story rolled in one. The story follows two characters: Jim Holden, an ice miner who stumbles on a dangerous secret, and detective Miller, who has been tasked with finding a girl and bringing her home. The story takes these characters through all kinds of trouble as they navigate governments, organisations and corporations in order to save humanity.

As you might imagine, this story is extremely action packed, and the stakes are always high. Even so much so that it becomes exhausting at times. The characters feel very flat to me, and so much more could have been done to develop their personalities and made them stand out a bit more. I just read 500 pages of them, and I would struggle to write one sentence about who they are as a person.

The writing was okay. The events were partly confusing but I’m not sure if I can pin that on the writing or if I just don’t understand space warfare enough to be able to follow. The plot and events were confusing, but I’m hoping that more will be revealed after the first book. After this book I’m still interested enough to give the next one a try.

One thing that bothered me about this book was how much there were casual mentions of hookers, brothels and prostitutes. And they all seemed to be women. You’d think that if they wanted to display a gritty hellscape, then there would be at least a variety of prostitutes. The women in this book appeared to be either prostitutes, victims or love interests, especially during the first half of the book. It got slightly better in the second half, perhaps due to the fact that none of the characters had time to think about brothels anymore.

And I read more sentences about the main characters' balls than I would have liked.

Content Warnings

mugs_it_is's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

Content Warnings

obviousthings's review against another edition

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Very cool setting, but I felt like the female characters were mostly just there for the male characters to have feelings about. I read to 44% to find out what happened to Julie and it wasn't worth it.

Content Warnings

oksi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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mino88's review against another edition

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2.0

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gwooby's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

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