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

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.

Content Warnings

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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nebulous40's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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

5.0

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rcholst's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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beyourbestshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

3.75

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bookdreamer's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Sci-fi is not my genera. I have a hard time understanding the detail and finer points of stories with a lot of moving pieces, and this book is all over the solar system. As the mystery dragged on in the first half I was feeling it was more of a two or three star read, but the second half and ending made it a four star. I almost cried at the end, I was not expecting to love these characters but I'm still thinking about them after setting the book down over a day ago.

It's not light reading. There was a lot of information and switching between two perspectives that forced me to pay attention to what was going on between the lines and making sure I was following the plot. I'm still confused as to how (view spoiler) but you don't really have to understand to move on in the plot. I get how it ended, anyways. The blend of genres was interesting: noir, mystery, military, political, and of course, sci-fi. The books were written because James Corey wanted to write about the gap where humanity has explored the solar system, but not quite yet expanded outside of that. This is the push that moves them forward.

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