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

I had high hopes, and Leviathan Wakes started off doing all the right things but as it went on it progressively got worse and worse. The blokey-ness (and psuedo-military and police speak) was a poorly executed attempt to take from Starship Troopers and Bladerunner (yes, I mean the movie), and a real turn-off for me. The dick jokes and other highly male sexual innuendos, I'm sure were meant to be playful ship banter, but were locker room trash and not witty or clever (haha, how funny that he's got something sticking out of his penis).

Technically, this didn't really get worse as the book went on, but I guess Fred was in it more as it went on... anyway, 'Fred said' had a frequency of about 4 or 5 times per minute. While 'Fred said' is particularly grating, all the dialogue was repetitive and insipid, normally following the pattern of: The engine looked broken. "I think the engine busted", Fred said. While that's not a real quote, it sums up most of the book; everyone seemingly feels to need to make completely obvious statements constantly. The ethical discussions between the characters were phrased in this jolty reportage, and were extremely basic and uninteresting to read. It essentially boiled down to simple binary discussions of freedom of information vs protectionism and vigilantism vs international legal process, and they weren't explored from interesting angles either.

Finally, I have major issues with the plot. Why would Holden's tiny team of survivors who are not particularly highly trained suddenly be kicking arse in military and para-military scenarios? They're nominally supposed to be grieving (oh wait, they drank that away... and as Miller says, that definitely fixes it), but also they're obviously intentionally flawed characters and to some extent are supposed to be ordinary citizens (or at the very least not the highly skilled elite). I understand wanting to have relatable characters and most of your readers are going to be ordinary citizens who might be a bit tired of the straight-forward hero trope, but characters should solve the issues facing them with actions and abilities that are compatible with them. There were also many, many unbelievable leaps of intuition, faulty decision making processes, plot holes, and tired stereotypes.

For me, this goes on the pile of very popular, over-hyped books that turn out to be quite disappointing. There's plenty of other science fiction with more depth, better plotting, and better characters, Leviathan Wakes just doesn't cut it.

Content Warnings

lefthandlou's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

Content Warnings

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.25

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judassilver's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.25

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zoeoz's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Funny, heartfelt, suspenseful, and utterly unexpected in many ways. I was recommended this book by a friend and was not disappointed. While I definitely found myself more attached to some characters than others, I really enjoyed all of the cast.

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