Caliban’s War is the second book of The Expanse by James S.A. Corey. The main thesis I put forward in my review of the first book, Leviathan Wakes, is that this is space opera with mass appeal. It is good entry-level science fiction for those new to the genre, as it isn’t clotted with hard science fiction concepts or terminology, and is characterised by an action-packed plot that will carry readers through the book. It is also a book that more seasoned science fiction readers can enjoy, with an interesting approach to the space opera space genre, that feel both traditional and contemporary. Characterisation is solid and there’s some thematic meat.
Caliban’s War is more of the same, only bigger, better and badder (in a good way, in a good way).
In my review of Leviathan’s Wake, I deliberately avoided mentioning that James S.A. Corey is the pen name for writing duo Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. This is common knowledge and tends to be repeated in every review of the book. I mention it now, because I think it (mistakenly) underpins a comparison that is often made to The Expanse. That is, I’ve often seen these books described as Game of Thrones in space.
Franck, as I trust we all know, was George R.R. Martin’s executive assistant (and perhaps still is? I don’t know, though I assume given the success of The Expanse he’s soon to retire from all forms of work and obligation, and spend his time lighting cigars with one hundred dollar bills). Likewise, Abraham, a fine writer under his own name, is a friend and colleague of Martin’s, and has adapted his work for comics. It’s tempting to explain the comparison between The Expanse and Game of Thrones as being a product of these connections, as well as the fact that Martin has endorsed the series with generous blurbage. (I’m pretty sure the comparison doesn’t hurt sales none, either…)
Caliban’s War, though, actually makes this comparison far less superficial than it is for Leviathan’s Wake. In Caliban’s War we have an external threat to humanity in the form of the Phoebe protomolecule, which was let lose in the previous book only to crash into Venus where it is doing some mysterious engineering that nobody understands, but everybody assumes can’t be good.
Meanwhile, while this external, potentially humanity ending, threat sits on Venus (pish! pshaw!), biding its time to strike, the people of the colonised Solar System squabble amongst themselves, divided into the political factions of Earth, Mars and the Outer Planet Alliance, or OPA to those with an affection for acronyms (okay, okay, technically an initialism, I know).
In this sense, the comparison to Martin, I would think, is obvious. In A Song of Ice and Fire and its TV adaptation, we have the massive otherworldly threat in from the Others (that’s White Walkers for those of you who avoid the written word) lurking over the Wall in the North, while the rest of Westeros largely ignores this and fights amongst themselves in comparatively petty power struggles. It’s this backgrounding of the major plot, and foregrounding of other subplots, which has given his series expandable braces, allowing (forced?) Martin to stretch out a story that could be told in perhaps one or two books into what is now a lengthy series.
The same goes for The Expanse. If this was a story about humans meeting the hostile alien protomolecule, it could have been told in a duo logy at most, and it would probably be very similar to many first contact stories. However, this main plot is told slowly in the background in the series, and the focus of Caliban’s War is the politically manoeuvring and fighting between Earth, Mars and the OPA.
Caliban’s War offers twice as many point of view characters than its predecessor, allowing for a bigger canvas and more sprawling tale. The shantytown feel of the Belter stations in the Asteroids that characterised much of the first book is missing, which to tell you the truth I missed. However, Corey uses his alternating perspectives to explore other interesting parts of the galaxy only foreshadowed in the first book, such as Earth, Mars and, most prominently, Ganymede.
The only returning point of view character, for reasons obvious to anybody who picked up the first book, is James Holden, now captain of The Rocinante, who, with the same old crew of Naomi, Amos and Alex, is running odd jobs for the OPA and its leader Fred Johnson.
I pointed out in my review of Leviathan’s Wake that one of the major themes of that book was the opposing views of justice as expressed through the characters of Holden and Miller. Well, that theme continues to be explored in this book, sans Miller, as Holden starts to empathise, and mirror, some of the attitudes of his lost comrade in arms, to point that it threatens not only his own personal relationships, but potentially the political balance within the Solar System. This book’s suggestion, that this frontier attitude to justice is often driven by a sense fear and helplessness, makes a lot of sense to me in the post-9/11 world we live in.
There is a slight sense of déjà vu in the character of Dr. Praxidike Meng, or Prax to his friends (like myself). He is biologist working on the planet of Ganymede, the breadbasket of the Asteroid Belt. When Ganymede is attacked by a creature that may or may not have some relationship to the Phoebe protomolecule (spoiler: it does), Prax’s young daughter, Mei, goes missing, forcing Prax into a quest to find her, at times feeling quite reminiscent of Miller’s dogged pursuit of Julie in the first book.
I was critical of the lack of female characters in the first book, and Corey makes up for that in this book by giving us two splendid women as point of view characters, as well as further developing returning character like Naomi Nagata (who was frankly such a perfect female specimen in the first book she smacked of male idealisation).
The first new female point of view character we meet is Gunnery Sergeant Roberta ‘Bobbie’ Draper, a Martian marine, stationed on Ganymede when shit goes down at the start of the book. She is the action hero of the book, and gives proceedings a beefy flavour of military science fiction. Though Bobbie spends much of the plot lost and confused as a pawn in political games, when she gets chance to kick arse she does so in a most satisfying way. Her power armour, while a nice homage to the mil SF tradition, is given a unique spin that makes it an interesting use of that particular trope.
Finally, there is the character of Chrisjen Avasarala, who is so delicious the makers of The Expanse TV series seems to have moved her forward into the first season. Avasarala is a politician from Earth, working in the United Nations as the Assistant Undersecretary of Executive Administration. She is a foul mouthed older woman who steals some of the best lines in the book (I would offer examples, but we’re on at family friendly timeslot here).
Along with Prax, she brings some genuine pathos to proceedings, as we slowly learn that her tough and gruff exterior masks the trauma of losing a beloved son. Avasarala epitomises the nice balance in the personal and political that Corey achieves in this book.
Though one problem is addressed from the previous volume in the series, another I highlighted in my earlier review of Leviathan Wakes remains, and that is the cartoonish, paper thin villains. Look, as a left-leaning, socially progressive individual, I like to stick it to the Man, and score cheap shots against corporate greed and power hungry politicians, as much as the next tree hugging hippy. However, a little more political sophistication and a lighter touch with the mustachio twirling would improve these books immensely.
A short side note in closing. Between Leviathan Wakes and this book, Corey wrote a novella called “The Butcher of Anderson Station”. This is well worth a read too, though it is only available electronically. Not only is it a well executed, compact slice of military science fiction, it also elaborates on the character of Fred Johnson nicely, and makes some simple, but elegant observations about the moral injury of war and the pathways to political radicalisation.
Review by Luke Brown
Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey
Paperback, 595 pages
Published June 26th 2012 by Orbit
ISBN 1841499900
