Leviathan Falls

A satisfying end to an excellent trilogy of trilogies. Really enjoyed these stories, this book included. I particularly admire the professionalism of the writers, cranking out book after book reliably while holding down a TV show as well. And I don't mean "cranking" perjoratively, the quality of writing and plotting and ideas has been consistently great through all the books.

So why only 3 stars? As always, my ratings are 1 star below most, so call it 4. Why not more? Because as fun as this book is, it left behind what I liked best about the Expanse books. The humanism, the exploration of human cultures. The high point of the Expanse for me was the development of Belter culture, all the details like the tattoos and the language and the economics and the awkward politics of near-anarchists. Or the Laconians with their fascist empire built on high tech and the impact that had on the people living under their thumb.

This book drops all that and focusses more on the grand science fiction story, the protomolecule and the gates and the monsters that live in the other universe. And that stuff is interesting! But I preferred it when that was the backdrop and the real story was about human interactions.

The new social idea the book could have addressed is the hive mind. But that idea was undeveloped. There's some clumsy comparison between forced telepathic unity vs. the "working together like a machine" of the Rocinante crew but it was pretty thin. You could imagine a whole book dedicated to the hive mind as something more complex than just a nightmare. I think I've read that book actually. But this book is not that.

This book is more of a rollicking space adventure fighting the Big Bad and it's just not what I liked best in the series. It is well executed for that though and I appreciate them bringing the story to a satisfying conclusion.