It’s a waste, a senseless tragedy of war.

And when the bloody battles of the Rocinante’s ongoing fight with the Laconian Empire get people killed, it’s not heroic or grand or inspiring. The insurmountable James Holden, who began his story nine books ago as a crusading hero who never knew doubt, spends most of this volume a shadow of himself, suffering from crippling PTSD after the events of Tiamat’s Wrath. Not only is the book the only full length Expanse novel to be narrated partially by a villain, it’s also, to my mind, the series’ darkest entry yet. Even in this final volume, Corey offers up new ideas faster than ever before. It would be easy for Corey to leave the churn in the series’ core, to grant readers one simple, happy ending, but then Leviathan Falls wouldn’t be as unsettling as it is. Or, if we happen to live through it, well that doesn’t mean anything either.” When the jungle tears itself down and builds itself into something new. The void of space, the expanse, is the only thing that survives, and even when forgotten heroes and “great men” rage, rage against the dark, none of it lasts forever.Īs the oddly philosophical Amos Burton says, “When the rules of the game change. Dark times come and go, and so do good, good people die and empires fall and worlds and nations are born and fade away, and history finds a way to leave everyone behind in the end. It’s a term he coined, and a difficult one to explain, but in essence it’s the idea that nothing ever stays the same. Since the beginning, Corey’s novels have always been about the Churn. Leviathan Falls, the final book of The Expanse, is not such a gentle ending. To take a self-celebratory victory lap with a few hundred pages spent tying up loose ends, have characters reminisce about how good the series has been, and then sail gently into the golden glow of fan nostalgia.

That’s what you give up to get a place among the stars.” – James SA Corey, Leviathan Fallsįor an author as successful as James SA Corey has become, it would be easy to coast at the end of a series. “Nerving yourself up to kiss your big crush for the first time? Or getting because the apartment one over has a nicer view than yours? Playing with your grandbabies, or drinking beer with the from work because going back to an empty house is too depressing? All the grimy, grubby that comes with being locked in your own head for a lifetime.

Leviathan the expanse