Caliban's War

Starred review from May 14, 2012
Corey (a joint pseudonym for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) returns to the politically charged future solar system setting of Leviathan Wakes for a sprawling space opera thriller. Eighteen months have passed since the now defunct corporation Protogen tried—with horrifying results—to harness an alien molecule with the power to rearrange living and inanimate matter. The planet Venus is now infected with the molecule, which may be controlled by an extra–solar system intelligence. The shaky détente among Mars, Earth, and the Outer Planets Alliance shatters after aliens attack Earth and Mars forces on Ganymede, making it look like Earth was the aggressor. Capt. James Holden, lately of the OPA, joins up with a botanist on Ganymede whose missing toddler might be the key to this new incident, while U.N. diplomat Chrisjen Avasarala and Martian soldier Bobbie Draper try desperately to avoid interplanetary war. This breakneck tale will have readers itching for book three.

May 1, 2012
Part two of the topnotch space opera begun with Leviathan Wakes (2011), from Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). Previously, a dangerous alien protomolecule was weaponized by an amoral corporation and field-tested against a habitat in the asteroid belt, bringing Earth, Mars and the Belt to the brink of war. Thanks to whistle-blowing Belter spaceship captain Jim Holden, all-out war was averted and the habitat diverted to Venus. Now, the protomolecule has taken over that planet and appears to be building a gigantic, incomprehensible device, a development viewed with alarm by the great powers. Then, on Ganymede, a creature able to survive unprotected in a vacuum, immune to most weapons and hideously strong, wipes out several platoons of marines. Fighting breaks out and the great powers teeter on the brink of war. Mysteriously, just before the monster's appearance, somebody kidnapped a number of children who all suffered from the same disease of the immune system. Botanist Prax Meng, the father of one of the children, asks for Holden's help in finding his daughter. As Ganymede's fragile ecosystem collapses, Holden flees with Prax. Meanwhile, on Earth, fiery old U.N. bigwig Chrisjen Avasarala realizes she's been outmaneuvered by forces in league with the corporation that thinks to control the protomolecule. The characters, many familiar from before, grow as the story expands; tension mounts, action explodes and pages turn relentlessly. Independently intelligible but best appreciated after volume one--and with a huge surprise twist in the very last sentence.

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Starred review from June 15, 2012

On Ganymede, which once supplied food to the outer planets, Martian Marine Sgt. Roberta (Bobbie) Draper survives an encounter with a monstrous alien protomolecule that has already established a base on Venus. As Earth and Mars threaten to come to blows, a far-seeing UN administrator seeks to unite both factions. When a scientist's child goes missing, Outer Planets Alliance peacekeeper James Holden and his crew agree to search for her, and the endeavor takes him into the center of a political and military storm that might destroy the galaxy. Coauthors Daniel Abraham (The King's Blood; The Dragon's Path) and Ty Franck, writing as James S.A. Corey, have crafted a worthy sequel to Leviathan's Wake. VERDICT Compelling characters and a plot that combines political intrigue with military sf create a memorable story that begs for film adaptation.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.