A few weeks ago Jaquandor recommended to me (via email) Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey. It’s space opera so I immediately decided to give it a try.

I often find scientifically plausible science fiction tiresome. I want warp drive, artificial gravity and all that other cool, made-up stuff. Come on people, it’s fiction. But Leviathan Wakes, which takes place entirely within our solar system, mostly in the asteroid belt, is a great story that doesn’t make an issue of the science or lecture the reader on scientific concepts.

The story is told from the viewpoints of two very different men. One is young, idealistic and righteous. The other is older, perhaps wiser in some ways but also something of a loser. He is given the mission of finding the missing daughter of a wealthy couple but soon learns that some people do not want her found and he was only given the assignment because his superiors thought he would not be able to do it.

The younger man is the leader of four survivors of a space ship disaster. This odd pair team up to try to find out who or what is destroying spacecraft and what happened to the missing girl and why nobody wants her found. This is a mystery and a war story with just a bit of romance.

“James S. A. Corey” is the pseudonym of two collaborating authors. This bothers me a bit. I don’t have a problem with either pseudonyms or collaborations but if there are two authors I expect to see two names on the cover.