Review: Caliban's War

Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Seriously. Now?” she said. “We’re talking about your captain going off to his death, and all that’s going through your head right now is ‘Ooh, boobies!’ ”



Most of what I said for the first book can be applied here, with Holden again playing a major role, alternating the POV with a politician who is a regular professional Spin-Doctor. The slang which made it sometimes hard to get in the context of the story in the first book is not as heavy or I am now used to it. Thinking back to the first book and the first few episodes of the TV-Series, I found it difficult to understand at first, part of the reason may be that I am German, English being my second language, with a leaning to British English, so I am no Native, and notice the differences between US and UK (which will soon not be a U anymore, and cutting the ties to Europe, sadly).

Some commented rightly, that the story-line is similar to the first book: searching for a girl. That could have warranted 1 star less, but I am ok with that, as long as the next book is different, hopefully it is. Also I wonder, why they suspected during searching the girl may be dead, avoided discussing it, but did not think not discuss the far worse outcome that I saw coming, that she would be alive but genetically enhanced becoming protomolecule?!

In hindsight I think the banter between Holden and other crew-members seems lighter than the first book, also a bit more realistic.

One strange thing is the title, which I had to Google, it is a character from Shakespeare "The Tempest", see Wikipedia for more (also, as it is in the Public Domain, you could download an ebook): Wikipedia The Tempest.

Thinking about what happens, the title should have been "The Cascade". Think of a chain-reaction of tumbeling domino-pieces in a row.

The technology and biology, as far as I can tell, is solid and based on extrapolation of current technology logically into the future.

Not really working as a standalone, you should have read the first book "Leviathan Rises".
For me a solid 5 star, but some may think less of it.
The book ends with a whopping cliff of a hanger I did not see coming.
Highly recommended. Will certainly read the short stories, novellas and the next books in the series.

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