Spoiler-free book guide
Leviathan Wakes
Book 1 of 9 in The Expanse · by James S.A. Corey
How it opens
Jim Holden is executive officer of the Canterbury, an old ice hauler that carries water from the rings of Saturn to the Belt. When the ship picks up an emergency signal from a light freighter of Martian registry beside a lone asteroid, the law obliges the Canterbury, the only ship nearby, to stop and render aid. On Ceres Station, the Star Helix Security detective Miller sees the organized crime families letting things slide, and it makes him jumpy. Captain Shaddid gives him an extra contract on the side, a kidnap job: find a young woman named Julie Mao, detain her and ship her home.
Who you meet early
- James HoldenJames Holden was an Earther serving as executive officer aboard the ice hauler Canterbury, a former United Nations Navy soldier who had never quite left the idealism of that old life behind.
- Naomi NagataNaomi Nagata was a Belter engineer, nearly two meters tall, who worked as chief engineer aboard the Canterbury, a water hauler running the outer planets.
- Amos BurtonAmos Burton is a tall, stocky mechanic from Earth, serving as an assistant engineer aboard the Canterbury, amiable by nature but entirely unbothered by violence.
- Shed GarveyShed Garvey is a medical technical officer aboard the Canterbury, a belt-run ice hauler, doing what he can to keep a working crew healthy on long hauls through the outer planets.
- Josephus MillerJosephus Miller is a detective on Ceres Station, a Belter who has lived there his whole life, and he wears a porkpie hat and plays very good poker.
- ShaddidCaptain Shaddid is the Star Helix Security site manager for Ceres Station, a woman who ran her post on her own terms, hair loose around her shoulders in quiet defiance of corporate regulations.
Where it sits
Leviathan Wakes is the first of 9 books in The Expanse. Start here.
Next · Book 2
Reading Leviathan Wakes now?
Set your chapter and the Expanse wiki shows only what you have reached. Characters you have not met yet do not appear.
The opening on this page is written only from chapters 1 and 2 of Leviathan Wakes. Character notes are the wiki’s public introductions, the same ones it shows before you set any progress.