Damn, this is a FUN read.

Leviathan Wakes was a good book. An enjoyable read. A solid start to the series.

Caliban's War, though - this is where the pedal hits the metal. Scratch that, it's where the reaction mass hits the fusion chamber of the Epstein Drive and punches the series into high G manouevers.

This book tops its predecessor in pretty much every way, and it's just pure reading pleasure.

The structure of the Caliban's War explicitly negates one of my minor criticisms of Leviathan Wakes, in that the story no longer exclusively follows the viewpoints of two (male) characters - now we get to see events from the perspective of UN politician Chrisjen Avasarala, James Holden, Martian marine Bobbie Draper and Ganymede botanist Praxidike Meg.

These multiple perspectives make the book both pacier and more engaging than Leviathan Wakes, and closer to the structure of the Syfy (and then Amazon) series based on these books.

As for the story, it's a high-stakes tour through the now-warring solar system, with Mars and Earth at each other's throats. Holden and his crew are pirate-hunting for the rebel belt organisation the OPA, using their shiny Martian frigate to police the anarchy of the wartime void. Meanwhile it looks as though someone, somewhere has figured out how to weaponise the protomolecule, and is about to test it against a group of Martian recon marines on the surface of Ganymede...

And so it goes. Ships taking torpedos and going down with all hands, the protomolecule bubbling away on the surface of Venus, a supersoldier program that could end life on Earth or Mars and James Holden once again finding himself caught in the middle of it all.

There are enough differences from the series to make it interesting, even if you've seen every episode already, and a pleasingly hard-SF sense of time and distance that by storytelling necessity is dialed back in the Syfy/Amazon interpretation of these books. Some of the characters are less likeable - Prax is a real safety liability in this novel, and far more likeable in the TV series - but it works in the context of the book.

Overall It's a real rollercoaster, and I can't wait to read book three. Get a copy. You won't regret it.

Four point five shouts of "get-those-goddamn-PDCs-online-or-we're-all-eating-vacuum!" out of five.