Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey

Published 2011 · 576 pages · 166,795 words · about 10 hours at an average pace · Science Fiction, Mystery & Crime, Thriller & Suspense

How hard is Leviathan Wakes to read?

Leviathan Wakes scores 39 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 58 out of 100
Leviathan Wakes incorporates a moderate level of specialized science fiction terminology, such as 'Epstein Drive,' 'gauss turrets,' and 'point defense cannons,' which are integral to its world-building. Additionally, the dialogue features a distinct 'Belter creole' with phrases like 'que' and 'dui,' adding flavor without significantly hindering comprehension due to contextual clues. This places its vocabulary complexity above contemporary fiction but well below works rich in archaic or highly academic language.
Sentence structure: 50 out of 100
The novel employs a generally clear and direct prose style, with sentences of moderate length that prioritize narrative flow and action. While some sentences feature compound structures and subordinate clauses, they rarely become excessively nested or grammatically demanding. The syntax is more varied than simple declarative sentences, yet it remains highly accessible, ensuring a smooth reading experience.
Abstraction: 42 out of 100
The narrative of Leviathan Wakes is predominantly concrete and action-oriented, focusing on physical events, character interactions, and immediate plot developments like space battles and detective work. While underlying themes of political tension, corporate power, and human identity in space are present, they are explored through the characters' experiences and dialogue rather than extensive philosophical digressions. This keeps the content grounded and less abstract than works like *The Great Gatsby*.
Information density: 68 out of 100
Leviathan Wakes presents a high information density, rapidly introducing a complex solar system with multiple factions (Earth, Mars, Belt, OPA), detailed world-building, and a fast-paced, multi-perspective plot. Readers must actively track numerous characters, political dynamics, and technological concepts across interwoven storylines. The narrative demands consistent attention to absorb the rich texture of its universe and follow the quickly unfolding events.
Narrative indirection: 35 out of 100
The narrative directly presents events and character motivations, minimizing the need for readers to infer core meaning. For instance, the opening chapter explicitly outlines the premise, and characters like Miller and Holden articulate their confusion or intentions clearly, rather than implying them through subtle cues. This directness positions it closer to '1984' than works requiring significant reading against the grain.
Symbolic density: 25 out of 100
The text prioritizes literal plot progression and character development over pervasive symbolism or allegory. While themes of corporate power and political tension are evident, they are conveyed through explicit dialogue and events, not through a dense layer of symbolic motifs. This approach aligns more with the directness of 'Diary of a Young Girl' than the rich symbolic tapestry of 'Moby-Dick.'
Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
The narrative maintains a largely earnest and direct tone, with minimal ironic detachment between the text's surface meaning and authorial intent. Characters' internal thoughts and external dialogue are presented straightforwardly, without the complex subtext or unreliable narration found in works like 'Lolita.' The emotional engagement is direct, akin to 'It Ends with Us.'
Resolution withholding: 40 out of 100
The excerpt introduces numerous plot mysteries and cliffhangers, such as the identity of the attacking ships or the fate of Julie Mao, which drive the narrative forward. However, these are presented as puzzles awaiting resolution within the story, rather than fundamental ambiguities about meaning or open-ended thematic questions. This is a plot-level withholding, not an interpretive one, placing it closer to 'Beloved' in its expectation of eventual narrative closure.
Structural complexity: 45 out of 100
The primary structural element is a dual point-of-view narrative, alternating between Holden and Miller, with clear chapter demarcations. While it includes some flashbacks and summaries, the timeline remains largely linear within each perspective. This straightforward, consistent structure is more complex than a linear romance but lacks the formal experimentation or fragmented chronology of works like 'Ulysses' or 'Flights.'

How Leviathan Wakes is regarded

Leviathan Wakes holds a literary regard score of 36 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Prizes

Where Leviathan Wakes sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (322 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Leviathan Wakes scores 66 out of 100. A second mythos, romance, pulls at it with a weight of 0.3. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic
Just a guy who used to be a cop.
Symbol: Formal
The circle of life on Ceres was so small you could see the curve.
Mythos: Tragic Pathos (Irony iv) (irony iv)
He took off the brakes, pushed, and went inside Eros for the last time.
Genre: Romance + Novel
Ceres didn’t have laws. It had police.

Where the story of Leviathan Wakes takes place

  • The solar system, roughly two centuries from now, the main setting
  • Colonised solar system about two centuries hence: Ceres, Eros, Tycho Station, the Belt and Venus

5 things that are true of Leviathan Wakes, with the passage for each

  1. Holden's water hauler, the Canterbury, is destroyed by a stealth ship's nuclear torpedoes, leaving only a cloud of vapour.

    She’s a cloud of vapor the size of Olympus Mons. She’s gone, Boss.

  2. Holden's medic Shed Garvey is killed in his bunk aboard the Donnager by a gauss round that takes his head.

    One moment, the medic was there; the next, his head was gone from the Adam’s apple up.

  3. The Rocinante's name comes from Don Quixote's horse, and Miller picks the ship out of port logs because of it.

    Literally meaning “no longer a workhorse,” its first entry was as the name of Don Quixote’s horse.

  4. Miller shoots Dresden, the Protogen executive, in the head after Dresden tries to buy Fred Johnson off.

    Dresden’s head snapped back, blooming red.

  5. The Nauvoo is aimed at Eros, but Eros dodges it without moving Miller's magnetic boots.

    And without so much as overcoming the grip of Miller’s magnetic boots, Eros Station had dodged.

Scenes in Leviathan Wakes that Frye would name

40 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Anagnorisis, untitled
The dead of Eros weren’t dead. Juliette Andromeda Mao was alive. Miller realises the voice of Eros is Julie's, and the plot turns.
Sparagmos, untitled
An outcropping of the thing shifted toward her. Compared to the whole, it seemed no larger than a toe, a little finger. It was Captain Darren’s head. Julie finds her crew melded into a living mass around the reactor.
Pathos, untitled
She’s a cloud of vapor the size of Olympus Mons. She’s gone, Boss. The Canterbury's crew is wiped out in a sacrificial death scene.
Sparagmos, untitled
The reactor stood before him, quiescent and dead. All around it, a layer of human flesh. The Protogen ship's crew has become a dismembered, remade mass.
Alazon, untitled
A million and a half people is small potatoes. Dresden is the self-assured impostor-visionary of Protogen.
Demonic imagery, untitled
it was a human torso—rib cage, spine, trailing lengths of what used to be intestines The feeds from Eros show the infested station in demonic, dismembered imagery.

Books that share these scenes with Leviathan Wakes

About the author

James SA Corey