the year in books [XX]

I picked up Leviathan Wakes a few months ago because I'd heard great things about it. Good science fiction can be hard to find, so the Expanse Series is a goldmine. The first book had me hooked, and I've been plowing through them with wild abandon. The Expanse is set apart from most other science fiction books because it's gritty, raw, and it looks at a possible future in which humanity remains explicitly human. Science fiction books - at least those set in the far future - tend to take on a utopian atmosphere, in which humankind has made leaps and bounds and has transcended into a higher consciousness. Not so with The Expanse: we're still just a bunch of scared, foolish, stupid hairy apes trying to make sense of the world as we satisfy our more banal natures. There are nine novels set in the Expanse universe, along with a handful of novellas (I include the first six of each here). If you're into science fiction, this series is a no-brainer. Five big-ass stars!