Books like Leviathan Wakes
What should you read after James S.A. Corey’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- James S.A. Corey
- 2011
- Space opera
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after Leviathan Wakes
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchCaliban's War
James S. A. Corey
The direct sequel, and the book where the series finds its permanent shape: new viewpoint characters worth loving, Avasarala swearing at everyone, the same braided crisis.
- Cold war between three powers
- Holden and Miller in alternating chapters
- A crew you'd want to serve with
- Assumes you've read book one
Great matchRed Rising
Pierce Brown
For the class fury under the Belters' grievance, turned into something far more violent: a low-caste miner infiltrating the people who own his life.
- Belt politics and low gravity
- Cold war between three powers
- Brutal, arena-style violence
Great matchOld Man's War
John Scalzi
The same appetite for banter, competence and a war whose shape nobody bothers explaining to the people fighting it. Scalzi is lighter on his feet and less interested in politics.
- A crew you'd want to serve with
- The protomolecule horror
- No detective plot
Worth a look — with a warningRevelation Space
Alastair Reynolds
Ancient alien machinery and a universe with hard rules, investigated by people you would not want anywhere near your ship. Colder than Corey by several degrees.
- The protomolecule horror
- Ships that burn and flip
- Slow, dense opening
Great matchPersepolis Rising
James S.A. Corey
The series jumps thirty years and hands the solar system to an empire. It hits hardest if you have watched the crew age, so read the middle books first.
- A crew you'd want to serve with
- Cold war between three powers
- Book seven — heavy spoilers
Best for the alien horrorHyperion
Dan Simmons
The Shrike is what the protomolecule aspires to: an incomprehensible thing the whole book circles and never explains. Structured as seven pilgrims' stories.
- The protomolecule horror
- Holden and Miller in alternating chapters
- No ending; sequel required
Great matchConsider Phlebas
Iain M. Banks
A big, grubby, high-body-count chase through a war between an empire and a civilisation of machines. Space opera with the throttle open and a bleak streak running under it.
- Cold war between three powers
- Ships that burn and flip
- Episodic, uneven middle
Great matchAncillary Justice
Ann Leckie
Swap the noir for imperial etiquette and you get the same interest in how large powers grind up small people, narrated by something that used to be a starship.
- Cold war between three powers
- Belt politics and low gravity
- Very little action anywhere
Great matchNeuromancer
William Gibson
The noir instincts Miller carries around came from here: a burnt-out operator, a job that is really a trap, and orbital real estate owned by people you will never meet.
- A hard-boiled detective in space
- A crew you'd want to serve with
- Cyberspace, not vacuum
Best for the detective plotAltered Carbon
Richard K. Morgan
The purest noir on this list: a murder, a client who can afford anything, and an investigator who solves it largely by absorbing punishment. Miller would recognise the method.
- A hard-boiled detective in space
- Belt politics and low gravity
- Graphic violence and sex
Worth a look — with a warningThe Reality Dysfunction
Peter F. Hamilton
Hamilton at maximum volume: dozens of viewpoints, a colonised galaxy, and an invasion so strange it changes genre halfway through. Commit or don't.
- The protomolecule horror
- Cold war between three powers
- Holden and Miller in alternating chapters
- 1,200 pages, book one of three
Best for the engineeringThe Martian
Andy Weir
If what you liked was competent people solving vacuum problems with arithmetic, Weir gives you nothing else for 350 very entertaining pages.
- Ships that burn and flip
- A crew you'd want to serve with
- One man, no politics
What should you read after Leviathan Wakes?
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey — the direct sequel, and the book where the series finds its permanent shape: new viewpoint characters worth loving, Avasarala swearing at everyone, the same braided crisis.
If what stayed with you was belt politics and low gravity, read Red Rising by Pierce Brown instead: for the class fury under the Belters' grievance, turned into something far more violent: a low-caste miner infiltrating the people who own his life. Old Man's War by John Scalzi is the other strong option — the same appetite for banter, competence and a war whose shape nobody bothers explaining to the people fighting it. Scalzi is lighter on his feet and less interested in politics.
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