Leviathan Wakes

Julia Mao has been locked in a closet, seemingly forgotten.  She floats in zero-G.  Mostly fearful, she quietly suffers captivity.  Eventually, she calls for help but no one comes.  She kicks the door from its hinge and searches the empty ship.  Where is everyone?  In engineering, she finds a strange goo on the reactor.  She recognizes a crewman reaching zombie-like from the goo.

 

The ice hauler Canterbury makes regular runs from the dwarf planet Ceres in the belt to the rings of Saturn where it collects ice.  A distress call is received from the freighter Scopuli and the Canterbury is the nearest ship.  Executive Officer James Holden, an Earther, is dispatched with a small crew on the shuttle Knight to rescue any survivors.  No sooner have they boarded the derelict freighter than they discover it is a trap.  The Canterbury is destroyed and the five crewmen aboard the Knight are now the only survivors of some Martian plot!  Moreover, the flagship of the Martian fleet is en route 'rescue' them.

 

Meanwhile on Ceres, Detective Joe Miller has been given a side job: find the missing daughter of a wealthy industrialist and send her home.  It's a kidnap job.  During his investigation, the destruction of the Canterbury and belief that the Martians were responsible creates a riotous atmosphere.  He soon learns that Julia Mao had joined the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA), generally considered a terrorist organization by the inner planets (i.e. Earth & Mars).  He tracks her to the Scopuli.

 

The story takes place in a future where humanity has spread throughout the Solar System but has yet to reach another star.  There are no gravity generators, phasors, transporters, disintegrators, or other sci-fi magic.  The story is told from the points of view of Holden and Miller, slowly revealing the underlying plot and the fate of Julie Mao.  The political situation is well-developed, with Earth, Mars, and OPA factions.

 

The first 15 episodes of The Expanse TV series are fairly faithful to the book.  There is some time compression and minor changes.  Also, Avasarala is never mentioned in the first book; her part was either taken from later books or created to introduce the character immediately.  The most obvious difference is that Belters are tall.  Naomi towers over Holden in the book though not in the TV show.  Seven foot tall skinny actors are not plentiful enough for casting this series.

 

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