Leviathan Wakes: How The Expanse improves on its source material

Whenever someone gripes to me about how much they miss Game of Thrones, there’s always one question that shoots immediately out of my mouth, like a torpedo fired from a Martian warship, primed to destroy their misconception that no other show could be on par with HBO’s mega-hit.

“Why aren’t you watching The Expanse?”

The reasons for the Game of Thrones comparison are pretty straightforward. The Expanse is one of those shows that’s almost a little confusing on first contact — there are so many factions and characters that it can be hard to keep your run-of-the-mill Belters straight from your OPA thugs and your Martian marines. But that complexity is what gives it such vivid life, and vastly deepens the rewatch value. Ever since I first gave the space opera a chance back during its first season, I have been utterly hooked.

Like Game of Thrones and other terrific shows in the genre, The Expanse is also bigger than the sum of its parts. There are excellently written (and acted) characters and a huge and complex political ecosystem where every decision they make has unexpected consequences. And my, are those consequences jaw-droppers. This is a story that is not afraid to think big, as it chronicles humanity’s first discovery of alien technology and the difficult growing pains that it causes.

It’s also based on a best-selling book series written by James S.A. Corey. Never heard of him before? Don’t feel bad: The Expanse is the only series credited to the novelist, who is actually two novelists. Corey is a pseudonym for two authors: Daniel Abraham, author of The Dagger and the Coin and a bajillion other works; and Ty Franck, who worked as an assistant to none other than George R.R. Martin. Considering that both authors have worked with Martin in the past, it shouldn’t be surprising that The Expanse has a few story and storytelling parallels with A Song of Ice and Fire. But unlike that mammoth series, The Expanse book are currently nearing completion. As of this writing, there is only one more left to go: eight out of nine books have already been published.

Recently, I took the plunge and read Leviathan Wakes, the first book in the series. It was only a matter of time, really, considering how thoroughly the show hooked me. But what I found there shocked me. Some minor SPOILERS follow below.

The Expanse, it turns out, is one of the most faithful TV adaptations of anything I’ve ever read. But here’s the real eyebrow raiser: it is not a one-to-one adaptation of the events in the books. Not even close. In fact, I don’t think that I’ve watched an adaptation that played with its source material so much, but somehow managed to stay so true to the tone, ideas and big picture plot of its literary counterpart, save for perhaps the first Jurassic Park film.

And that’s where we make another interesting discovery. Like Jurassic Park — the screenplay for which was penned in part by the book’s author, Michael Crichton — The Expanse has its authors’ DNA stamped all over it. Both Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck have been a part of the show’s writers room since all the way back in season 1, a choice that was pretty unconventional at the time.

In the novel, there are only two main viewpoint characters: Detective Miller (Thomas Jane), and James Holden, the captain of the Rocinante (Steven Strait). Aside from a prologue and epilogue, which are told from different points of view, the entire first book is told through the eyes of those two characters, who were written by Abraham and Franck respectively. The other main character from The Expanse’s first season — the Earther diplomat Chrisjen Avasarala (played by Shohreh Aghdashloo) isn’t even around until book two.

The decision to bring her in early is one of many examples of how The Expanse’s screen adaptation deepened the story of its source material. It’s almost as though the show’s writers worked back through the novel, and every time they came across a place where the tension could be ratcheted up a little to make it better television, they took the leap.

The differences continue. When Holden, Naomi Nagata, and the rest of the stranded survivors from the Canterbury are waiting to be picked up in their little shuttle, suddenly the life support system starts failing. In the book, they simply cruise along. On the show, when they’re picked up by a Martian warship, it’s revealed to the rest of the group that their pilot, Alex, used to be in the Martian navy. In the book, this is just commonplace knowledge that they all already knew. The Protomolecule attack on Eros, which is so terrifyingly beautiful to behold that it’s mesmerizing in the show, is described in a much more horrific and gross fashion in the novel. Studying the show and book side by side, The Expanse is littered with these small expansions of drama.

This is perhaps best illustrated with the climactic chase that ends Leviathan Wakes, and acts as the mid-season finale of season 2 of the show. Without digging too deep into the spoilers, let’s just say that having the viewpoint of people on Earth during this event ratchets the tension up to 11 in a way that just having POVs in space simply cannot accomplish. Just one more excellent decision the show made to — dare I say it — improve upon its source material.

Image: The Expanse/SyFy/Amazon

Another thing that struck me as I read Leviathan Wakes was just how well cast the show is. The descriptions of pretty much every single character are spot on with not only the actors’ looks, but their portrayals of the characters. The next time I feel the urge to make excuses for shows when they make odd casting choices, The Expanse is going to be the gold standard I refer back to for how it can be done right. It’s easily on the level with Game of Thrones in terms of casting, and might even be better in some cases.

Looking back on The Expanse’s first four seasons, it’s pretty clear that the development team behind this show is doing a seriously amazing job at bringing the books to life. While I have heard that later novels have more deviations (especially book three, Abaddon’s Gate, which was condensed into a half-season’s worth of material), the choices that the writing crew have made thus far still leave me full of confidence that the show is only going to get better.

I’d like to leave you with a snippet from Leviathan’s Wake, one that perhaps illustrates how faithfully the show has adapted the book. It’s a perfect example of the attention to small details that the show has kept at the forefront, even when it makes large changes.

"The [Rocinante’s] galley had a full kitchen and a table with room for twelve. It also had a full-size coffeepot that could brew forty cups of coffee in less than five minutes whether the ship was in zero g or under a five-g burn. Holden said a silent prayer of thanks for bloated military budgets and pressed the brew button. He had to restrain himself from stroking the stainless steel cover while it made gentle percolating noises."

And here’s the show:

Seasons 1 through 4 of The Expanse are available now on Amazon Prime, and season 5 is nearing the end of filming.

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