Welcome to the future. Humanity has colonized the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond – but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for – and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer, Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations – and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

I’m not much of a Science Fiction reader. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, I do, it’s just that, for whatever reason, when it comes time to choose my next novel of the pile, I always gravitate towards Fantasy. Nothing inspires me more, however, when one of my favourite Fantasy authors turns his attentions to rocket ships, outer space and laser guns.

James S.A. Corey is a pseudonym taken by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. It’s no secret that I have an enormous literature- and man-crush on Abraham. Not only that, Leviathan Wakes eschews the ordinary far-future setting and looks to tell a story of spaceships in a time when humanity still has yet to leave our solar system. This (relatively) near-future setting is more than enough to catch my interest and separate Corey’s effort from the rest of the Science Fiction cluttering up my bookshelves.

For a closer taste, you can head over to Abraham’s website and read the prologue from Leviathan Wakes. Then clear some space on your reading list for what’s sure to be one of the year’s more impressive ‘out-of-nowhere’ novels in 2011. Don’t believe me? Just check out The Wertzone’s review and bask in his enthusiasm.