After the whirlwind awesomeness of Leviathan Wakes, I knew the follow-up would have a hard time living up to my expectations. While Caliban's War does a good job filling in the world and giving us some great new characters to root for, I found many of the elements to be stunningly contrived. Most notable is how Prax meets up with the crew of the Rocinante - nothing about it feels natural at all. The emotions and conflicts among members of the crew feel painted on for the sake of drama, and never really feels right. Nevertheless, the authors know how to pull together a fun plot line and it ramps up nicely in the end. I just found it nowhere near as taut and gripping as its predecessor.