Cibola Burn (The Expanse)

Seriously, I love this series! Only downside I can think of is that, as I work in a bookshop, I had plans to read a whole lot of books this summer, but these totally captured me and had me reading all of them in my one week off.

All I want to do is read this series. That's the feeling I get by the time I'm a hundred pages in. With. Every. New. Release.

Most of what I read keeps only one of my eyes away from the clock. When I'm reading The Expanse, time vanishes, and I wake up in the next portion of the day. The series balances a rugged urban ethic bolstering its prose with genuine new ideas about the ramifications of encounter with a vast new form of consciousness. And then a third.

The author(s) probe the meaning of humanity in the face of sweeping political, technological, and psychological changes. Each character is nuanced and real and immediate. As the narrative advances, the choices for exploring how the introduction of a personality like James Holden into any environment changes its dynamic prove to be amazing. For instance, the character Elvi, a scientist, is the one who actually finally experiences direct contact with not only the executive branch of the network that created the protomolecule, but the much-rumored assassin of said civilization, rather than our much-tested hero. Perfect example of how his charisma enhances the powers of those who join him.

Anyway. Read the thing. Right when I thought it would go no further to challenge my resolve to continue suffering its plot twists, it leaped forward once again to spike the tension seemingly beyond human limits. Our god is an awesome god.

This was a bit of a let down after the space opera of Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate (both of which I rate at 5 stars), and it felt more like a filler novel - something to lead to the next big thing. Having said that, the ending makes me highly anticipate the next novel, which I suspect will return to the epic nature of the series.

Good continuation to the series but just 50 pages in and the story seems almost forced. James Holden magically is needed to save the day and just happens to be in the area. It is not as fluid as the previous stories but hopefully that will change.

Good continuation to the series but just 50 pages in and the story seems almost forced. James Holden magically is needed to save the day and just happens to be in the area. It is not as fluid as the previous stories but hopefully that will change.

Extraordinary work. The interplay between characters is a joy to read. Holden, Amos,Alex, Naomi and Miller are all worth rooting for again. Fabulous weaving of conflicting agendas. Just a great read

I find myself agreeing heartily with other reviewers. I was instantly converted into a fan of The Expanse series, but this book left me with a poor experience.

The first thing that took me out was the premise and the plot. The opening idea is that, as soon as we are faced with the ability to jointly colonize thousands of worlds, a single ship made a run for one of them and started squatting there. This is asinine. First of all, I don't understand how a mom-and-pop ship of motley Ganymede outcasts would beat the UN, the OPA, and Mars to probing the new worlds, let alone just flying right past Fred Johnson and the OPA's Medina Station to go and squat, and everyone just allowed them to. Previous books in the series have always been about the power-struggle between these forces, and how they never give an inch, but an independent vessel shooting through the ring (which is the one and only ship who got this idea in the whole of the Sol system, apparently) just glides on through.

So if we suspend our disbelief enough to allow for this, we can now have a plot contrived around the idea of the Wild West, and who can claim land and who makes the laws. If you didn't catch on to that initially, it will be mentioned repeatedly during the struggle between Holden and his obstinate, cartoonish antagonist.

Which brings me to the antagonist (and his equally obstinate right-hand man). They are simply self-destructive, unrealistic hazards that somehow ingratiated themselves into the upper eschelon of a massive corporation that we are repeatedly sold to the notion are one half of a morally grey tapestry, and are reminded constantly that they're not the bad guys, they're just here to claim what has been given them by the various governments of Sol. Except they employ psychopathic megalomaniacs, and employ scorched earth tactics when faced with opposition. It becomes very hard to see the "grey" in this conflict. And erstwhile good-intended characters follow along with this mania, because they're just "following orders".

This is the Michael Bay version of The Expanse. It's a situation of humorously-escalating apocalyptic stakes, one-dimensional characters who behave outside the realm of believability, and a deus-ex-machina (literally) that solves the plot in an "everyone wins but the bad guys" scenario. It doesn't detract from the Bay comparison that the former kepeers of Ilus indeed remind one of the modern Transformers (another lazy creation).

But the thing that bugs me the most, out of everyone, is the character of Elvi Okoye. We are constantly reminded that she is attractive, but quirky to the point of being unaware of how dorky she is. I guess it should be hilarious (?) every time she starts passionately talking about science and then whomever she is talking to verbally pats her on the head (this happens many times). Worse still is her immediate puppy-dog infatuation for James Holden. She is immediately head-over-heels in love with the intrepid hero, to the point where it is ruining her ability to function as a normal human being. And how is this resolved? By her getting laid. The one-dimensional female caricature is "fixed" by simply getting some, and her obsessive fantasies dissolve. Once again, she is simply pacified by the men around her.

I get that not every woman in the universe has to the the bad-ass ambassador for women's rights (though I would've loved some more Bobbie Draper in this book, to be sure), but this is patently in the wrong side of the field. I was honestly insulted by her character.

This is a transition novel in every sense of the phrase. I have no doubt that the payoff resulting from this will be great (the last line of the book spoken by Avasarala gave me a chill up my spine), but the road there is bumpy. I feel like there is this grand notion of where the series is going, but to get there we had to just suspend rationality and accept this novel as the bridge that got us there. If I find myself reading The Expanse again (I will no doubt re-read the original trilogy), I will be skipping Cibola Burn.

having read the author's previous works i was looking forward to this next book being released. as expected a fantastic read very much in fitting with his earlier works. while you don't have to read the earlier books to enjoy this one i highly recommend doing so. there are just so many characters with such intricate and lengthy story lines. the only bad part, waiting for the next book and the next saga in this epic space opera.

I would have given this more stars BUT,

it is full, and I mean FULL of grammatical errors...I mean, sure, the Belters have their own language but, when not in Belter talk, well, an editor should have gone over this book with a fine tooth comb! It gets irritating simply because it derails the fluidity of the story (and it is fluid). Note to Mr. Correy, hire a new editor or get good ole spell check FIXED before your next book sir!

Energetic, intense and funny. This is more like the first book in Expanse. Book 3 was slow...like travel in the ring. This book is fast and well written. Very much looking forward to the next one!

If you read the previous books this should be right up your alley. If you were kind of meh on the last one, I'd probably skip this.

The book does remind me of the writing duo's tendency to get absorbed in completely boring bureaucratic intrigue. "The U.N. Vice High Commissioner on Martian Affairs smiled slyly as she considered how her rival--the U.N. Deputy Undersecretary for Senior Junior Rights--had miscalculated her yet again, and would face the wrath of the Undersecretary General Pro Tempore at the next Closed Chamber Executive Session!"

Also, the name salad is a bit much. I get it guys, in the future everyone will be a mix of different backgrounds. My kid will be a mixed background. It'll be great. But seriously, when everyone is Muhammad O'Sullivan, Vladimir Kabila-Wong, and Washington Valenzuela, it gets kind of hard to imagine what these people actually look like. Everyone just becomes a featureless, colorless, gender neutral blob talking to one another. Especially when the only thing you have to go for them by is that they have "thick facial features".

If you read the previous books this should be right up your alley. If you were kind of meh on the last one, I'd probably skip this.

The book does remind me of the writing duo's tendency to get absorbed in completely boring bureaucratic intrigue. "The U.N. Vice High Commissioner on Martian Affairs smiled slyly as she considered how her rival--the U.N. Deputy Undersecretary for Senior Junior Rights--had miscalculated her yet again, and would face the wrath of the Undersecretary General Pro Tempore at the next Closed Chamber Executive Session!"

Also, the name salad is a bit much. I get it guys, in the future everyone will be a mix of different backgrounds. My kid will be a mixed background. It'll be great. But seriously, when everyone is Muhammad O'Sullivan, Vladimir Kabila-Wong, and Washington Valenzuela, it gets kind of hard to imagine what these people actually look like. Everyone just becomes a featureless, colorless, gender neutral blob talking to one another. Especially when the only thing you have to go for them by is that they have "thick facial features".

Great follow-up to the Expanse Trilogy. Holden and his crew are trying to mediate between clam jumping settlers and a rich unfeeling corporation. The authors do a good job of pointing out the evil on both sides of the equation, although they do finally settle on one side being the good guys. Hoping there is more to the series.

I'm really enjoying this series. The writing is great and so was the editing - very few typos or grammatical errors. I'm taking a bread to read a long awaited installment in another cool series The Rho Agenda, The Meridian Ascent. But I have purchased The Expanse #5 Nemesis Games and will enjoy it after I finish the Meridian Ascent.

I'm a HUGE fan of this series and I always look forward to the next release but this one just didn't do it for me. This book felt very much like it was just a setup for the next stage in this amazing universe. I had a hard time caring for the new characters and the villian was just predictable and boring. This whole story could have been greatly condensed and released as a digital short story.

I'm a huge fan of the first three books in this series but this one is not as good as those. I'm not sure where this universe is going with all of the gates and the ancient structures. The story telling was fine but a bit slow compared to prior books. I'll give the next book a go but I hope it's a better continuation of the series.

This was the most disappointing book in the series. Character development was poor, the story teased some really interesting concepts then failed to pursue them further. There were so many unanswered questions.

The expanse is my favorite current science fiction series. the quality of the writing is quite good. The characters are well done, many of them portrayed with depth and with strong personalities. If you have seen the TV series based on the first volume, you will know what I mean: great diversity.

This is the fourth novel in the series and like the other three I've had a difficult time getting any sleep because I can't put it down. Corey blends tech and seat of the pants tension in a way few authors can. Read it, it isn't the authors fault Hatchette is too dumb to see the benefits of the store and e books.

I'm a HUGE fan of this series and I always look forward to the next release but this one just didn't do it for me. This book felt very much like it was just a setup for the next stage in this amazing universe. I had a hard time caring for the new characters and the villian was just predictable and boring. This whole story could have been greatly condensed and released as a digital short story.

I'm a huge fan of the first three books in this series but this one is not as good as those. I'm not sure where this universe is going with all of the gates and the ancient structures. The story telling was fine but a bit slow compared to prior books. I'll give the next book a go but I hope it's a better continuation of the series.

This was the most disappointing book in the series. Character development was poor, the story teased some really interesting concepts then failed to pursue them further. There were so many unanswered questions.

The expanse is my favorite current science fiction series. the quality of the writing is quite good. The characters are well done, many of them portrayed with depth and with strong personalities. If you have seen the TV series based on the first volume, you will know what I mean: great diversity.

This is the fourth novel in the series and like the other three I've had a difficult time getting any sleep because I can't put it down. Corey blends tech and seat of the pants tension in a way few authors can. Read it, it isn't the authors fault Hatchette is too dumb to see the benefits of the store and e books.

Cibola Burn continues the Expanse without any letdown. Great action, excellent characterization, and very detailed world/universe building combine to make this one of my all-time favorite sci-fi series.

Excellent plot and characterization. If only Hollywood movies could be this much fun. One of the few books I have read that I didn't want to end so I could spend more time in this beautifully imagined world. I hope more in this series will be forthcoming.

As other reviews have said, this is a middle book, connecting parts of the larger story. With that said, it's a good read and provides some insight into the protomolecule builders. I enjoyed it and really looking forward to the next installment.

Started too slow and unfamiliar. After about 100 pages, hit its stride and Holden novel, with Amos quips. Mysterious forces impose a series of plagues of seriously biblical proportions, and the tension around how to save the day ratchets tighter nearly to the end.

Cibola Burn continues the Expanse without any letdown. Great action, excellent characterization, and very detailed world/universe building combine to make this one of my all-time favorite sci-fi series.

Excellent plot and characterization. If only Hollywood movies could be this much fun. One of the few books I have read that I didn't want to end so I could spend more time in this beautifully imagined world. I hope more in this series will be forthcoming.

As other reviews have said, this is a middle book, connecting parts of the larger story. With that said, it's a good read and provides some insight into the protomolecule builders. I enjoyed it and really looking forward to the next installment.

Started too slow and unfamiliar. After about 100 pages, hit its stride and Holden novel, with Amos quips. Mysterious forces impose a series of plagues of seriously biblical proportions, and the tension around how to save the day ratchets tighter nearly to the end.

This is another fantastic story of the crew of the Roci. I can't wait for the next one. The world beyond the rings comes alive and we enter a new frontier that reminds me in all the best ways of westerns and Firefly.

Reading the series has been a pleasure so far. Before starting Cibola Burn, I re-read the previous books, and they were just as much a joy as the first time. The fourth book in the series was no exception. I recommend these books to anyone, not just sci-fi lovers.

THESE, I love. Totally awesome Space Opera. I've loved detective Miller from the very first book, & still think there's life in the protomolecule....at least I hope there is. And the crew of the former Mars fighter ship....awesome. The characters live vibrant lives that one totally shares through the pages of the book, and then mourn when the book ends. ("Book" ends, not the crew.) Kudos for Mr. Corey! Live on, dude, live on!

The fourth book in The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey, Cibola Burn, was released on June 17, 2014 and I devoured it in three days. Things are going well for Corey right now as earlier this year it was announced that SyFy has decided to make a television series out of The Expanse books, ordering a first season of 10 episodes, describing it as their "most ambitious" series and "Game of Thrones in space." Then, just a few weeks after Book 4 (Cibola Burn) of the series was published, they learned that Book 3 (Abaddon's Gate) won the prestigious Locus Award for Best Science Fiction. Other books that have won the Locus award include classics of the genre like Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov, Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis and 3 of the 4 books in the Hyperion cantos by Dan Simmons. Great company! As you can see from my review, Abaddon's Gate is a really good book, but the truth is that Cibola Burn is possibly even better!

Abaddon's Gate is like a roller-coaster, a thrilling ride that ends with an "oh ****!" sequence that completely upends the set of rules we thought the Universe was abiding by, opening up the story to dizzying set of possibilities. Cibola Burn is not as "big" a story as Abaddon's Gate, but it is even more suspenseful (which I did not even think was possible). Cibola Burn is really more like a very good Western. After the events of the previous book (*spoiler alert*), there are now thousands of star systems, with who knows how many habitable planets, for humanity to expand to. So, basically there is a land rush on, and Cibola Burn is set on Ilus, one of the first planets that has been colonized by former Belters (people who were born and raised in space, in the Asteroid Belts). However, a mega-corporation named Royal Charter Energy who gets a charter from the United Nations to explore the planet (which they call New Terra) and its resources (especially it's very import lithium deposits). But by the time the RCE ship gets there, Belter colonists have been there for more than a year and someone plants a bomb and destroys the landing pad, damaging the main shuttle, killing the official UN representative (and most importantly) preventing RCE from getting a secure foothold on the planet.

Because even the fastest ship would take the better part of a year or more to get to the planet (and even signals from Earth take several hours to be transmitted), the humans are on their own trying to settle what is essentially a property dispute in a jurisdiction where the rules are "TBD." This is basically a wild, wild west scenario. So, how will humans in the future advanced civilization deal with an uncivilized situation rife with conflict?

This is the powder keg that Corey has set up as the primary explosive force behind the plot developments. For the first time in the series, the entire book basically deals with problems pertaining to one planetary system. Although there's also a bunch of new characters, the people we have been following for four books: James Holden (captain of Rocinante), his lover (and Rocinante executive officer) Naomi Nagata, pilot Alex Kamal and chief engineer Amos Burton return and we get to learn a lot more about them. My favorite character in the series, Chrisjen Avarasala (the profane grandmother who basically is the most powerful person on Earth), has a too-brief cameo in the Epilogue chapter along with Bobbie Draper, the huge female Marine who is so important in Caliban's War.

In addition to these characters, there are new people in the story who we get point-of-view chapters from: Basia (a Belter colonist on Ilus who is a father of two teenagers a bit over his head), Elvi (a Earther scientist who is sent by RCE to investigate alien life on the planet and finds herself the subject of one of her own experiments) and Havelock (an Earther who is working in the security department on the RCE ship and has appeared in previous books in the series in more limited fashion). Of these my favorite was Elvi (demonstrating once again that the all-male duo that is James Corey can fully realize female characters with the best of them!) However, the most memorable new character is the villainous Adolphus Murtry, the chief of security on the RCE ship and who turns out to be a psychopath).

Amazingly, Holden is sent to Ilus to serve as a United Nations representative to mediate between two groups of people who feel like they can basically justify any action if it leads to their desired result of control over this new planet. Since we know from the first three books in the series that Holden is pretty headstrong himself (and diplomacy is not his strong suit) it should not come as a surprise that the situation on Ilus/New Terra (the warring factions can't even agree what to call it) goes from bad to worse. And then the crazy alien stuff starts happening.

In my opinion, Cibola Burn is the best story in the series so far. It is incredibly suspenseful and exciting. However, in terms of the overall Expanse series there is not much development in answering some of the larger questions of the series (except one very big event that happens towards the end of the book that I will not spoil for you here except to say that it involves the protomolecule from Leviathan Wakes) and that is somewhat disappointing but frankly I was so gripped by the overall story that I absolutely devoured the book (which is not small) in roughly two days of reading.

The only bad thing about finishing this book so quickly is now I have to wait almost an entire year until Book 5 comes out. But I am cheered by the news that the series has been expanded from the original trilogy to nine books. Let's hope the SyFy television series will be as successful!

Title: Cibola Burn.
Author: James S.A. Corey.
Paperback: 592 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Date Published: June 17, 2014.
Date Read: June 20, 2014.

OVERALL GRADE: A/A- (3.83/4.0).

PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A.

The writers are worse and worse with every book. They forget that is supposed to by sci fi, science, amazing imagination ... No, they go for more soap opera. This book is 75% full of ..., Previous was 50, 2nd was 25, first was awesome

Previous books in the series have established a future in which the solar system has been claimed by three factions, but the stars are out of reach. The Expanse has done space opera right with touches of Aliens and Chinatown thrown in for flavor. However, much of the momentum created by the preceding novels has been wasted just as the universe has opened up.

Mild Spoilers: The initial setup of squatters versus corporation does a great job of pitting two equally grey groups against each other. Daniel Abraham (one half of James Corey) has always excelled at characters that are understandable despite their awful choices. Yet, the introduction of a stereotypical, mustache-twirling villain in the form of a security chief destroys this balance. The unnecessary escalation of violence followed by random dangers (storms, slugs, and algae) just feels sloppy. None of the new characters add much and the female character who essentially "just needs to get laid" is a bit offensive. The ending is compressed and rushed. Further, the lack of consequences to characters despite the constant cataclysmic events robs much of the tension.
End Spoilers:

Don't take my criticism to mean that you shouldn't read the book. I still highly recommend the series and look forward to the next entry, but I hope things pick up. The series is best when the characters aren't confined to a single planet.

While I love the series and this book does deliver, I happened to buy the audio books as well, the narrator of this book is terrible, voice is laggy and the voices he chooses have nothing to do with the characters. I'm happy they went back to the other narrator.

DO NOT BUY if you are a collecting all of the books!!!! The story is a 4, but the cover is an absolute travesty. The first three books had the title in large font on the spine, but this book has the author's name dominating the spine! Who is the heck does that?!?! Not even the big airport book authors put their name dominantly on the spine. How are you supposed to find the book on a bookshelf if they all say "James S. A. Corey"??? I will likely be returning this book and the next one because of the ridiculous cover design. See the attached pic for what I mean.

The fourth book in the Expanse series repeats some plot elements that appeared in the third novel in service of,the much larger expanded universe that the authors have created for their series of novels.

James Holden, Naomi Nagata, Alex Kamal and Amos Burton find themselves dragged to a newly settled planet called New Terra to settle a dispute between the unofficial settlers and the RHC corporation. The planet is a strange one--with creatures that are artificially created and part of the remains of the civilization that created the protomolecule. Holden continues to be haunted by the ghost of Miller who wants him to travel to the planet as well to help unravel what happened to the once great civilization that created the gateways to the stars.

Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck writing as James S.A. Corey continues to develop the main characters of the series giving them additional depth but that is at the expense of the new characters in the novel.

While the fourth novel in the series is quite good it doesn't exactly break new ground as the previous three novels did for the universe created by the authors. It's still a very good read but many of the secondary characters aren't as well developed as we've come to expect from the authors.

This is the best series of books, sci fi or other genre, that I've read in a long time. The t.v. series is good, but the books are better. The third, fourth and fifth books sagged slightly, but the sixth and seventh are the best of all. I could not stop reading and will be impatient for the final (?) two books of the series.

The writing is bright, clear and concise, the characters well-drawn, flawed and sympathetic. I'm no scientist, but the science as presented seems logical and is not presented in pedantic way. Read all these if you enjoy sci fi.

I intended to write this review for the entire series but it ended up as one for Cibola Burn. Still valid.

This review will be somewhat short, in that I will be commenting primarily on the audio book's narrators. All the books are great. . story wise and I highly recommend them.

The first three books are narrated by Jefferson Mays and truly does a spectacular job. He also wraps up the series. . . as far as it has come. . . with Nemesis Games. However, this book, CIBOLA BURN is read by Erik Davies. His flat and blocky cadence never lets you forget someone is reading. He does different accents reasonably well, but is pure amateur compared to the polish of Mays.

They changed narrators and the new one is uneven. The story is a wonderful continuation into the Expanse series and you have to start with book 1, Leviathan Wakes. Lots of others here have done great descriptions - all I want to add is THEY CHANGED NARRATORS.

I asked audible who choses the narrator and they said "the copyright holder" So I asked if James Corey holds the copyright and they said "yes"so it was his decision to go with Erik Davies for book 4. (yeah I know "he" is really two writers but legally "he" is one.) Remember when book 4, Feast of Crows, in the Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) changed narrators? They ended up putting that one out again with Roy Dotrice narrating it as he had done the others. Golly I hate when you have a terrific series with a terrific narrator and then they change to a bad narrator.

Revised: after I posted this I got a free audiobook of Cibola from the library and figured I'd see if I could push through - since I love these books so much. The odd thing is Erik Davies does wonderful character voices. It is when he is reading the basic narration that he gets into a staccato reading that is offensive.

Cibola Burn is the fourth book in James Corey’s Expanse series, a series that seems set to beat the record of the longest sci-fi set of novels since Asimov’s Foundation, since it now counts five volumes and shows no sign of nearing the end. Cibola Burn lives up to the quality of the initial trilogy, moreover, picking up where the alien rings were made available for travelling to and exploring new worlds. The crew of the Rocinante, led by captain James Holden, is now firmly in the place of resident heroes. A new world, named Ilus, has begun to be colonised, but predictably who is to do the job is disputed, with a scientific team backed by private muscle fighting for the privilege with a ramshackle group of Belter colonists. Holden is called in to arbitrate, but of course Ilus is not empty anyway, having once belonged to the creators of the rings. Fast-paced and richly characterised, Cibola Burn is a worthy instalment in the series.

At the end of the last book we left after the crew of the Rocinante helped open the gates to thousands of world. Two years later we find them headed to a mission to keep the peace between two different groups on the first planet to be opened. The crew’s old friend the protomolecule has been there and left danger for the new arrivals.

Like the three previous books Cibola Burn is non-stop science fiction adventure. There is the friction between the two groups, a sudden world wide storm, killer slugs, a disease like condition, ships in orbit without power, and people who think death is better than giving away one inch of the planet.

All of this comes together to make another great story in the Expanse series. Cibola Burn can be read as a stand-alone. While the back-story from the previous books is mentioned only a small part is needed in Cibola Burn. Like the back-story the most important world building for this story is done in Cibola Burn. The only element that is a big carry over is the character building that has been done for Holden and his crew. The rest of the story is filled with characters new to the series.

I'm fairly certain the original author didn't write this one, but instead it was farmed out to a few teenage girls and confused boys.

Quite a few incidents within this novel just F the crap out of even the most liberal "suspension of disbelief"... then the intermittent chapters of the author masturbating their egos with pretension of existential philosophy.

Got so darned annoying I pretty much was ready to just stop reading it... God I hope the other novels get better.

Oh yeah, and on the audio version of the book, WORST.NARRATION.EVER.

This guy's sleepy whispery voice has ZERO range, wooden, robotic, extremely inconsistent character accents... I swear the problems I had with the story were exacerbated by the narration, absolutely.

While I agree the narrator Erik Davies is not great, he's not as bad as everyone claims. He does get better as the book progresses. For the first few hours it sounds like Microsoft Bob is reading to you but he starts to hit his stride as the book progresses. Jefferson Mays sets a tall bar though and it's always hard having a new narrator in a book series when you're used to someone else. I do agree that Mr. Davies ought to find a new line of work overall though. This book, I agree, is not the best in the series. I have listened to books 1-4 and all 3 novellas and I'm starting to think I am going to take a break for a while before I continue on with book 5 and then book 6 in November. Each progressive book gets a little worse than the previous one. At this point the entire series is basically like a mix between Firefly and Alien Prometheus and is starting to get tired.

Fantastic sci-fi!. Absolutely incredible. I love this series.

Book four takes place on New Terra. One of the planets that are now available to explore and settle since Holden opened the gates in the last book. There is a lot of conflict on the planet and that's only the half of it.

James Holden is sent in to save the day…or start a war…or …who knows. But it's a job, so he and his crew or there.

Loved it. I highly recommend it as well as the first three books in the series that I've already read.

This is a continuation of the "Expanse" series that are being adapted to a series on the SyFy Channel. You will want to read the first two books to be able to understand the motivation and relationships of the key characters in this book. The majority of the book was exciting and had interesting plot twists. The ending was disappointing, and a bit contrived. I felt like the authors wanted to end the book as quickly as possible. They didn't think through the physics of all of the details. They just closed it off without explanations of how the events could have happened. I don't want to spoil the story with specific details on what I thought was a stretch for the reader. Read it an enjoy it for what it is.

Here's the problem. You read the first two books, which are excellent. You slog through the third, which is terrible. You continue on to the fourth hoping that it will improve. But it doesn't.

The scale of the first two books is immense, the action flows well, the characters stay in character. None of that is true in books 3 or 4. Characters do one stupid thing after another. Everything that happens is 100% predicable. For some reason, the author thinks that putting off the inevitable so that you and your friends get hurt and probably should have died is some kind of moral high ground - instead of Darwin Award dumb.

Every 1 in 1,000 chance comes in for the bad guys. Everything breaks wrong for the good guys, until the end when acts of god save them. Just the worst sort of pulp garbage. Afraid I'm done with the series.

Don't believe the haters on the novel itself--it's great and a good advancement of the wonderful Expanse series. My favorite of them...no. But a solid effort. HOWEVER, please, please DO believe the haters on the audiobook's narration. It's nothing less than gawd-awful. Just read this one on your kindle, or for a kick, go retro and get the paperback. Then you can return to the audiobooks for the next novel, when Jefferson Mays is narrator again (thank the gods). Cuz' Eric Davies sounds like a text-to-audio computer program who just wants to be a Real Live Boy....but isn't. His performance is truly unlistenable. This became the first audiobook I've ever had to return because I just could not get through it.

In sum, two stars for the novel itself (which I've now read on my kindle) being very good, but the narration being a crime against our ears.

With each installation in the "Expanse" series I find myself less and less enthralled with the story. If I'm being 100% honest, the first two books kept me reading because they dealt with relatable situations and topics that were set in a compelling vision of our species' future. The decisions and depravity of massive corporations affecting the future of human existence, the maneuvering of politicians to control and direct those events, and the ongoing impact of racial biases on the good of mankind could be ripped right from today's (and yesterday's) headlines. Since those original two volumes, the story has continued to evolve toward a far more fantastical vision of the future, with the sub-plots that I so enjoyed relegated to undercurrents mentioned in passing.

I am a fan of the Expanse series. Other readers have made good observations. My comment is a correction for the authors' understanding of the physics of heat.
In Chapter 40, they erroneously claim that a space ship is like a thermos, and that heat energy would slowly bleed away. However, while a thermos bottle and a space ship would both prevent conduction and convection heat losses, radiation of heat into space would be a serious drain on the ship's heat storage capacity. Spaceship designers could add a double wall with reflective material on both sides, in order to seal off radiative losses. This would also provide the benefit of reducing solar heating. However serious design calculations of heat generation, regulation, and exchange would be an important part of the ship design.

I'm only 5 chapters into this book and I don't know if I can finish it. I might have to read the paper book instead. The first 3 titles were extremely well narrated. This one is...not. I hope they get Jefferson Mays back for book 5.

The “protomolecule” at the center of The Expanse series continues to evolve in Cibola Burn, without giving up too much of its mystery. The story takes place on the other side of the wormhole created by the protomolecule, in a region of space populated by numerous potentially habitable planets.

The book blends together two storylines. One is the conflict between the first settlers on one of these planets, which they call Ilus, and the representatives of a giant corporation, Royal Charter Energy, which claims rights to the planet, which they call New Terra. The divisions that dominated the political context of the earlier books continues in that conflict — the settlers are Belters, bringing their hardcore miner culture with them to the new world.

The other story follows the protomolecule. The planet isn’t just a planet, and it doesn’t just happen to be on the other side of the wormhole. It has played a part, it seems, in the civilization that produced the protomolecule. And undoubtedly it will turn out to have played a part in the destruction of that civilization (if it actually was destroyed).

The two stories collide when all hell breaks loose on the planet, and we get a glimpse of how small the political divides and corporate aspirations are when stacked up against whatever is behind the protomolecule and the fate of its creators. I won’t go farther so as not to give away too much.

It’s a good adventure, with those sustaining core conflicts and the overriding mystery of the protomolecule. The authors continue to tell the story from alternating viewpoints, as they did in the earlier books. And many of the characters, in particular the crew of the Rocinante, led by James Holden (with his ghosty sidekick, Detective Miller), continue as well. That continuity ties the larger story together, giving us a constant line through the whole wide-ranging space opera.

I found this a faster, more compelling read than the earlier ones. Maybe that’s just because, by the fourth book of the series, we as readers bring enough context not to have to orient ourselves in the story. Or maybe it’s just got a stronger self-powered plot than the other books. In any case, it certainly didn’t disappoint. It was a fun read.

I have greatly enjoyed this series. This was a good read. Not quite as good as some of it's predecessors, but still an awesome story. The author continues to do a great job of raising the stakes. Every book presents a great new challenge for the heroes to overcome. The central conflict is interesting and has a fair amount of moral ambiguity. Unfortunately the central villain is the worst the series has seen. Where as every other villain has seemed to have logic or reason to there actions, this guy seems like they just wanted an "evil corporate guy" to stand in contrast to Holden. While a minor complaint, I feel it holds the book back from being potentially the best in the franchise. Also the epilogue has made me really excited to read future books in this series and encourages a second read to understand certain character motivations. All in all, if you like this series keep with it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: In my humble opinion, James S. A. Corey's Hugo-nominated and New York Times-bestselling Expanse sequence is the very best ongoing science fiction series on the market today! This is space opera on a grand scale as good as anything written by genre powerhouses like Peter F. Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds.

In every installment thus far, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the two authors behind this letter-filled pseudonym, have managed to raise the bar even higher. Hence, I was looking forward to reading this fourth volume and discover if Cibola Burn would be pushing the envelope even more! But sadly, it was not to be. For some reason, the authors elected to forgo the formula that made the first three books such memorable reads and tried a different approach which didn't work as well. At least as far as I'm concerned. . .

Here's the blurb:

ENTER A NEW FRONTIER.

"An empty apartment, a missing family, that's creepy. But this is like finding a military base with no one on it. Fighters and tanks idling on the runway with no drivers. This is bad juju. Something wrong happened here. What you should do is tell everyone to leave."

The gates have opened the way to a thousand new worlds and the rush to colonize has begun. Settlers looking for a new life stream out from humanity's home planets. Ilus, the first human colony on this vast new frontier, is being born in blood and fire.

Independent settlers stand against the overwhelming power of a corporate colony ship with only their determination, courage, and the skills learned in the long wars of home. Innocent scientists are slaughtered as they try to survey a new and alien world. The struggle on Ilus threatens to spread all the way back to Earth.

James Holden and the crew of his one small ship are sent to make peace in the midst of war and sense in the midst of chaos. But the more he looks at it, the more Holden thinks the mission was meant to fail.

And the whispers of a dead man remind him that the great galactic civilization that once stood on this land is gone. And that something killed it.

The main problem with Cibola Burn is that it appears to be some sort of interlude between the opening chapters and what will occur in subsequent installments. Previous volumes were sprawling space opera affairs that hit all the right buttons. This novel is much more limited in scope and is more of a transitional work.

The worldbuilding has always been one of my favorite aspects of this series. Unfortunately, by taking a step backward and limiting the scope of Cibola Burn, this particular facet leaves something to be desired this time around. And given how great the worldbuilding turned out to be in the first three volumes, this could be nothing but a disappointment. The politicking, so prevalent and intricately woven through the storylines in the past, is more or less absent in this novel. Or, more exactly, it takes place behind the scene as the Ilus situation escalates and is micromanaged by the powers that be. The payoff at the end is nowhere near as good as in previous installments. Even worse, after going through nearly 600 pages, the Avasarala epilogue reveals that the entire "interlude" that is Cibola Burn was meant to show that with this new frontier open to all comers, the powerful Martian space fleet, with their home planet soon to become a ghost town, will probably go to the highest bidder and might spark the first interstellar military conflict. The corporate power vs "innocent" squatters stand-off was interesting at first, but there was no way it could sustain a book of this size. Moreover, not known to take the path of least resistance, the authors occasionally went for the easy way out, which was kind of sloppy. All in all, this made for a less-than-engaging plot compared to the more far-reaching and multilayered plotlines that characterized the earlier volumes.

In the past, the stakes became higher as the tale progressed, with tension rising with each new chapter. The Expanse reached new heights with every new installment, gradually becoming a very complex science fiction tale. Which boded well for what came next, no doubt about it. Which makes me wonder, what with the series having gained such momentum, the authors decided to activate the hand-brake, so to speak, and pretty much bring everything to some sort of standstill for the duration of a novel.

What saved this book was the characterization. In that respect, at least, Cibola Burn is as good as its predecessors. Once again, do-gooder Holden is back as a POV character. Both sides of the conflict are perceived by men and women opposing one another lightyears away from their own civilization. Basia is one of the original and illegal colonists, while Elvi is one of the scientists traveling to study this new planet. Havelock, a security officer working on the ship bringing in the scientists and other people traveling to Ilus with a UN charter, is probably the most interesting protagonist in the novel. The protomolecule also has a POV of sorts which is linked to Miller's interactions with Holden. As mentioned, though the overall plot can be disappointing at times, the characterization continues to shine through.

Abaddon's Gate was paced in a way that made you beg for more, always promising yourself to read just another chapter, again and again. A veritable page-turner, that book was almost impossible to put down. On the other hand, Cibola Burn suffers from an extremely uneven pace and the rhythm does slow down and drag quite often. Our interest is piqued when Miller reveals new information about the ancient civilization which created the Ring and everything else. And yet, those sequences are few and far between, and we soon realize that the bulk of the story has to do with the conflict between the colonists and the corporation chartered to take possession of the planet.

Vast in scope and vision, the Expanse seemed destined to become one of the very best space opera series of all time. Well, sadly, Cibola Burn failed to live up to the lofty expectations generated by its predecessors. A good read in its own right, true, yet nowhere near as remarkable as the first three installments. The ending does open up the door for great things to come, but it remains to be seen if the authors can recapture the magic which made the first books so awesome.

For more review, check out Pat's Fantasy Hotlist!

The book seems great but it's the worst narration ever. The voice seems completely computer generated with very little emotion/character. Characters from previous books seemed intelligent and well articulated when read by previous narrators, but this narrator makes them seem completely daft. I'd pay for a different narrator if I could find one, but I may have to buy the book and read it because I don't know how much of this narrator I can tolerate.

We return to the Expanse universe with Cibola Burn. Again, we follow Jim Holden and the rest of the crew of the Roncinante as they remain involved in the most significant events in the Solar System (and beyond). In Cibola Burn, we start to see the implications of the worlds now open to humanity since Abaddon's Gate. It depicts the first conflicts in the struggle for power both on the ground, in New Terra (the first of those worlds to be colonized), and between the major political bodies of Earth, Mars and the OPA.

The book is an enjoyable read. Many of the tropes you'd expect in a "colonization of an alien planet" story are there. It wasn't really exciting, in terms of challenging, thought-provoking concepts. The cinematic quality of some parts did lend to a different kind of appeal, though.

Overall this book felt more like a transition from the beginning of the series to what will come next. It foreshadows upcoming problems in the political balance of the Solar System thanks to the availability of those new worlds, and leaves the door open for the "big strange unknown" of the force thay may have brought the Protomolecule Creators to their extinction. It left me very expectant about the next book.

This is the best series of books, sci fi or other genre, that I've read in a long time. The t.v. series is good, but the books are better. The third, fourth and fifth books sagged slightly, but the sixth and seventh are the best of all. I could not stop reading and will be impatient for the final (?) two books of the series.

The writing is bright, clear and concise, the characters well-drawn, flawed and sympathetic. I'm no scientist, but the science as presented seems logical and is not presented in pedantic way. Read all these if you enjoy sci fi.

I intended to write this review for the entire series but it ended up as one for Cibola Burn. Still valid.

This review will be somewhat short, in that I will be commenting primarily on the audio book's narrators. All the books are great. . story wise and I highly recommend them.

The first three books are narrated by Jefferson Mays and truly does a spectacular job. He also wraps up the series. . . as far as it has come. . . with Nemesis Games. However, this book, CIBOLA BURN is read by Erik Davies. His flat and blocky cadence never lets you forget someone is reading. He does different accents reasonably well, but is pure amateur compared to the polish of Mays.

Cibola Burn is a big book. Huge, really, both in terms of pages (nearly 600 in the version I got), and in pure authorial chutzpah. It is part four in the Expanse series, which has, thus far, included three books and a smattering of novellas. And it represents, for dedicated readers of James S.A. Corey (in real life, the two-man team of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) the biggest, most sprawling leap of an already sprawling tale.

Cibola Burn opens a few years after the events of the last volume, Abaddon's Gate. Our own solar system is now linked to a thousand other worlds by way of the Ring — a huge, alien gate that allows travel outside the Sol system and into a larger universe teeming with habitable planets. Where in the previous books in the series, we were constrained merely to our own little celestial neighborhood — a couple planets, a few moons, a bunch of asteroids, starships, wars and rumors of wars — now there is simply ... more.

More of everything. It's a land rush, with settlers already fanning out into alien space and various government bodies struggling to both contain the flood of humanity and deal with the colonists already breathing the alien air on Ilus — closest and most hospitable of the new worlds.

But this is all backdrop, really. The authors start large, on a canvas suddenly stretched to encompass a thousand planets, but quickly narrow down to focus attention primarily on Ilus — on the colonists already there and those in orbit who want them gone. And while this new, nearly limitless world is big, the authors corral it with attention to purely human-scale details.

Corey has a (two-handed) facility with the language of the small and uses it to give an almost comforting provincialism to the tale: Describing a newly (and banally) redecorated office aboard a former battleship turned space station, they write, "Sure, humans had invaded an extra-dimensional space with wormholes to points scattered across the galaxy, but they'd remembered to bring ferns."

And then there's Capt. Jim Holden — Corey's long-standing protagonist and one of a handful of POV characters who move the plot along. Though you'll have a solid chunk of pages in the rearview before he appears, Cibola Burn lights up from the minute Holden steps to the stage as captain of the light frigate Rocinante.

Holden is just one of those magic characters who feels lived in — an immediately recognizable archetype (the ex-military man now making do for himself and his crew) who doesn't appear to know he's an archetype. He is Malcolm Reynolds, Han Solo, or certainly one of their close friends. And honestly, despite one big explosion, several deaths, a shuttle crash and all manner of nefarious activities occurring before Holden makes his first appearance, Cibola Burn only truly takes off once he comes slouching into the tale.

To say anything more would be unconscionably spoilery, but I can say this: Fans of the Expanse series likely already know that it has recently been picked up for several additional books and as a TV series, and you only get that kind of attention as a sci-fi author if you've got a bit of Michael Bay in your DNA.

It takes some time to get there, but the second half of the book is a good payoff for all the exposition and pawn-moving you'll have to tolerate in the first. There are chases. Rescues. Escapes. Stuff blows up. And then, even though Holden has ostensibly been sent to Ilus on a diplomatic mission, even more stuff blows up.

But hey, I'm not complaining. What could've been 600 pages of multiparty talks between competing economic and governmental factions over the legal questions of squatter's rights and planetary eminent domain instead devolves with reasonable speed into betrayal, gunplay and bloodshed — which is precisely what this kind of story is built to do. It isn't space opera in any pure sense. Cibola Burn is a bit too slick for that. In the end, it's more like epic sci-fi — the science fictional equivalent of A Song of Ice and Fire (which is maybe more than a little appropriate, since co-author Ty Franck has also worked as George R.R. Martin's assistant), only with fewer beheadings and way more spaceships.

They changed narrators and the new one is uneven. The story is a wonderful continuation into the Expanse series and you have to start with book 1, Leviathan Wakes. Lots of others here have done great descriptions - all I want to add is THEY CHANGED NARRATORS.

I asked audible who choses the narrator and they said "the copyright holder" So I asked if James Corey holds the copyright and they said "yes"so it was his decision to go with Erik Davies for book 4. (yeah I know "he" is really two writers but legally "he" is one.) Remember when book 4, Feast of Crows, in the Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) changed narrators? They ended up putting that one out again with Roy Dotrice narrating it as he had done the others. Golly I hate when you have a terrific series with a terrific narrator and then they change to a bad narrator.

Revised: after I posted this I got a free audiobook of Cibola from the library and figured I'd see if I could push through - since I love these books so much. The odd thing is Erik Davies does wonderful character voices. It is when he is reading the basic narration that he gets into a staccato reading that is offensive.

Cibola Burn is the fourth book in James Corey’s Expanse series, a series that seems set to beat the record of the longest sci-fi set of novels since Asimov’s Foundation, since it now counts five volumes and shows no sign of nearing the end. Cibola Burn lives up to the quality of the initial trilogy, moreover, picking up where the alien rings were made available for travelling to and exploring new worlds. The crew of the Rocinante, led by captain James Holden, is now firmly in the place of resident heroes. A new world, named Ilus, has begun to be colonised, but predictably who is to do the job is disputed, with a scientific team backed by private muscle fighting for the privilege with a ramshackle group of Belter colonists. Holden is called in to arbitrate, but of course Ilus is not empty anyway, having once belonged to the creators of the rings. Fast-paced and richly characterised, Cibola Burn is a worthy instalment in the series.

At the end of the last book we left after the crew of the Rocinante helped open the gates to thousands of world. Two years later we find them headed to a mission to keep the peace between two different groups on the first planet to be opened. The crew’s old friend the protomolecule has been there and left danger for the new arrivals.

Like the three previous books Cibola Burn is non-stop science fiction adventure. There is the friction between the two groups, a sudden world wide storm, killer slugs, a disease like condition, ships in orbit without power, and people who think death is better than giving away one inch of the planet.

All of this comes together to make another great story in the Expanse series. Cibola Burn can be read as a stand-alone. While the back-story from the previous books is mentioned only a small part is needed in Cibola Burn. Like the back-story the most important world building for this story is done in Cibola Burn. The only element that is a big carry over is the character building that has been done for Holden and his crew. The rest of the story is filled with characters new to the series.

I'm fairly certain the original author didn't write this one, but instead it was farmed out to a few teenage girls and confused boys.

Quite a few incidents within this novel just F the crap out of even the most liberal "suspension of disbelief"... then the intermittent chapters of the author masturbating their egos with pretension of existential philosophy.

Got so darned annoying I pretty much was ready to just stop reading it... God I hope the other novels get better.

Oh yeah, and on the audio version of the book, WORST.NARRATION.EVER.

This guy's sleepy whispery voice has ZERO range, wooden, robotic, extremely inconsistent character accents... I swear the problems I had with the story were exacerbated by the narration, absolutely.

While I agree the narrator Erik Davies is not great, he's not as bad as everyone claims. He does get better as the book progresses. For the first few hours it sounds like Microsoft Bob is reading to you but he starts to hit his stride as the book progresses. Jefferson Mays sets a tall bar though and it's always hard having a new narrator in a book series when you're used to someone else. I do agree that Mr. Davies ought to find a new line of work overall though. This book, I agree, is not the best in the series. I have listened to books 1-4 and all 3 novellas and I'm starting to think I am going to take a break for a while before I continue on with book 5 and then book 6 in November. Each progressive book gets a little worse than the previous one. At this point the entire series is basically like a mix between Firefly and Alien Prometheus and is starting to get tired.

Much like the last book, I found the first half of this book was drudgery. Once the story picks up in the second half it is much better, but the only reason I kept reading the first half was that I figured I (over) paid for it, so I had best finish it.

Fantastic sci-fi!. Absolutely incredible. I love this series.

Book four takes place on New Terra. One of the planets that are now available to explore and settle since Holden opened the gates in the last book. There is a lot of conflict on the planet and that's only the half of it.

James Holden is sent in to save the day…or start a war…or …who knows. But it's a job, so he and his crew or there.

Loved it. I highly recommend it as well as the first three books in the series that I've already read.

This is a continuation of the "Expanse" series that are being adapted to a series on the SyFy Channel. You will want to read the first two books to be able to understand the motivation and relationships of the key characters in this book. The majority of the book was exciting and had interesting plot twists. The ending was disappointing, and a bit contrived. I felt like the authors wanted to end the book as quickly as possible. They didn't think through the physics of all of the details. They just closed it off without explanations of how the events could have happened. I don't want to spoil the story with specific details on what I thought was a stretch for the reader. Read it an enjoy it for what it is.

Here's the problem. You read the first two books, which are excellent. You slog through the third, which is terrible. You continue on to the fourth hoping that it will improve. But it doesn't.

The scale of the first two books is immense, the action flows well, the characters stay in character. None of that is true in books 3 or 4. Characters do one stupid thing after another. Everything that happens is 100% predicable. For some reason, the author thinks that putting off the inevitable so that you and your friends get hurt and probably should have died is some kind of moral high ground - instead of Darwin Award dumb.

Every 1 in 1,000 chance comes in for the bad guys. Everything breaks wrong for the good guys, until the end when acts of god save them. Just the worst sort of pulp garbage. Afraid I'm done with the series.

Don't believe the haters on the novel itself--it's great and a good advancement of the wonderful Expanse series. My favorite of them...no. But a solid effort. HOWEVER, please, please DO believe the haters on the audiobook's narration. It's nothing less than gawd-awful. Just read this one on your kindle, or for a kick, go retro and get the paperback. Then you can return to the audiobooks for the next novel, when Jefferson Mays is narrator again (thank the gods). Cuz' Eric Davies sounds like a text-to-audio computer program who just wants to be a Real Live Boy....but isn't. His performance is truly unlistenable. This became the first audiobook I've ever had to return because I just could not get through it.

In sum, two stars for the novel itself (which I've now read on my kindle) being very good, but the narration being a crime against our ears.

With each installation in the "Expanse" series I find myself less and less enthralled with the story. If I'm being 100% honest, the first two books kept me reading because they dealt with relatable situations and topics that were set in a compelling vision of our species' future. The decisions and depravity of massive corporations affecting the future of human existence, the maneuvering of politicians to control and direct those events, and the ongoing impact of racial biases on the good of mankind could be ripped right from today's (and yesterday's) headlines. Since those original two volumes, the story has continued to evolve toward a far more fantastical vision of the future, with the sub-plots that I so enjoyed relegated to undercurrents mentioned in passing.

I am a fan of the Expanse series. Other readers have made good observations. My comment is a correction for the authors' understanding of the physics of heat.
In Chapter 40, they erroneously claim that a space ship is like a thermos, and that heat energy would slowly bleed away. However, while a thermos bottle and a space ship would both prevent conduction and convection heat losses, radiation of heat into space would be a serious drain on the ship's heat storage capacity. Spaceship designers could add a double wall with reflective material on both sides, in order to seal off radiative losses. This would also provide the benefit of reducing solar heating. However serious design calculations of heat generation, regulation, and exchange would be an important part of the ship design.

I'm only 5 chapters into this book and I don't know if I can finish it. I might have to read the paper book instead. The first 3 titles were extremely well narrated. This one is...not. I hope they get Jefferson Mays back for book 5.

The “protomolecule” at the center of The Expanse series continues to evolve in Cibola Burn, without giving up too much of its mystery. The story takes place on the other side of the wormhole created by the protomolecule, in a region of space populated by numerous potentially habitable planets.

The book blends together two storylines. One is the conflict between the first settlers on one of these planets, which they call Ilus, and the representatives of a giant corporation, Royal Charter Energy, which claims rights to the planet, which they call New Terra. The divisions that dominated the political context of the earlier books continues in that conflict — the settlers are Belters, bringing their hardcore miner culture with them to the new world.

The other story follows the protomolecule. The planet isn’t just a planet, and it doesn’t just happen to be on the other side of the wormhole. It has played a part, it seems, in the civilization that produced the protomolecule. And undoubtedly it will turn out to have played a part in the destruction of that civilization (if it actually was destroyed).

The two stories collide when all hell breaks loose on the planet, and we get a glimpse of how small the political divides and corporate aspirations are when stacked up against whatever is behind the protomolecule and the fate of its creators. I won’t go farther so as not to give away too much.

It’s a good adventure, with those sustaining core conflicts and the overriding mystery of the protomolecule. The authors continue to tell the story from alternating viewpoints, as they did in the earlier books. And many of the characters, in particular the crew of the Rocinante, led by James Holden (with his ghosty sidekick, Detective Miller), continue as well. That continuity ties the larger story together, giving us a constant line through the whole wide-ranging space opera.

I found this a faster, more compelling read than the earlier ones. Maybe that’s just because, by the fourth book of the series, we as readers bring enough context not to have to orient ourselves in the story. Or maybe it’s just got a stronger self-powered plot than the other books. In any case, it certainly didn’t disappoint. It was a fun read.

I have greatly enjoyed this series. This was a good read. Not quite as good as some of it's predecessors, but still an awesome story. The author continues to do a great job of raising the stakes. Every book presents a great new challenge for the heroes to overcome. The central conflict is interesting and has a fair amount of moral ambiguity. Unfortunately the central villain is the worst the series has seen. Where as every other villain has seemed to have logic or reason to there actions, this guy seems like they just wanted an "evil corporate guy" to stand in contrast to Holden. While a minor complaint, I feel it holds the book back from being potentially the best in the franchise. Also the epilogue has made me really excited to read future books in this series and encourages a second read to understand certain character motivations. All in all, if you like this series keep with it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: In my humble opinion, James S. A. Corey's Hugo-nominated and New York Times-bestselling Expanse sequence is the very best ongoing science fiction series on the market today! This is space opera on a grand scale as good as anything written by genre powerhouses like Peter F. Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds.

In every installment thus far, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the two authors behind this letter-filled pseudonym, have managed to raise the bar even higher. Hence, I was looking forward to reading this fourth volume and discover if Cibola Burn would be pushing the envelope even more! But sadly, it was not to be. For some reason, the authors elected to forgo the formula that made the first three books such memorable reads and tried a different approach which didn't work as well. At least as far as I'm concerned. . .

Here's the blurb:

ENTER A NEW FRONTIER.

"An empty apartment, a missing family, that's creepy. But this is like finding a military base with no one on it. Fighters and tanks idling on the runway with no drivers. This is bad juju. Something wrong happened here. What you should do is tell everyone to leave."

The gates have opened the way to a thousand new worlds and the rush to colonize has begun. Settlers looking for a new life stream out from humanity's home planets. Ilus, the first human colony on this vast new frontier, is being born in blood and fire.

Independent settlers stand against the overwhelming power of a corporate colony ship with only their determination, courage, and the skills learned in the long wars of home. Innocent scientists are slaughtered as they try to survey a new and alien world. The struggle on Ilus threatens to spread all the way back to Earth.

James Holden and the crew of his one small ship are sent to make peace in the midst of war and sense in the midst of chaos. But the more he looks at it, the more Holden thinks the mission was meant to fail.

And the whispers of a dead man remind him that the great galactic civilization that once stood on this land is gone. And that something killed it.

The main problem with Cibola Burn is that it appears to be some sort of interlude between the opening chapters and what will occur in subsequent installments. Previous volumes were sprawling space opera affairs that hit all the right buttons. This novel is much more limited in scope and is more of a transitional work.

The worldbuilding has always been one of my favorite aspects of this series. Unfortunately, by taking a step backward and limiting the scope of Cibola Burn, this particular facet leaves something to be desired this time around. And given how great the worldbuilding turned out to be in the first three volumes, this could be nothing but a disappointment. The politicking, so prevalent and intricately woven through the storylines in the past, is more or less absent in this novel. Or, more exactly, it takes place behind the scene as the Ilus situation escalates and is micromanaged by the powers that be. The payoff at the end is nowhere near as good as in previous installments. Even worse, after going through nearly 600 pages, the Avasarala epilogue reveals that the entire "interlude" that is Cibola Burn was meant to show that with this new frontier open to all comers, the powerful Martian space fleet, with their home planet soon to become a ghost town, will probably go to the highest bidder and might spark the first interstellar military conflict. The corporate power vs "innocent" squatters stand-off was interesting at first, but there was no way it could sustain a book of this size. Moreover, not known to take the path of least resistance, the authors occasionally went for the easy way out, which was kind of sloppy. All in all, this made for a less-than-engaging plot compared to the more far-reaching and multilayered plotlines that characterized the earlier volumes.

In the past, the stakes became higher as the tale progressed, with tension rising with each new chapter. The Expanse reached new heights with every new installment, gradually becoming a very complex science fiction tale. Which boded well for what came next, no doubt about it. Which makes me wonder, what with the series having gained such momentum, the authors decided to activate the hand-brake, so to speak, and pretty much bring everything to some sort of standstill for the duration of a novel.

What saved this book was the characterization. In that respect, at least, Cibola Burn is as good as its predecessors. Once again, do-gooder Holden is back as a POV character. Both sides of the conflict are perceived by men and women opposing one another lightyears away from their own civilization. Basia is one of the original and illegal colonists, while Elvi is one of the scientists traveling to study this new planet. Havelock, a security officer working on the ship bringing in the scientists and other people traveling to Ilus with a UN charter, is probably the most interesting protagonist in the novel. The protomolecule also has a POV of sorts which is linked to Miller's interactions with Holden. As mentioned, though the overall plot can be disappointing at times, the characterization continues to shine through.

Abaddon's Gate was paced in a way that made you beg for more, always promising yourself to read just another chapter, again and again. A veritable page-turner, that book was almost impossible to put down. On the other hand, Cibola Burn suffers from an extremely uneven pace and the rhythm does slow down and drag quite often. Our interest is piqued when Miller reveals new information about the ancient civilization which created the Ring and everything else. And yet, those sequences are few and far between, and we soon realize that the bulk of the story has to do with the conflict between the colonists and the corporation chartered to take possession of the planet.

Vast in scope and vision, the Expanse seemed destined to become one of the very best space opera series of all time. Well, sadly, Cibola Burn failed to live up to the lofty expectations generated by its predecessors. A good read in its own right, true, yet nowhere near as remarkable as the first three installments. The ending does open up the door for great things to come, but it remains to be seen if the authors can recapture the magic which made the first books so awesome.

For more review, check out Pat's Fantasy Hotlist!

The book seems great but it's the worst narration ever. The voice seems completely computer generated with very little emotion/character. Characters from previous books seemed intelligent and well articulated when read by previous narrators, but this narrator makes them seem completely daft. I'd pay for a different narrator if I could find one, but I may have to buy the book and read it because I don't know how much of this narrator I can tolerate.

We return to the Expanse universe with Cibola Burn. Again, we follow Jim Holden and the rest of the crew of the Roncinante as they remain involved in the most significant events in the Solar System (and beyond). In Cibola Burn, we start to see the implications of the worlds now open to humanity since Abaddon's Gate. It depicts the first conflicts in the struggle for power both on the ground, in New Terra (the first of those worlds to be colonized), and between the major political bodies of Earth, Mars and the OPA.

The book is an enjoyable read. Many of the tropes you'd expect in a "colonization of an alien planet" story are there. It wasn't really exciting, in terms of challenging, thought-provoking concepts. The cinematic quality of some parts did lend to a different kind of appeal, though.

Overall this book felt more like a transition from the beginning of the series to what will come next. It foreshadows upcoming problems in the political balance of the Solar System thanks to the availability of those new worlds, and leaves the door open for the "big strange unknown" of the force thay may have brought the Protomolecule Creators to their extinction. It left me very expectant about the next book.

Just downloaded the audio book for Audible. I would make the rating 4 stars, except the narration is terrible and sounds like the book is being read by a computer. The narration is stiff and all of the characters sound the same. Boo

I still really love this series, but this is the weakest of the group so far. A big part of what I enjoy about the series is Holden and his crew- being together, working problems out together, their interactions. In this book they're all separated for almost the duration of the story. Amos/Alex/Naomi basically served no purpose in this book -which was disappointing. Even Holden seemed a little bit boring this time around. Most of the new characters were really annoying - specifically Elvi. Absolutely hated her. She's on a ship/planet full of scientists, but she's the only one that can solve problems or do something helpful -and when she gets tired or cranky all she needs is to get laid and everything is OK again. It was just stupid. I also found the main bad guy pretty lame. His motives seemed really unrealistic - especially towards the end. It was still a good read, still love the story, still worth reading just less than what I expected

Looking at the other reviews, its obvious that even though we all read the same story, we did no read the same story.

So this is my personal take on the fourth book. I really enjoyed the heck out of this. I thought it was a great addition to the series, because we get to see the characters show there personal growth. We get to see a character that in the last books, didn't get much face time, this time around they became a lot clearer, and little more defined. Miller. You get to see the challenges, these individuals face on a new world. You come to understand a bit about space and the difficulties this environment poses when your on a little steel bubble with air in it.

Unfortunately though, even though all of this is opening up.. and everything was leading up to, what I believed to be even more interesting story arcs... the author(s) kinda.. .killed it off. The book comes to an end.. and as far as I can tell *Semi Spoilers* a character is killed off... that left me wondering what was going on, because.. from my understanding you have this vast intergalactic network.. (pretty much) so while locally you can shut something down, if its an AI of sorts, or even a pre-programmed computer acting...it has a lot of back ups. And I really hope that characters not dead, but.... *Sighs*

Anyways, the previous books were showing more potential in regards to the proto-molecule and this advanced civilizations technology..and so the way the book ends, may leave you a bit confused, because the author makes it seem like its all coming to an end, and this planet is it.. but then they talk about "1000's of other worlds"..an "New Terra being a gas station" so I was really confused at the end, even re-reading things and it seems like maybe it was ended for the sake of just ending it?

Overall though, still a really good book. And even though Hachette Book Group made it a pain in the you know what to purchase, since I had already bought the previous three books, I went a head and got this one as well. Managed to buy it used from a reputable store on the store. So everything worked out in the end.

I don't know if there will be a "fifth book".. to the expanse series;? I really hope there is, but with the way the fourth ended.. (Even being in the world of fantasy) I think it would be a stretch to start it off in some way, and continue the story-that makes sense, where you could mentally connect the dots of all of it. *Waves hands in a broad gesture over the four books* What's that old saying? "painting yourself into a corner"

None the less I do look forward to having more adventures with these characters, and like I said I hope to be mistaken about that one characters death, because I really became attached to his sense of humor.

I love this series! Cibola Burn is a wild & wonderful ride into the massive universe of James S.A Corey's Expanse Series. Alien tech, a completely foreign planet, and a security chief with no regard for human life provide the latest challenges for Jim Holden and his crew aboard the Rocinante. Cibola Burn is a hard-hitting, action-packed adventure that you can't put down.

I have very much enjoyed this series. The stories are fascinating. The characters are relatable and interesting. And this book is the best of the bunch so far. The awkwardness of some of the earlier plots is gone. The story-telling is absolutely superb. I really, really, really didn't want this book to end. And now I can't wait to read the next one.

After re-listening to the first three Expanse novels, I excitedly picked up Cibola Burn without noticing that the narrator changed. Had I known what a train-wreck that would turn into, I would have just purchased a digital copy in the first place. I have really enjoyed this series, but going with a narrator like Erik Davies was a huge mistake.

Obviously I'm missing something. When I read all the reviews here, I feel like I must have accidentally read some other book, hidden inside a Cibola Burns book cover. This is one seriously uninteresting book that does little to expnd the canon/mythos of the Expanse universe. Still, I pre-ordered Book 5. Just hoping for return to the excellent story telling of the first two books. Hoping it's $$$ well spent.

If you like the alien artifact angle then skip the first two thirds. It was basically little house on the prairie with guns for the most part in the early stages. I scan read at times as the character development just didn't grab me. I was bored with it. I considered not finishing the book at all, but the Virgo in me said 'keep going'. Reading the reviews for the next book I am disheartened to say that I am dropping the series. Good luck to the Rocinante and her crew. I like you guys but the rest of it is a bit too drole.

I have a new premise for this book, that would have made it work. The Ring station can feed you and provide you with things, because it can analyze your needs. Hey! I can go to a new planet with all my needs met. Shelter, food politics our way? Cue the song, Summertime and the liven is easy. No need to trade with Earth. A whole new ready made civilization. Yeah, I would go, cuz free stuff. But plot twist ,the planets defenses have suddenly awaken and attacked the inhabitants and UN ship intermittently. Holden and Miller must race against time to find out why. Who would go all that way to ship Lithium back? Platinum, gold, ruthenium, palladium, I would believe.

The book was alright I felt that the first and second book were marvelous but Abadon's Gate and Cibola Burn (this book) seem not to further the overarching plot as much as the previous installments. I think the books deserves four stars so the reason I'm giving it three stars because of the audible version.

I don't like to give books less stars because of the version but I'm sorry the audible version is terrible. The narrator gets better towards the end of the book but I don't blame people for stopping. They changed the voice actors and the book has a completely different feel. Beyond that, half the time I wasn't sure if the narrator was a person or a text2speak. Towards the end it gets a lot better as the narrator gets a hang of it but still, it's hell to get through.

If only there were science fiction novels that did not breathe a word of the secular religion of evolution. The authors could not resist the Left’s Darwinist propaganda. They only have to say that alien creatures exist, not get wordy about the sketchy science. After a couple chapters the authors could not allow the story to go own without shoving the eco-terrorist agenda of holding humanity hostage for the sake of a few micro-organisms. Four stars for the story but never five due to the constant shoving of propaganda in the reader’s face. The beginning of the chapter twelve, the authors are implying that life in prison is equal to execution. It is not, especially when prisoners are treated so nicely. It is a common misconception, a Leftist lie. Letting a criminal live after committing a gruesome crime is not morally right because then all crimes become excusable. They love the excuse, the devil made them do it. The whole anti-corporation theme in the story is really just the promotion of anti-capitalism and promotion of socialism/communism and all other forms of Leftist government. The authors continue to push homosexuality as a norm, again the LGBT community is overly represented. The story would be better with a more conservative outlook. That are too many details that do not push the story forward but rather just take up space on the pages. The Arthur's make sure to press the idea that sex is meaningless and is nothing more than an instinct derived from the self- refuting theory of evolution. They sight humans as nothing more than animals which is clearly absurd. The character Murtry, embodies the Leftist ideology of not viewing human life as valuable and doing what is necessary to achieve an unreasonable goal even if it means killing the innocent. Murtry also tries to control as much as possible, another defining trait of the Left. Jim Holden is a character aware yet unaware of his own selfless self-righteousness. Holden represents the Right and its struggle through a world of thieves, killers, and destroyers. He is unknowingly searching for God and Miller the angel sent to assist him throughout his journey, his tribulations. At the end the author couldn’t miss their chance to make sure the readers knew they were OK with drug usages by calling weed safe that is like calling alcohol safe to the victims of drunk driving wrecks.
For the sake of finishing the series, I definitely recommend the book, the first three were definitely better. Again overall nothing more than a 500 plus page propaganda mill.

And I still have one more to go. I love the writing...the characters, old and new...the morality of the good people, the evilness of the bad. I could picture New Terra...the beauty and ugliness of it. Man, this guy can write. Great sci-Fi. I hope they never make it into a movie...it could never match what Corey managed to put in my imagination just using words

In my review of the third EXPANSE novel from James S.A. Corey (actually a collaborative effort from Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), I said this:

How did Corey do, based on strengths I highlighted in reviews of the first two books?
• fluid prose: check
• likable characters: check
• mostly strong characterization: check
• humor that runs throughout: check
• nice balance of shoot-em-up action, political fighting, and personal conflicts: check, check, and check
• quick pace that had me knock of a 500+ page book in a single setting: check
• a feel (in a good way) of old-time sci-fi along the likes of Heinlein or Asimov: check
• a ratcheting up of tension and stakes: check and check
• a sense of risk thanks to not all the characters making it to the end? check
• an ending with both some resolution and an opening up that will leave you waiting for the next one? Check and damn-you-check

These guys are so consistent, I could probably already review book four by just cutting and pasting the above and changing the title. (Hmmm, note to self… )

Well book four, Cibola Burn, is now out and well, you’ll note I’ve cut and pasted the above. So I’m done here. See you at book five.

Um, OK. Turns out Kat, Queen of our domain (really, she registered the domain name using “Queen”), says I cannot just cut and paste old reviews on here. Something about contract, signed in blood, first-born, yada yada yada. So let me say a few more things about Cibola Burn (warning, doing so necessitates some spoilage of books 1-3, so if you care about that sort of thing and haven’t read those, come back after you’ve done so. Also, I’m not going to bother explaining acronyms, etc. on the assumption you’ve already read those first novels)

At the end of Abaddon’s Gate, humanity had discovered the alien gateway to thousands of other systems. Cibola Burn opens up a few years later, just as the first explorations are beginning. Or so it was thought. But when the properly UN-Sanctioned RCE charter ship arrives with some corporate interests looking to mine the planet’s lithium and also bringing along a bevy of drooling scientists who can’t wait to get their (properly sterilized) hands on the first pristine biosphere of an Earth-like planet, a group of Belters has already squatted on the planet and begun mining operations. Fearing eviction, an adamant group of “Hell no, we won’t go” settlers plan to blow up the one landing pad on the planet so the RCE ship can’t, well, land. But since that happens in the first 15 pages of a 600-page novel, one might imagine things go awry. Soon, the settlers and the RCE are in an all-out shooting war (Imagine homesteaders and cattle barons) and the big guns back in Sol system decide to send in our main protagonist from books one through three— Holden, captain of the Rocinante— as mediator:. Why? Because:
At the beginning of the war between Mars and the Belt, he had been the most important man in the solar system, and the celebrity, while it had waxed and waned over the years, had never gone away. James Holden was an icon. For some, he was the symbol of the triumph of the single ship over governments and corporations. For others, he was an agent of chaos who started wars and threatened stability in the name of ideological purity. But whatever people thought he meant, there was no question that he was important. He was the man who’d saved Earth from the protomolecule. He was the man who’d brought down Mao-Kwikowski. Who’d made first contact with the alien artifact and opened the gates that led to a thousand different worlds.

When Holden arrives, not only does he have to deal with the tensions between the settlers and the RCE, exacerbated by the murder-is-fine extremists in the settler resistance group and the psychopathic murder-is-fun security chief (Murtry) of the RCE, but it turns out that
a) an “Earth-like” planet is just that, only like Earth, and this one has lots of non-Earthy things that can kill you, blind you, or leave very large welts and
b) the dead alien technology on the planet isn’t actually dead, it’s only been sleeping (or stunned or pining for the fjords) and is now waking up and
c) those far, far more advanced aliens that built said technology were apparently knocked off by something even more advanced (or at least nastier). Or, as one character puts it: “You think somebody built those towers and structures and then just left? This whole planet is a murder scene. An empty apartment with warm food on the table and the clothes still in the closets. This is some Croatoan s***.”

So either in the course of the aforementioned events, or in the course of trying to stop the aforementioned events, things explode, a bunch of people shoot at/get shot by a bunch of other people, more things explode, prisoners are taken, slugs get hunted, people have sex, doctors race against time, prison breaks are attempted, engineers race against time, dead people show up to offer advice, bigger things explode, and Holden keeps repeating, “We have got to get off this planet.” (though things aren’t so great in orbit above the planet either).

It’s all a lot of fun. And often funny as well; I laughed aloud many times at the often wry dialogue. The action does take a while to get going. Holden doesn’t make an appearance for some time, instead we’re introduced to some new characters: Basia, a member of the settler resistance group who is having some second thoughts about what he is doing; Elvi, a biologist who would rather politics didn’t get in the way of her science; and Havelock, Murtry’s second-in-command. Basia is an intriguing, complex character right from the start and Havelock develops into one as well by the book’s close, each of them with raising large ethical questions. Elvi isn’t quite as strongly developed unfortunately, and her character is burdened by a less-than successful portrayal of a “crush” she has on Holden.

When the Rocinante does show up, the action moves into a higher gear, especially in the last quarter or so where it shifts pretty much into warp speed. Holden is a great old-time sci-fi type character, and if his crew is relegated to somewhat smaller roles than prior books, more role players, they play those roles exceedingly well. Amos, for instance, is mostly stuck doing big-tough-guy talk, but it’s hysterical big-tough-guy talk and I could listen to it all day. And Miller, our dead detective reanimated from book one, his relationship with Holden and their dialog remains a highlight of the book.

Beyond the fun aspects, Cibola Burn does tackle some weighty issues and doesn’t shy away from some real-world analogues. Here, for instance, is Amos’ response to hearing that some of the security people were killed by the settler resistance group: “”Oh good. Somebody got killed there. That’s how we claim stuff, you know. This planet is officially our now.” There are several such references to our less-than stellar past with regard to colonization, as well as humanity’s tendency toward violence.

Cibola Burn isn’t the best of the EXPANSE books. In fact, it might be the weakest. But seriously, the bar is set so high that I’ll happily take a “weaker” EXPANSE novel over 90 percent of what’s out there. If you haven’t started this series, you absolutely should—it’s one of the best things going now. And if you have, you’ll be happy to be back in this universe. Highly recommended.

The book was good despite the plot holes mentioned by others. I am honestly just sad at the narration. Erik Davies sounds like a staccato voice machine at best and bring no passion or love to the story whatsoever. I sincerely miss Jefferson Mays and the skill and style he brings to a tale.

Really enjoying the series. Good character development, and I particularly like the discussions on how we see others unlike us, as well as how we justify our decisions that negatively affect others while condemning others who may do the same. I much prefer the relationships as developed in the books in comparison to how they're developed on the SyFy series (too antagonistic).

This is a major, major disapointment. Although starting off fairly strongly, the book loses steam about half way through; it's as if the authors had a fight or got bored and were called away, adding snippets here and there to get the damn thing over with already. Unfortunately, the formulaic and both predictable AND implausible manner in which fhey accomplish this will make you wish the end had come more quickly and less embarrassingly. Interesting characters deserve better. So do fans.

Don't buy the audio book the narrator is not the same as the fist books in the series and is HORRIBLE!!!!!!! He was so bad i couldn't make it through and had to by the kindle book and read it. Its a good story though.

The book itself is great, Honestly my biggest issue is with the cover With the other books, the name of the book is in large text with the Author's in small text, now with the 4th book the Author's name is huge with the book title in small print. It just kinda throws the visual flow.