Cibola Burn: The Expanse, Book 4

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.

James S.A. Corey’s “The Expanse” series is such an amazing science fiction tale (with a touch of horror). Cibola Burn (The Expanse, 4) makes it clear that each of these books is just as good as the previous, and that’s a hard thing to pull off.When we left off at the end of Abaddon’s Gate, the gates had opened up and made more than a thousand habitable worlds available to humanity. On one of these planets, colonists have cobbled together a settlement (they call the planet Ilus) and are mining valuable minerals. The company Royal Charter Energy, however, received a charter from the UN granting them ownership of the planet. They’ve sent a ship full of scientists to start studying the planet (which they call New Terra). Basia Merton has been convinced by some of his fellow colonists to blow up the landing pad that RCE needs in order to send their scientists down to the planet. Unfortunately, the drop shuttle gets caught in the explosion and some of the scientists die, while others are injured. Immediately the colonists and RCE are set against each other, and the psychotic head of security for the RCE vessel (Adolphus Murtry) is determined that his side will win at any cost. Havelock, Miller’s one-time partner, is working security on the RCE vessel, and the UN sends Captain Holden to Ilus to mediate some sort of solution to the dispute. As if this weren’t bad enough, as soon as Holden’s ship arrives, defunct alien machinery on the planet starts to come alive–and some of it is quite dangerous. Even Miller’s ghost has followed Holden to Ilus, and he too wants Holden’s help.The mystery of Ilus is fascinating. A geologist on the RCE mission feels like he has nothing to do because, in his words, the planet was “machined.” It was designed, and the regularly-spaced moons around it are clearly meant to serve some function as well. The first encounter with anything alien was the protomolecule and the horror show it made of Eros. The second was the Ring and the station Holden discovered on the other side. Now we get to see an actual planet that the aliens inhabited, complete with alien ruins. There are some organisms there–flora and fauna–and some of them are eerily dangerous. The alien equipment is also quite capable of causing damage as it “wakes up.” Miller is trying to figure out what happened to the aliens, and pushes Holden to look into that when Holden really just wants to keep people alive.There are some great characters on every side in this dispute. Elvi, a biologist, is trying to study the native lifeforms, but gets roped into doing entirely more urgent things (she also has a serious crush on Holden). Fayez, the geologist, is doing his best to feel relevant. Havelock is left up on the RCE vessel and ends up training a “militia”–yeah, that doesn’t go as planned. Basia is hauled off to the Rocinante as a prisoner, which is really Holden’s attempt to keep him from getting killed by Murtry. Absolutely no one wants to listen to Holden, particularly Murtry.Don’t worry, there’s still plenty going on at the ships–the Rocinante (Holden’s ship), the RCE vessel, and the Barbapiccola (the ship that transported the colonists and is supposed to take their ore to sale). Between Havelock’s militia, Murtry’s orders, and Holden’s people, there are plenty of unfortunate things happening up there. And when enough alien equipment wakes up to put the ships’ reactors offline, their orbits start to decay. The amount of stuff going wrong is epic, and it makes for a tense, tightly-plotted story.I also liked the fact that there’s a little bit of nudging at the idea that these new worlds are going to have a huge impact on the economic and political landscapes that humans rely on. I can’t wait to read book five and see where that goes!

I read book 3 of The Expanse series way back in September 2017. I promised I was going to jump into the rest of the series ASAP. I have had Cibola Burn sitting on my bookshelf since December 2017, so I obviously bought it for myself as a Christmas present of something. Did I read it? No. Despite NOT reading it I have continued to BUY the books in the series, and have bought all the way up to book 8! I can only assume at the back of my mind I’m hoping to pace it out for when the last book is eventually released.Anyway, whatever the reason, I finally picked up Cibola Burn and gave it the time it deserved. I absolutely loved being back in the world of James Holden and his crew. Given that this is essentially the start of a “new trilogy” it came as no surprise that outside of the crew of The Rocinante (I still haven’t read Don Quixote either by the way) there are very few returning characters. The new POV characters were brilliant in my opinion.The authors (yes, it’s two people) work this story brilliantly and its resonance with the past is clear to see. The argument throughout is one that has plagued mankind for centuries “Just because you got here first doesn’t make it yours”. The story plays out between the big fat corporation who says they own the land because they have paperwork – and the people who just went there without asking permission. James Holden and his crew are called in to “keep the peace” and let’s just say, things kick off from there. Despite the book being almost 600 pages, I read it in a few days (that’s fast for me). I was completely sucked in, as I remember myself being with the other books in the series… which reminds me…There is obvious history here from the previous books, so if you haven’t read the others, I would say you should go back to the beginning. They truly are excellent, and I’m just kicking myself that I didn’t continue reading ages ago. At least I have the books to keep me going until the last one comes out. I loved this, and I am making a promise to myself to read the next one in May (edit – only now finding this incomplete post in my drafts – I thought I had finished this and posted it last month – apologies the “thing” is obviously affecting my output here).To conclude, not just as a single book, but as a series up to this point, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

The fourth book in The Expanse sequence. I have read very little sci fi but this series of books has gripped me and Cibola Burn represents a slight change of gear, milieu and pace, but more generally continues with the same winning formula. The books are written to a rigid template of alternating chapters each from a characters POV. It was a nice surprise to encounter Bobbie early on and a shame that she only emerges again at the end. Overall this book is more planet bound than some and resembles a western and frontiersmen in the early wild west in parts- Chuck in the usual Holden crew as unlikely peacemakers; a psychotic corporate security man who is trigger happy and a bunch of scientists and townspeople on a newly colonised planet and there’s a recipe for conflict and dirty deeds. Underpin all this with the geography of this restless planet - some killer slugs and ancient alien artefacts and structures that seem to be reawakening and this is a level of peril that mirror the space ships above - themselves at risk throughout along with their crews. The plotting is labyrinthine and still manages gripping tension whilst allowing some characters to develop and blossom . This volume both embeds recent narrative arcs in the series whilst also putting them under a more slow burn microscope- it’s a different pace at times and there’s much to take in but cibola Burns slow burn delivery soon hots up.

I have two problems with Cibola Burn: firstly, that I really wanted it to return us to alien antagonists over humanity being rubbish (it doesn't); and secondly, that I've now read Nemesis Games (because this wasn't SO disappointing that it stopped me picking up the next book). And while I was disappointed by Cibola Burn even while I read it, it’s even harder to be objective about it in the wake of the rollercoaster that follows it.Don’t get me wrong: there’s the usual incendiary plot which inevitably had turning the pages at a rate of knots as I wondered what would happen next (Corey is brilliant at potboiling, after all). Some of it (related to the protomolecule and the planet’s past) is fascinating. But far too much focuses on people being awful to one another, and I never warmed to the new POV characters. However, I was invested enough in the series to keep reading and I am awfully glad I did.

After the events of book three I was expecting the scope of what is already a solar wide setting to really blow up and that didn't really happen. The whole book basically takes place either on or in orbit around one of the new worlds that opened up; Ilus or New Terra. That is not to say it wasn't exciting, it most definitely was. In addition to Holden, we have three new POV's. Havelock, Miller's old partner from Leviathan, Elvi a biologist sent out to explore the new world and Basia, a settler on Ilus who we have met before but only very briefly.It took a while to come to terms with basically a whole new cast again but after a while I warmed to them all. At the heart of this is the conflict between the squatters/settlers who settled first on the planet without any sanction and the corporate team of scientists and security personnel who feel they have the official charter. At the back of this (and not for very long) is the planet itself, designed by the beings who built the protomolecule that starts to react due to the activities of the people there.The book starts with a bang and doesn't really let up. It actually depressed me in a way at the start. Imagine a whole new world, pristine and with enough space for all to coexist peacefully. However humans are always ready to fight and quick to react with violence which always tends to escalate. Kudos to the writers that they captured exactly how I'd imagine humanity would react but nevertheless it was still somewhat depressing. Holden captures this perfectly, he sees this but isn't surprised by it anymore, like most cynics he's an optimist at heart. The only really complaints I had was that I did miss the crew dynamic from the Roci as they were mostly split up and after a climatic end it all wrapped up rather too neatly.Anyway this is a great book. The tension constantly escalates and we have kind of wild west vibes mixed with disaster movie vibes, and finished off with the customary space opera element, it's a heady cocktail. We learn a little more about the race who built the ring and some of their technology and hints of what might have caused their destruction. It's all set up now for the rest of humanity to get involved and for some reason I don't imagine that that's going to go smoothly.

2/5 • The fourth book in the series is a slight improvement over the last although it still disappointed. Frankly, the series so far has been something of a let-down. It started strongly with Leviathan Wakes but immediately went downhill thereafter. Everything I’ve said in my previous reviews for novels two and three also applies here so I’m not going to repeat myself. What a shame: I started reading these books because I’ve so enjoyed the TV series, but I’m out now. Guess I’ll just wait for the final season of the show.