3.5 stars

Great book that feels like a Western, slow start and I found the ending to be extremely anti-climactic but overall enjoyed this read.

My review: https://mattstein.com/books/cibola-burn

Books in the Expanse series are essentially fun adventure tales in space, and I enjoyed this one a lot! Author-described dreamboat James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are tasked with resolving a settlement dispute on an alien planet a years' voyage away from any civilization. The human conflict was ultimately driven forward by a single evil sheriff-type antagonist, which felt a little simplistic. But Murtry's bullshit is overshadowed by a struggle for survival against the elements conflict that I appreciated more. I thought that depiction of the unglamorous, relentless slog that always unfolds in the wake of a catastrophe was executed really well. There were also a few fascinating discussions of space telemetry and speculations on potential interactions between human and alien biology. I feel the book succeeds by narrowing its focus onto a few actually compelling people (and Basia), which keeps things moving along and delivers a lot of excellent moments that are integrated well into the story. It's true that Elvi's crush on Holden was badly drawn, but it was so funny and it was ultimately repudiated by the text so I didn't mind. Also, it wasn't just Elvi! On multiple occasions, from multiple people, we get a paragraph or two where they ponder how cool and heroic James Holden is and how great his butt looks. Favorite scenes and elements include: - Elvi studying the algae conjunctivitis - Naomi's excellent plan with the tow line and the rail gun - Holden's whole dynamic with the Miller construct - Havlock trying to persuade the RCE militia to stand down by explaining they have no idea what they're doing. HE HAD TRAINED THEM. - I don't usually like it when characters tell their entire their backstory to another person, but I did like Alex's a lot.

Another great book in the series. There are some really great characters here, and the dialogue can be so funny and witty. The beginning was slower than I would have liked, but it picked up. Lots of things going on and stakes being raised.

Just fine. Plus a half for reusing Miller, a dead man, so well. This passage was good (maybe need to be there though): what a genetic algorithm feels like from inside - It builds the investigator, and the investigator looks, but does not know. It kills the investigator. It builds the investigator, and the investigator looks, but does not know. It kills the investigator. It builds the investigator, and the investigator looks but does not know, and it does not kill the investigator. It is not aware of a change, that a pattern has broken. The investigator is aware, and it wonders, and because it wonders it looks, and because it looks, the investigator exceeds its boundary conditions, and it kills the investigator. It builds the investigator. Something knows. The investigator hesitates. A pattern has broken, and it isn’t aware that a pattern has broken, but a part of it is. A part of it grasps at the change and tries to tell the investigator. And the investigator stops. Its thoughts are careful as a man walking in a minefield. The investigator hesitates, knows a pattern has been broken. Breaks it a little more. The dead place becomes better defined. It reaches out, and it does not kill the investigator. The investigator exceeds its boundary conditions, and it does not kill the investigator. The investigator considers the dead space, the structure, the reaching out, the reaching out, the reaching out. The investigator licks his lips, he doesn’t have a mouth. He adjusts his hat, he doesn’t have a hat. He wishes in a distant way that he had a beer, he has no body and no passion. He turns his attention to the dead space, to the world, to how you solve unsolvable problems. How you find things that aren’t there. And the awww shiit political implication rant at the end is very satisfying. What I like about this book is the small stakes - instead of the usual "all the solar system FOREVERRR" it's about the fate of 200 folk on a backwater. The villain is interesting, implausible: a corporate bushidō deontologist, willing to die for his shareholders. Cyberpunk without cyberpunk's irony. How does it do as Serious science fiction? Social development: None. The super aliens also have no society. Software development: None. Actual Science: The aliens change the laws of physics repeatedly (nuclear fusion stops working), but the authors at least try to do counterfactual physics to this. The aliens were fissioning lithium for energy, which seems unlikely but I suppose not impossible.

This series continues to excell at producing characters who just piss you the **** off. It's really quite impressive. Once again keeps you on the edge of your seat with unexpected developments, without crossing the line into overt deus ex machina. This one feels uniquely desolate.

I liked the book well enough, though not as much as I liked some of the other ones. I feel like I'm kinda starting to see the scaffolding the authors keep using to build their plots on. Lots of folks seem to like to read the same stuff over & over, but I'm not one of them. I also didn't like the narrator as well as the previous narrator. Reread June 2015 in prep for Nemesis Games: liked it better this time. Reread April 2019 to refresh my memory of Elvi Okoye.

Liked this one quite a bit more than the last one. It’s similarly somewhat slower in pace but I found this much more interesting and the new characters just all around more compelling to spend time with. I like how Holdens character arc is developed and the challenges of the alien planet make for interesting reading. More psychology, more science. Love that the obstacles the characters face are usually pretty inventive and don’t just resort to gun fights. Probably my favourite thing about the books and it remains true for this one as well.

Little slow to start but this is another roller-coaster addition to the Expanse series.

There are new worlds to populate and the race is on. What might a "land grab" look like in the future? Will corporations overpower settlers? How is the rule of law (and just whose laws) enforced on a new world? And what about the life that already exists on these "new" worlds? Great science fiction looks forward but is rooted in our past: What have we learned since the "gold rush" days (apparently not so much when there's money to be made), and how might our experience shape future societies? Another excellent book in this thought-provoking and highly entertaining series. [The only thing I did not enjoy was being teased about the involvement of Bobbie (the gunnery sergeant from book 3) who was almost completely absent from this book.]

Still exactly the kind of sci-fi fast food I've come to expect of the series, and as is often the case it only gets better the deeper you delve into the universe. On the previous book I said: "This one feels like a bit of a setup for the rest of the bigger overarching story to pan out". It's hard to describe but somehow this is both more and less the case with this one. The overarching mystery appears to be well fleshed out already, and parts of it being strategically woven into individual stories, which can stand on their own very well but are improved by being a part of the bigger picture. Mild spoiler about a major theme of the book: The colonialism themes of the RCE storyline nicely mirrored what was previously alluded to about the OPA origins.

** spoiler alert ** The Havelock and Basia POVs are very appreciated!!! My favorite part is the death slug action for sure

Definitely my favorite of the series so far. The character work was outstanding. The new characters had so much depth and felt so vibrant that I was drawn in from moment one. Looking forward to the next one already.

** spoiler alert ** Poking around other reviews, many people thought this installment took a dip in quality. I think there were peaks and valleys but overall the new characters were sufficiently interesting enough that it pulled me right along. Havelock's musing, Elvi's awkwardness, and Fayez's reasonably believable actions in his interactions with the new colonists on the planet as well as Elvi were great new stories to read. I found myself looking forward to Elvi's chapters with an interesting mixture of anticipating and a cringing, recoiling feeing in the pit of my stomach, particularly her uncomfortable approaches toward Holden for at least half of the book. Still, it's hilarious at the same time. Murtry was truly an infuriating, single-minded character whose only aim seemed to be to unapproachable, unbending, and achieve an emotionless, hollow goal. I'm not opposed to characters with "carry out the mission" -type personalities, otherwise Amos would be just as irritating. While the Roci crew always has an underpinning in the conscious to reduce damage, Murtry insists on being anything but. He calls it logic, though I find it cruel. He feels almost unbelievably unreasonable and trying to see his point of view is a bit painful for the reader because it's almost cartoonish. Are there probably missions and individuals with these types of black and white views? Yes. Was it bumpy to read? Also yes. I didn't feel much about Basia, pretty empty of sympathy on the whole, especially the parts in which he's trying to prevent his daughter from leaving. Maybe that dug in and pinged something a bit personal on my end, but it rankled me that he was trying to reconcile the idea that Felcia should stay while we was making it a more dangerous place. His high point for me was refusing to participate in the plan with the other colonists, but he ends up being a body in the story for me, even in the parts with Havelock and Naomi coming back to the ship. He's just there. I won't let Miller go because he's truly my favorite, even as a ghost-proto-hallucination-whatever and I refuse to believe he's gone. The epilogue made me quite happy and I hope that means there's more Bobbie and Avasarala, again, two characters I could read a lifetime who could inject a bit of bam into this story; they were sorely missed by me.

Binging through the series. The epilogue broke my brain. It's like the GOT in space. I cannot recommend this series highly enough.

4.5 stars! A few slow moments of the political conflicts, but most of the time the authors keep readers terrified for their favorite characters the whole time!

Good lord. Now I have to wait for the next one!

Good but overly complex The more I read of the series the more pages I happily skip. It’s not that the storyline is predictable, more that there is a little too much exposition and one too many storylines to care about. Still, it’s a fun read, well-paced, and no doubt I’ll read book 5 at some point.