Cibola Burn

Book 4 of the Expanse

By: James S. A. Corey

Narrated by: Jefferson Mays

Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

The gates have opened the way to a thousand new worlds, and the rush to colonise has begun. Settlers looking for a new life stream out from humanity's home planets. Illus, 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.

James Holden and the crew of his one small ship are sent to make peace in the midst of war and sense in the heart 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 civilisation which once stood on this land is gone. And that something killed them.

Cibola Burn is the exhilarating fourth novel in the New York Times best-selling Expanse series, following the Hugo-nominated Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War, and Abaddon's Gate.

Please note: The original recording has now been replaced with a new performance by Jefferson Mays. If you own this audiobook, simply re-download it from your library to access the new recording.

©2014 Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (P)2014 Hachette Audio

Changed narrator?

I see some people complaining about the narration, they must have updated this audiobook because its the same narrator as the previous ones at the moment.

It reaches out...

As much as I personally am not a fan of Holden, the main character, I have to admit how well he is always written into the books, he is not the chosen one, he doea not have a great destiny.

He's a dude, being played, pushed and pulled.

Otherwise this book keeps the consistently great world building, character development and stellar plot at full sail.

Great story line with excellent storytelling

Great story, really lovable charecters, man expands into to space and unknown, the fight for the rights to anything and everything out there... best space story to date in my oppinion.

Another gripping story

Holden and the crew are faced with new challenges. It does not disappoint! Enjoy season 4!

written for TV but good

good story interesting characters. Feels written for TV. Just enough to qualify as good but not great. When action does happen it feels right very tightly written.

Last one for me

Enjoyable book and the action sections are engaging. But this is enough of the book series for me. It feels too much like episodes of a TV drama, also having a ring or stargate for transportation though the galaxy. Excellent and entertaining it feels too predictable. Book 1 of the series introduced a new way to think about the expansion of the solar system and is a favourite, but the ring has been done before.

A good story, badly narrated

The change of narrator really made this a difficult book to get through. I probably wouldn't have stuck with if not for the knowledge that the next book goes returns to the previous narrator.

I wouldn't say that this book's narrator is inherently bad, but he did not seem to understand the characters who he was portraying. For example, Miller is made to sound like a robot, and his narration of Avasarala's lines is beyond awful.

The narration which just involves telling the story is fine, but this book is dialogue heavy, and as such the majority of the narration is quite jarring to listen to.

If you're invested in the series, there's still a good story here, so if you can handle the narration definitely still give it a listen...

I just can't get enough

I saw the first two seasons of The Expanse on Netflix but didn't realise how great the books were. This book continues the story outside of one of the rings and as always you can expect action, drama, love and heroes rising to the occasion.

I'll just continue with book five right now!

Not the greatest of the series

The story seems to have somewhat of a stand still in the middle of this book, but otherwise it's an entertaining read!

Enjoyed this even more than the last one

Another great piece of Sci-Fi with all ingredients to make it superb. I actually enjoyed this one more than the last one and can't wait for the next one. While it is feeling a bit strange to hear your familiar characters with a different voice, I like the new narrator and grew accustomed to him. Havlok was a bit off (yes, Havlok is back), I thought. The accents were really great though. Looking forward to the next book.