Cibola Burn

The Expanse, Book 4

By: James S. A. Corey

Narrated by: Jefferson Mays

Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Hugo Award Winner for Best Series

The fourth book in the NYT best-selling Expanse series, Cibola Burn sees the crew of the Rocinante on a new frontier, as the rush to colonize the new planets threatens to outrun law and order and give way to war and chaos. Now a Prime Original series.

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 Expanse

• Leviathan Wakes
• Caliban's War
• Abaddon's Gate
• Cibola Burn
• Nemesis Games
• Babylon's Ashes
• Persepolis Rising
• Tiamat's Wrath
• ​Leviathan Falls
• Memory's Legion

The Expanse Short Fiction

• Drive
• The Butcher of Anderson Station
• Gods of Risk
• The Churn
• The Vital Abyss
• Strange Dogs
• Auberon
• The Sins of Our Fathers

©2014 James S.A. Corey (P)2014 Hachette Audio

Least favorite so far, still good

I don't know why but this book didn't enthrall me as much as the others. I think it felt a little more fantastic and I connected with the characters less.
I like the series but this book just didn't hit it for me personally!

Another great book

The adventure continues. Villians you love to hate and new protagonists that you want to come out kicking. Cibola burns gives more insight into the protomolecule technology, its scope and as well as a glimpse into what killed it all.
i read books 1 to 3 back to back. I waited a while before this one and i am glad because it let me enjoy it more, since i wanted a shirt stent into fantasy. i would hate to have listened to this book and not enjoyed it because of that.

another great performance.

another great performance. this book suffers from the excellence of the predecessor Abbadons gate. One of the most gripping ship stories I've read. Just buy this whole series. The reader alone is worth it.

meh

this story was not as good as the others..still a decent read though if you have nothing much to do.

Very entertaining!

I enjoyed the narration. Kept me interested the entire time. I listened to it while driving but also read the hardcopy book. It was very good

Slow start but worth it.

The differences between the book and the show in this chapter of the story is much larger than any of the books so far. it's a bit slow to start, but the writing and finale more than make up for it.

better than season 4

way better than the TV version. well worth the listen. should have been copied more for the series

Best book is the expanse so far!

My favorite of the first 4 books. The conflict is compelling, the villain reasonable and intelligent, the pacing perfect. Overall I was intrigued the whole time!
Also the person reading it does an amazing job.

Jefferson Mays deserves an award

I have listened to audiobooks for decades and the performance by Jefferson mays of the expanse books is just incredible. bravo sir. bravo.

Slow first half, but worthwhile overall

This is a bit tough to review, because while I like it overall, roughly the first half just doesn't work that well for me. It starts from the ending premise of the last book, looking at colonization of new worlds that have opened up to humans, but it gets too focused on the politics of independent settlers vs big corporations for my taste, relative to what I want from this particular series. The motivation to bring in the main characters to the scene feels a bit thin (although it does pay off better later), and the villain feels a bit too one-note, mustache-twirling evil to really care about.

But then things turn around midway through. Some big events start kicking the plot forward, there's exciting space action in orbit, the characters on the ground finally have stuff to do beyond working through slow mediation between the major players, and there more delving into the mysterious lore behind the world. The story wasn't *bad* before, this just shifted it more towards what I enjoy about the series.

I'd probably give it a 3 1/2 star rating overall, but I'll round up on here because I did enjoy it overall and the latter half in particular kept me hyped up to continue the series.