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

Worth a listen

A lot of reviewers gave this installment a lot of flak for essentially being a repeat on the plot of the previous book. I see the similarities, and it’s definitely not the strongest book, but I think the journey is still a fun ride. The real interesting stuff is with the proto molecule/Miller and the team in orbit The similar aspects to the previous book are easily trudged through without it feeling like a slog.
It is sort of a bridge between the last and next book but I’m glad I gave it a listen. I found it interesting and enjoyable. The narrator performs as expertly as usual and the writing style is solid as always, even for a bridge book.

OH, YEAH!

Just keeps getting better! Hoping the next book is 1/2 as good. Reading on.

Great Series

Great addition to the series. Narrator was excellent and continued a great performance in this book. Looking forward to listening to the next book.

Review from a non- Scifi fan

I'm not a fan of sci-fi at all. My genre is fantasy. I was drawn into the series by The Expanse TV show. Having watched all available seasons so far, this book is even better than the show. but the show makes the book so much better because I have faces and accents to go with the narration. All that aside, the books are fascinatingly awesome on their own merit. It's going to make me explore more sci-fi. Right after I gobble up the rest of the series.

Good but not the best Expanse book

I devoured books 1-3 of the Expanse. This is the first one that I didn’t love. It’s still a good book but I do felt like a lot of character arcs were stalled. Some of the perspective characters (Elvie, Havlock, Basia) just aren’t all that interesting and I didn’t feel heavily invested in their arcs, which is completely different from how I felt in Book 2 and 3.

65% of the book is very slow. When it picks up at the end, it’s easy to power through.

As always the narration is impeccable.

Excellent continuation.

A very good story continues to unfold across the universe. Characters are well written such that you really love some and really hate some. This story is worth the investment of your precious time.

Expanse Book 4 - terrific listen

So far each audiobook in this series has been exciting, compelling, and very entertaining. Great characters, complex plots, it has it all. Can't wait to start book 5! Narration is excellent without overwhelming the actual story...great job!

I can't believe it has been 4 books already.

I always love the dance, that the limited number of character perspectives do in Corey's books do. Love it!

Another great book in the series!

Jefferson Mays is such a talented narrator.
Cibola Burn is an amazing piece of fiction and I'm very excited to jump into Nemesis Games!

Absolutely the BEST so far

cannot wait for the next one. love this series. hope they never end and that the story continues on forever!