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

Book has been renarrated by Jefferson Mays-Thanks!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Previous narrator made me angry and depressed. Had to switch to reading. New narration by Jefferson Mays made me cry with relief.

Any additional comments?

UPDATE 3/30/2017 --- Yesterday I got an update email from Amazon saying that the audio narration has been updated:

"""Dear Audible Listener, We are contacting you because you have reviewed the title “Cibola Burn” by James S. A. Coery. 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."""

I downloaded the new narration and rejoiced in the sweet tones and characterizations we have all come to enjoy from Jefferson Mays. I almost cried. Although I am 2/3 of the way through the book, I am happy to listen to the rest via audio now because of this.

OLD REVIEW CONCERNING PREVIOUS NARRATION:

This review pertains to (mostly) the audio narration which is the worst audio narration I've listened to for any book in my life. I'm about 30% through this book at this point. The first three books have great audio narration and I was really looking forward to listening to this one. Where and why Amazon/Audible decided to hire this brainless and belligerent narrator is beyond me. Firstly, the narrator obviously hadn't listened to the previous narrator's reads of the previous books to provide any sense of continuity. Secondly, this narrator tries to 'act' the characters and does a really poor job. Unfortunately, he reads this book like it is a dime store Western/Romance novel. All the men have western cowboyish accents and all the women are read as either breathy or breathless voices. It is beyond distracting. And, even worse, this new dumb narrator's acting interpretation of Christian Avasarala is a out of breath woman on the verge of hysterics rather than the appropriate biting cynical political genius with an Indian accent. Those characters he deems not of the cowboy or helpless woman type of voice he gives either a super poor australian accent or some mixture of transylvanian/slavic (seriously sounds like a bad Dracula voice for someone with a middle eastern name). Even more unfortunate is that he has decided to provide an American Indian accent to the ghostly character of Miller. WTH!!!

So, if you enjoy cheap western novels and want a book of the expanse series read to you in this way, you will have no problem with this book. If you've listened to the narration from the previous books and expect the same 'feel' of narration, skip it for this one. You'll go stark raving mad. There is hope however, for the subsequent novel narration as it reverts back to the first narrator. From wiki: This narrator's name is Erik Davies (you should be fired) and is only for Cibola Burn and the novellas Gods of Risk and The Churn. All the others are the narrator Jefferson Mays.

Dear Amazon/Audible: If you switch narrators in a series, your quality control (I'm sure you have none) needs to require that the new narrator provide narration continuity. I wish I could get my money back for the audio purchase of this book. Please hire Jefferson Mays to record narration for Cibola Burn, Gods of Risk, and The Churn to replace the TERRIBLE narration of Erik Davies. Erik Davies should only be hired to record narration for awful cheap dime store Western novels. If the authors are reading this and have any pull, ask Amazon/Audible to fix this. You almost lost me as a reader.

As far as the novel goes, it is a slow starter and more boring and world building type of novel than the first three. So go into it with that in mind. Maybe by the end something cool will happen but I'm not there yet.

I got pulled into reading/listening to the novels by watching the TV series. Has been totally worth my time until I encountered this exceptionally poor narration.

Decent read

Feels like a transition book. They are moving from the solar system and broaden into a larger universe. Hopefully book 5 delves more into the political battles of the inner planents.

tv vs books

The series is amazing. even with a female empowered interpretation that hollywood puts out, they still make sure to hit all the main points each book. This book for me was 10x better than the season, which did a great job at portraying everything. The book just goes that much further. Havlocks character is amazing in this and the book is from his perspective ~30% of the time. can't wait to read nemesis games

enjoyed this

really enjoyed this book and now anxious to go back and listen to books 2, 2 ,and 3

Perhaps the best expanse novel yet

There is really so much to enjoy from the story that one can take away and digest ages still, either from a Scifi "other worldy" and alienness view point or to the space opera of dramatic low orbit spaceship rescue. Or the familiarity of the near future universe that has been crafted so far in the series - or the depth of characters that are developed from hero Holden (and his team), or the evil megalomaniacal corporate security chief or to the really really alien convoluted tapestry of alien world substrata. All these meld into engrossing claustrophobic spiral that suspends reality and opens new vistas of the human condition under extreme exposure.
Mostly I enjoyed the theme of redemption themes that are uniquely presented though the strangeness of the alien world and it's 4 biomes - for the a stupid act from a grieving father, the desire from Holden to protect those entrusted to him and even creepy Miller gets the recognition for his unselfishness, even if it is only in a snatch of a phrase and a probe fired into a distant alien sun, from a distant alien world by perhaps the only friend he had had. We all need a shot at redemption, and why not on the farthest frontier where laws of man fail and the laws of love and humanity can still prevail?

It's hard to separate the brilliance of the text from the brilliance of Jefferson Mays narration. Mays takes one through the whole expanse of emotions of being human in a very strange situation and not only suspends reality by his range of accents but also delivers one headlong to the culture and brashness of the Belters or stifled straight jacket of the Corporate Earth. Even the dispassionate poetry of the Investigator - Protomolecule is given equl exposure that it not just immerses one into the tentacles or enzymal threads of the story, but one is drowned by it leaving one gasping or just grabbing for another aircan on the evo suit to stay alive.

Don't do this book in one sitting, rather enjoy the mastery that both author and performer deliver, savour the brush stroke on the canvas, love the character the tech (human or alien) is bite size chunks - but you won't, coz the adrenalin will keep you flicking pages or chapter's. Which is good, but you will miss the brilliance of the prose.

Amazing work by James SA Corey & Jefferson Mays

Can't underscore the value that Mays brings to this series - he brings characters like Chrisjenn and Amos to life in very subtle, expertly crafted inflections that speak volumes about the histories and lives of these characters. To the point where I just can't listen to anyone else doing the narration for this series.

excellent

Another great journey told by the amazing Jefferson Mayes. the book version is much better than the show but I do love the show too

Absolutely love this series

Absolutely love this series, cant believe I waited so long to read them. Exciting action built on strong character development, with a compelling political backdrop.

They just get better & better!

I am a complete Expanse addict. Can't wait for the next book. Love May's reading!

fantastic

Not my favorite of the books, but I enjoyed it when I got through the slow parts