TW/CW: Violence, sexual situations, brutality, murder, scary situations

RATING: 5/5

REVIEW: Cibola Burn is the fourth installment in James S. A. Corey’s Expanse series. It follows the crew of the Rocinante as James Holden is called to a distant planet to serve as a mediator between the squatters who live there and the corporate interests who protest the squatters’ presence.

This is one of my favorite books in the series (so far). I love the setting on a foreign planet with entirely new species and people, and the surprises and challenges that face not just Holden and his crew, but all of the people involved. I’m also very interested to see what comes of what Proto!Miller discovers here.

This series is definitely one of the best sci-fi I’ve ever read. I tend to prefer fantasy very slightly over science fiction, but this book definitely lives up to the hype.

I recommend this series to fans of sci-fi anywhere, and also just people looking for an exciting, thought-provoking series. ( )

The rush to colonise planets beyond the Ring gate has begun, and inevitably conflict has arisen. Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been "requested" jointly by Avasarala and Fred Johnson to investigate on a "fact finding" basis. But you know Holden; can't ever resist getting involved. And when problems on the planet start with some ill-advised minor terrorism that goes badly wrong, and then escalate; and just as the escalation is getting serious, artefacts left behind by the Ring-building civilization begin to wake up, things just stumble from one disaster to the next.

Once more, there are interesting differences between book and tv series. Quite a few of them stem from a need to give lead actors something to do when their character doesn't have such a major role in the novel for a good proportion of it - a problem authors don't have. But this doesn't result in major dislocations in either novel or tv show: both are sufficiently well-made to avoid this sort of problem, and it makes for interesting reading to see how the two differ.

Of particular interest is that the novel re-introduces Havelock, Miller's buddy from Star Helix security on Ceres in Leviathan Wakes as head of shipboard security for the company team sent to enforce possession of the planet. The tv show omitted this character altogether. Also, the tv show has the climax, where Holden and Miller de-activate the artefact, transferred to deep underneath the planet instead of five hundred miles away (and deep under the planet). Another example of the sort of changes necessary to make coherent television. ( )

Wat valt er over deze uitstekende serie boeken nog te zeggen?

Wederom heb ik enorm genoten van alle ontwikkelingen in het universum van The Expanse. En omdat ik de televisieserie eerst gekeken heb, zijn de gezichten van de personages snel ingevuld. Ze hebben voor de televisieserie een aantal personages met elkaar versmolten en nu ik het boek heb gelezen, ben ik nog meer onder de indruk hoe knap ze dit voor de televisie hebben vormgegeven.
Ik begin wel steeds nieuwsgieriger te worden naar de delen waar de televisieserie niet meer aan toegekomen zijn. Dan zal ik alles van de woorden moeten gaan begrijpen in plaats van dat ik uit mijn geheugen van de televisieserie kan putten. Dat maakt het lezen nu wel heel erg gemakkelijk.

De vorm om de gebeurtenissen uit verschillende perspectieven te laten vertellen, blijft heel sterk. Het was slechts een keer dat er een overlappende tijd was waardoor een gebeurtenis twee keer werd weergegeven. Maar voor de rest sloot het naadloos op elkaar aan wat het lezen ook heel soepel maakte.

In dit deel is nog steeds onbekend wat de protomolecuul nu eigenlijk is, waar het vandaan komt en wat voor beschavingen er in het verleden zijn geweest die lang geleden zijn uitgeroeid maar waar niet van bekend is door wat. Dit mysterie blijft bestaan maar eigenlijk is dit alleen om een context te scheppen waarin we zien hoe de mensheid in elkaar steekt. En dat is vaak niet fraai en regelmatig zelfs schokkend. Maar nergens is het ongeloofwaardig of voor de sensatie.

Ik blijf onder de indruk en deel vijf staat alweer op mij te wachten. ( )

Just really, really good. ( )

The gates have opened the way to thousands of habitable planets, and the land rush has begun. Settlers stream out from humanity's home planets in a vast, poorly controlled flood, landing on a new world. Among them, the Rocinante, haunted by the vast, posthuman network of the protomolecule as they investigate what destroyed the great intergalactic society that built the gates and the protomolecule. But Holden and his crew must also contend with the growing tensions between the settlers and the company which owns the official claim to the planet. Both sides will stop at nothing to defend what's theirs, but soon a terrible disease strikes and only Holden - with help from the ghostly Detective Miller - can find the cure.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this -- I’d actually picked up Nemesis Games thinking I’d already read it, and the third book in the series felt a bit abrupt to me. But this was action and intrigue all the way, and I really enjoyed it. ( )