Cibola Burn (Expanse, #4)

by James S. A. Corey

[abookishblether]

Leviathan Wakes ★★★★★
Caliban's War ★★★★☆
Abaddon's Gate ★★★★★
Cibola Burn ★★★★☆

Another solid installment in The Expanse series.

I really love the sensation of sinking into another one of these books, where I know that there is going to be 500 pages of well written, enjoyable science fiction following a main cast of characters I know and enjoy reading about. It's like putting on your favourite clothes again, or watching a favourite tv show. Obviously things change, and stakes are higher in the next book, but there are many constant qualities to the series that keep the engagement high.

In this book, a new world has been colonised by two opposing parties and Holden has been tasked with keeping the peace. As with each book, there are some guest POVs introduced that keep the story feeling fresh. The stakes in this book felt the highest, and the story the most intimate. The majority of the story was set on one planet with a cast of characters who were in much closer contact than ususal. Obviously being set across the expanse of space, in previous books a lot of our characters were interacting through video chat or sending messages. With the main conflict being on the surface of this planet, it really changed up how the characters interacted. And when stakes were raised for survival on the alien planet, it affected majority of the characters in the book. I really enjoyed reading this one, and I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.