Book: Cibola Burn by James S. A. Corey

I wrote posts about the Expanse Series, a space opera by James S. A. Corey.  The posts were about Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate.  This one is about the fourth book, Cibola Burn.

Now there is a race to travel through the gate and find a new planet to colonize.  A group of settlers from Ganymede has traveled though the gate and landed on a planet they call Illus which they make their home.  The problem is a corporation wants to make the planet, they call it New Terra, their property.  The settlers, including Basia who we met in the second book, strike out against the Royal Charter Energy (RCE) people who are come to lay claim to the planet for the corporation.  The settlers believe the planet is already theirs.  RCE has brought in scientists and security people to study and take control of New Terra.  The conflict between the settlers and RCE gets enough attention that Avasarala recruits Holden to go mediate the situation.  Things do not go as planned.  Not only is there tension on New Terra, it carries to the ships hanging out in New Terra's orbit.  Holden finds himself in trouble on the ground with the spokes person from RCE, Murty (a real jerk), and on a planet that seems intent on killing everyone.  Naomi and the crew of the Rocinante have their hands full with the RCE crew trying to assert their control from above, as directed by Murty of course,  Once I finally got into this book it was hard to put down.  There was a lot of tension, and me wondering how they were going to get out of the different situations that just kept coming.

One thing I really could have done without in this book were the interlude chapters.  I pretty much hated them.  The were strange, they didn't make sense, and after sort of reading the first one I didn't read any of the others because they didn't seem to matter.

Also, as I was reading this book I wondered what Cibola Burn was referring to.  I don't remember seeing the name Cibola anywhere.  And then I realized none of the other titles really made sense either.  It doesn't really matter, I didn't think about it until now.  Maybe it is something that will just make sense as the series develops.  There are going to be nine books total, the fifth one is supposed to be coming out in June of this year.  The authors have created a pretty big world to work with, I can't wait to see where they end up next, and what trouble Holden has to get himself out of!  Until then, on to the next series!