A review by paracyclops
Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The writing duo that is James S.A. Corey have a very firm handle on how to make a science-fiction thriller. There's nothing very groundbreaking about the SF in their Expanse series (although they have solid hard-SF underpinnings for their technology and worldbuilding): they're just extremely well-crafted interplanetary adventure stories. Good, clean prose, believable characters, compelling sources of conflict, controlled pacing, and intricately engineered multi-thread plots. Cibola burn, the fourth in the series, felt a little bit formulaic, compared to the earlier instalments, but books like these are written to a formula, and it's bound to show from time to time. It also felt a little bit diffuse, narratively—the crew of the Rocinante are basically supporting characters here, and it took time both to work that out, and to work out who the real protagonists were. There are also quite a few elements that will not appear meaningful if this is your entry point to the series, although the authors do use the book's new characters to make some wry jibes at their own expense in that area. As with the earlier instalments, I just devoured this—I couldn't read it fast enough, and I can't wait to read the next one.