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  • Cibola Burn

  • The Expanse, Book 4
  • Written by: James S. A. Corey
  • Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
  • Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (1,225 ratings)

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Cibola Burn cover art

Cibola Burn

Written by: James S. A. Corey
Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
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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

What listeners say about Cibola Burn

Average Customer Ratings
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Love this series

I really love this series. For long drives nothing beats listening to audible audio books. #Audible1

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I love this series. Please give it a listen!

Funny, exciting, thought provoking, and all around a wild ride. This book was good, not the best in the series but had a great arc and kept the story flowing.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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The narrator is outstanding

Not a single thing. Great story. Great narration. Can’t wait to listen to the next book in the series.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Excruciatingly slow story development

Decided to listen as I love the tv series. This book develops at death slugs pace. The authors seem more concerned with convincing us of their intelligence than actually telling a compelling story. The screen writers did a great job of cutting through the fluff, this book could be half as long as it is and you wouldn’t miss anything.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Ok, but not as good as others in the series.

Nothing really to say, it just didn’t quite hit as hard as other entries. I didn’t feel compelled to continue on this re-read, and the climactic points suffered. Good villain, but otherwise not terribly exciting. But, that’s sci fi sometimes. You need the Star Trek exploration just as much as the Star Wars fights. Guess it could have been done more effectively, though.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Where the series and books start to split

Like many, I watched the TV series of The Expanse before I started on the books. This instalment is where those two things start to deviate some. The series covered many of the events in Cibola Burn, but as is often the case, the book goes into greater detail with additional characters and side stories that add a lot more world building to what the series presented, even though I think it did a pretty good job overall.

In some ways, this book almost feels like a transitionary entry, bridging the time before and after the gates were discovered and giving us a prelude into how the discoveries they yield don't bring people together, but just sow further division as greed and lust for power drive humanity's expansion outward. A lot of questions are laid out, with only some of them being answered, prepping a lot of narrative groundwork for the future books. Not to say that there aren't some great character stories and hard sci-fi intrigue in this entry. This is still a great listen, meticulously presented as always by Jefferson Mays.

The one problem I have harped on with every one of these books and will continue to until it's improved is the frustrating and generic way the authors handle conversation. Even though Mays gives each character their own unique vocal twist to identify them, every conversation has to have "X said" or "Y said" between nearly every switch in speakers. This isn't necessary to begin with given the different voices and should have been changed for the audiobook, but even barring that, you can indicate speaking without just saying "this person said". There are plenty of synonyms that can be used. I get this is a problem that won't bother everyone, but I find it makes conversation grating compared to many other books.

Aside from that, another solid entry in The Expanse series.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

best one so far

laughed cried raged hoped and absolutely did not want it to end. now I have to buy the next one before my next credit!!!!!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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The best of the series so far

This one is the best of the series so far. Better then the T.V. series but very similar. The little details left out of the show really make the story pop. A must read if you like the show you could even skip the other books if you watched the because they are almost exactly the same as the show.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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So good!

Just when I think it couldn't get better, it does. I'm really enjoying this series.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great to listen to at high speed

love this guys voice at 1.5 speed, super clear
also his accents are great

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