Cibola Burn

tl.lane

Sep 09, 2025

Good, but a bit slow at timesAnother good Expanse novel. It moved a bit slower then the other novels previously. I still enjoyed it, but it didn’t grab me and make me read through it in one day, like the others. This one took me about 12 days, because I kept putting it down to do other things.The characters were good, but I missed not having Avasarala and Bobbie Draper in it as much as they were in other books. Their characters are amazing. Amos is my all time favorite character in the series, but the two women come in as 2nd and 3rd favored.It was humorous to have so many storylines come back and interconnect. A little unrealistic for reality and with space and humanity being so spread out, though it did add some interesting twists. Initially I didn’t register who Basia was, but it was shortly explained about his son being one of the child victims within the 2nd trials in protomolecule tinkering. Having him in the story was a bit of a stretch. At least his mannerisms could be explained within the context of his reacting to losing his son and won’t allow the loss of another in his family.Using Havelock as ship security and that he was Miller’s past partner was well done. That storyline was one I found more believable as far as potential jobs he may have taken. Though I wish they had told Miller and him about one another so they could have possibly interacted. I would have been interested to see if Havelock found the Miller construct as real as the original person, or was there markedly different personalities that the protomolecule didn’t get right after all. Something only another cop, I think, would have noticed.Murtry was a completely despicable and despised character. It was well done as that sort of tyrant and sociopath would be the ones used in long term security. That he was so gung ho to protect RCE interests was well thought out and believable. I would have thought that would he would have killed more people to keep RCE as the sole property owner, including his own shipmates. He definitely deserves to be thrown into a dark hole and forgotten, just as Jules Mao was. They would make wonderful prison-mates. Maybe they can create the “We hate James Holden” anti-fan club.The ending when Holden is removing the last of the protomolecule from he Roci was too bad. I understand that Holden didn’t like to be used as a catspaw for Miller and the PM, but I would have thought it was worth the headaches it caused to know that it allowed communication between them. For what it’s worth, the Miller construct did seem to care for what was happening to the human race. Though with Venus, the rings and so many other PM nearby sites out there, maybe Miller won’t need direct access to the Roci to still converse with Holden, if and when it’s needed.The next in the series should prove interesting, especially with all the changes that the Ring gateway has caused in their universe. Now that at least Okoye has seen the alien killer and we find out that the alien protomolecule constructs are blind to it, I wonder if the books will try to locate the creators of this new species. Okoye could be an even better messenger for the alien constructs as her expansive knowledge would allow her to grasp concepts and potentially use the alien machinery that was left on Ilus.