The Expanse: Re-read of Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey: koalathebear

koalathebear

The Expanse: Re-read of Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey

Sep 30, 2019 12:13

Originally posted 3 October 2016. Updated 30 September 2019.

I didn’t really care for this book much the first time I read it and I know that a lot of people hate it - and hate the audiobook even more - poor old Erik Davies, he’s never going to get another reading gig, but as part of a re-read of the series I decided I liked the book a lot more the second time around.

In anticipation of the fourth season airing soon, I listened to the audiobook version of Cibola Burn as narrated by the much adored Jefferson Mays and on my now third reading (albeit listening) of this book, I completely and utterly fell in love with it.

What I loved

Chrisjen Avasarala’s hilarious damning Holden with faint praise at the beginning
Visiting a new planet
Amos. Amos. Amos. There’s just so much Amos goodness in this novel. So many awesome quotes, so much wonderful Amos-Holden interaction. This is really Amos’ book in many ways but it was also like a buddy movie/road trip for these two characters. Amos and Holden are friends, they’re family - they’d die for one another. (“Later,” Amos said, “when you’re wishing we had this stuff, I am going to be merciless in my mockery. And then we’ll die.” / “Stop making me fall in love with you, Cap, we both know it can’t go anywhere.”)
The almost Wild West feel about this novel. I know a lot of people didn’t like the feel of this novel but the frontier/colonist vibe was awesome and I can't wait to see it brought to life on the tv show. The images of Holden and Amos walking into the small township ... the confrontations between Murtry and Holden - so very Wild West in their flavour.
I loved that Holden’s cancer meds got revisited in this novel - that it wasn’t forgotten but actually was also critical to the plot
The deadliness of the entire planet … (”the entire planet had been doing its best to kill them”) it was just so menacing and scary in a way - it was like a character in its own right. I loved the idea of the planet being entirely created and unnatural … the deadly slugs, the blindness parasite and the deadly natural disasters were scary and fascianting
I liked Lucia Merton. She deserved a better husband than Basia.
The fact that Holden was not tempted by Elvi despite the fact that she was ‘cute’. I liked the affirmation of his commitment to Naomi. Naomi has been shown as loyal and faithful to Holden while he’s has a wandering eye in Bobbie’s direction.
I quite liked the Holden-Miller interactions in this novel

What I didn’t like so much

Not enough Avasarala or Bobbie Draper. No Clarissa Mao. The reason it was better the second time around was that I knew that they weren’t in it - and so i wasn’t disappointed.
Basia. He was as annoying and weak as he was in Caliban’s War. While Prax Meng redeemed himself, Basia never really did.
Miller turning into a robot monster thing. That was a bit weird.

What I kind of hated

Elvi and her juvenile crush on Holden. It was just so lame and so was she (mostly)
Murtry. He was just a bit too mustache-twirlingly evil for me. I like my villains to have shades of grey and he was just very extreme*

What other people thought ...the-roci: So, Cibola Burn was actually my favorite out of all the novels. Maybe because it had the support of all the other novels to buffer the fact that everyone was split into pairs and other characters were missing. While I missed Avasarala and Bobbie, and Elvi had me rolling my eyes more often than not, this was the first book where I got a sense of true world building, and it felt epic in ways the other novels didn’t. I really enjoyed Naomi’s story-line, especially the fact that she saved herself and her rescuer. I also loved reading about her interacting with Alex and watching and feeling their bond (especially the hug - I need that hug). Did everyone really hate this book? haha. I’m the MOST exited to see this transition onto the screen.

quasigeostrophy said: I thought Cibola Burn was fine. It was a bit different in that it felt more confined, but I liked it fine.

klisaanne said: I loved this book! It’s my 2nd favorite, behind the first book, Leviathan Wakes. Cibola Burn was - to me - the scariest book so far, and the FUNNIEST. The dialogue in this book is hysterical. Which I needed because of all the freaky scary stuff.

xoalenko said: SAME!!! I lOVED Cibola Burn. Aside from the points you mentioned above, I also loved Holden being A hero (self-sacrificing to help the colonists as per usual) but not being THE hero (I MEAN MAN HE WAS A BIT BUSY SO SOMEONE ELSE GOT IT DONE!!!!!). We also got to see more Amos and more Amos and Holden bro-ing it out with no supervision. We had mysteries on mysteries and such human clashing. NAOMI ON HER OWN, GETTING SHIT DONE!!!!! Naomi and Alex away from Holden, getting all these outside perspectives on them from H- and Basia. Also the end of The Investigator, Holden continuing to push non-violence (BUT THEN BECOMING THIS COWBOY OF VENGEANCE), the Wild West allusions, a true but grossly justified villain, Holden being a terrible mediator, i mean this book had it all. I mean there are some problems, as every book has, but it was mostly easy for me to ignore them/save them for later because it was just so much fun for me to read. Like it shocked me to know people hated this book, when I really love it so much. I constantly tell @whenimaunicorn how I can’t wait for the CB arc to make it to television. There’s so much I want to SEE. (That High Noon stand off at the end being one of them.)

welcome-to-locas said: #i really like it too#it was different but a good different

rememberthecant said: I really liked CB, but I really, really (REALLY) (SO MUCH) didn’t like what they did with Elvi’s character (although I love Elvi herself), and Basia’s misogyny was really upsetting.

maedhros-nelyafinwe said: Basically the same. I loved CB, it was a ton of fun and was a grand adventure different from the rest of the series. But I also hated how they handled Elvi, but still love Elvi herself.
Reddit links about the book:

The poor audiobook gets its own bunch of hate

#i, book spoilers, #it, the expanse, cibola burn, book review