Cibola Burn

To tell the truth, I was saddened to see the Expanse universe expanded beyond our minuscule solar system. I really loved the limited scope of the first books, where you had people trying to fight a vast incomprehensible menace when they could hardly manage their own system.

But this book has pacified me a bit. The colonists in this story are limited as well; in fact, this one's even more limited than the first books were. I like that. It gives me hope that this series won't end up with humanity being a huge advanced civilization akin to the very one they're trying to find/investigate.

(spoiler for 2001: a Space Odyssey) That's possibly the only thing I didn't like about the 2001 book (the movie was terrible in regards to explaining things to the viewer, so I'll pretend it didn't exist): the transcendence of humanity. I get that the whole point was showing the development of humans from apes into extremely wise seemingly omniscient beings, but it didn't work for me. I would much rather have had humanity see these other beings and decide that they could handle things on their own. I always doubt it when an entire civilization, or even a tiny subset, can somehow put aside everything that's wrong with them.

So, we’ve got a network of gates that gives humanity access to literally thousands of new, colonizable worlds. Plenty of space for everyone, right? Wrong. Because what we do is basically start fighting over the first one at hand. A very realistic assumption, if you ask me.
And who do we send as a mediator to this messy situation? James Holden. That really looks ridiculous, but it’s just old Avasarala pulling the strings behind the curtains, except Holden is unpredictable and things may as well blow up on her face.
So, plot in “Cibola burn” is as good as it was in the previous novels, and writing is too. If I have to complain about something, it’s the new characters introduced, Basia, Elvi and Havelock. They didn’t click for me. Didn’t empathize with them like I did for Bull or Anne in the previous novel. Elvi in particular seemed to me like she was there just to explain the science stuff to the average reader. But maybe it’s just me.
On the other hand, we have some of the best “first alien world colonization” scenario I’ve had the pleasure of reading. With the right amount of writer research behind it, enough to make everything feel realistic, but no too much to have the reader get bored.
I will definitely continue reading the Expanse saga.