Cibola Burn is the fourth in The Expanse series of books, following Abaddon’s Gate.  Earlier books center on conflict between future societies based on Earth,  Mars, and The Belt.  With the opening of the “ring gates” at the end of book three, people can now venture forth to thousands of new worlds.  “Cibola Burn” concentrates on the first settlement “New Tera” where a group of ragtag Belters starting mining Lithium before a corporation shows up with an “official claim” on the planet.  The corporate people have a lot of scientists, but their real purpose is to also mine Lithium.  Conflict leads to violence and our heroes aboard the Rociante are sent to “mediate” before one side wipes out the other, or worse, the violence escalates into Earth-Belt fighting.  Everyone wants the rings open, but each society also thinks they should be controlling them.

Violence escalates after the Rociante arrives, but before that gets out of control, the realities of living on an alien planet no one really understands comes to fruition.  Battling the planet for survival becomes the central conflict throughout the story.  The villain, Murtyy, chief of security for the corporate mission, clings to pettiness like a Q-Anon Congressman.  Can our hero, James Holden, find a solution before everyone on the planet and in orbit is destroyed?  Read to find out.

The TV series diverged from the book near the end.  Namely James Holden goes on an underground adventure that Amazon Prime just didn’t have the budget to shoot.  I described it as both ridiculous and more believable than the TV series.  I look forward to getting back to inter-societal conflict in the fifth book.