Cibola burn

Interstellar gates, relics of a long-vanished civilization, offer access to a thousand star systems. Despite that bounty of planets, territory disputes still threaten the war refugees who fled to the safety of a world they call Ilus. Royal Charter Energy prefers to call it New Terra, and claims it under U.N. charter. Fearing the vast corporation's encroachment on their home, the colonists commit an act of terrorism that leads to a spiral of violence. Dispatched to rebuild the peace, spaceship captain James Holden is caught between two factions determined to win at any cost; worse, even as the local fauna turn on the humans, remnants of the force that exterminated an alien civilization are beginning to wake. Corey's splendid fourth Expanse novel (after Abaddon's Gate) blends adventure with uncommon decency. Even as hostile biochemistries vie with slumbering war machines for a chance to exterminate squabbling people, a spark of humor and hope suggests that despite ourselves, we might find a way to prevail. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

After the events of 2013's Abaddon's Gate, humanity has access to thousands of worlds outside our solar system, but that doesn't mean that the conflict between inner and outer worlders has ceased. On the lithium-rich planet of Ilus, a settlement established by a renegade ship of Belters puts them in direct opposition with an Earth-based corporation that was granted rights to the planet by the United Nations. The tension between the two groups has grown violent, and the UN sends James Holden and the crew of the -Rocinante to mediate the dispute. But the two groups will have bigger problems to face when a disease strikes settlers and company workers alike; in addition, the planetary activities seem to have awoken remnants of the protomolecule left behind on Ilus. VERDICT Combining an exploration of real human frailties with big sf ideas and exciting thriller action, Corey (pen name for authors Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham) cements the series as must-read space opera. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.