The novel “Cibola Burn” by James S.A. Corey was published for the first time in 2014. It’s the fourth book in the Expanse series and follows “Abaddon’s Gate”.

The portal built by the protomolecul opened a new frontier for human beings and there are those who would like anyone to be free to settle on one of the many potentially habitable planets that have become available. A group of people reach one of them and call it Ilus but some time later another expedition arrives with United Nations support and the situation becomes immediately difficult with some colonists who decide to attack the new arrivals.

To try to avoid further bloodshed, Chrisjen Avasarala and Fred Johnson reach an agreement representing the United Nations and the Outer Planets Alliance choosing Jim Holden as a mediator. When he arrives on the planet with his crew on the spaceship Rocinante, he finds an explosive situation with Adolphus Murtry, the expedition’s chief of the security, ready to kill the colonists. Things get even worse when something very ancient on the planet awakens.