Cibola Burn by James SA Corey

[sozme]

Warning - spoilers


What the heck was with that ending? I don't even really understand what happened with Elvi at the end, and what the murderer alien object was. Also had no idea what it supposedly did to her when she stepped in it.

Additionally, why did they get rid of Miller? He was 1000x better than Holden. On that note, Holden is an extremely annoying character. I found myself liking Murtrey more than him in this last book. Havelock was good too.

I've always hated Holden, I think he is a very weak character. But that was balanced out by his crew not being as garbage as him. Now I actually am starting to find Amos and Naomi slightly annoying as well.

I also did not buy into the "Mars is screwed" thing at the end in that I don't think a RL scenario like the rings would necessarily destroy an established settlement there. And I don't think the authors did a good job making it convincing that the New Terra experiment was seen as a success in the eyes of the public when they spent a good deal of the middle of the book saying how the media kept sending them pictures and updates of a fledgling, worthless colony on the brink.

But seriously does anyone else hate Holden as much as I do?

 

[Dinosaur]

My take is the whole Mars is Screwed angle was a worse case prediction from people that have a pretty poor track record at making such guesses. Mars scares the hell out of Earth planners but it's a known problem, a Mars population spreading to the stars with its (perceived) anti earth agenda plus a better fleet is the sort of thing governments love just for an excuse to inflate budgets. So would naturally dominate Earth thinking.whether it's true or not is secondary.

But then I quite like Holden, the guys just an arsehole behind a veneer of doing the right thing who hardly anyone likes anyway. It makes a change from the "getting people slaughtered but everyone agrees it was necessary and likes the protagonist anyway except the angst ridden protagonist himself" that's so common in space opera.