Storyline: 3/5 
 Characters: 3/5 
 Writing Style: 3/5 
 World: 3/5 
 The Expanse series as a whole is better than the individual books thus far. "Corey" pulls that off with impressive and long-term planning and organization for the series as a whole. A lot of thought has obviously gone into what each individual book is supposed to uniquely contribute to the series. I'm particularly pleased with how they organized the characters. Each book shifts between four or so first person views. The original book established our main characters and favorites, and the subsequent ones entertain and delight with the shifting viewpoint structure alone. Sometimes our series main characters are only shown from another's first person viewpoint, other times we follow the story with a throw-away character that won't make it past the present book, and yet elsewhere we get a minor cast member from earlier in the series elevated to a role of major player in the present tale. The reader gets all the benefits and fun of a spin-off series without actually having to follow-up and read the spin-off. 
 The genre shift in this one turned the series away from solar system-spanning space opera (view spoiler)[ to a localized squatter's rights conflict (hide spoiler)]. It was a good change for the series: it added nicely to the bigger system Corey is building, it gave the authors new sources of drama to work with, and it explored a different side to politics. Thus far the Expanse has been great at progressing simultaneously in two streams. In the first is the current problem and drama - new to each installment and exciting in its own context. In the second stream is the bigger, drawn out mystery and adventure. Cibola Burn again presents a self-contained tale that leaves you satisfied with the resolution to the current drama. The reader also gets a good and re-energizing dose of the bigger mystery. Structurally, this is exactly the way series should be written. At about the halfway-point, I thought this was going to be the best book of the series. Substantively, however, the authors seemed to fizzle a little with the self-contained tale. They resorted more to tense scene after tense scene to fill the pages. It was truly a gripping story, but it was a little overboard on the political action-adventure and light on the social commentary, hard science fiction, and big questions components that have embellished these thrillers thus far. 
 I don't love 'em, but I look forward to and have enjoyed every one so far. Count me as a fan.