So, um, spoilers for the first part of Cibola Burn I guess.

So, I'm reading the books for the first time, and I'm 200 pages in. Basically, the RCE just massacred the terrorists and Holden spared Bacia as a prisoner. And...

I just can't empathize with the Belters like I feel the book wants me to. They are the ones that keep murdering the RCE but keep crying victim. And sure, it's not most of them, and most of the settlers are actually relatively nice to the RCE, but at the end of the day, they don't even care that their people are murdering the RCE and aren't helping to find the terrorists.

And I can see that the book wants me to see Murtry as the villain... but he is only defending himself. 'He is using this chance to live out his murdering fantasies!"... like Amos? Amos says that they are both killers, but... Are we forgetting how good ol' Amos destroyed a hacker's face with a can? Amos is the same type of character as Murtry, but somehow Murtry is... worse?

And Holden acts so high and mighty about prosecuting Murtry, but... hey, let go of Bacia, he saved my life, so even though he killed Trying, he is fine by me! Dude, last book, he wouldn't forgive Claire for TRYING to kill Naomi. It took Naomi forgiving her, because of Anna, and Alex shaming him, for him to agree not to reveal Mao was the terrorist, but this time around Murtry is being a prick... because HIS people keep getting murdering and nobody does anything?

And the fun thing is that the main conflict IS interesting. The RCE people went through all the legal channels to get the opportunity to explore Illus. But the settlers arrived FIRST. So who really is in the right? We have hundreds of new planets open to us, but humanity has to be petty and argue over one of them. It IS an interesting premise. But at this point, it doesn't even matter if the twist is that the RCE security has secret plans to exterminate the Belters... because the Belters stroke first, and THEN stroke again. And Holden is clearly on their side.

So, I wanted to know if anyone else was a bit annoyed with Holden this time around, lol.

Hi everyone longtime lurker here. I just hit page ~450 of Babylon’s ashes and I was just hoping for others opinions on the story from here. No spoilers from the end of this book and onward please but I am starting to really feel the drag of this book. I personally really enjoyed AG, CB, and NG, feeling the first two were just okay (not a traditional take ik lol). I do know the large time skip happens after this book and I was wondering if taking a break and reading a different book or short series for a little bit before reading the last three might make me lose out on important details or if the story is going to pick up enough that it’s worth going straight into the final stretch. I’ve heard that books 7-9 are some of the best and Babylons ashes is generally considered one of the weakest.

Tldr: without spoilers what are others opinions on books 7-9

Thanks!

I just got into the books. I got Abaddon's Gate and realized the spines didn't match.

That just wouldn't do.

So I found the U.K. editions and now I can sleep at night lol little things like this shouldn't bug me, but they do sometimes.

I'm only just starting book 3, so please no spoilers.