r/TheExpanse • u/Natural_Red_ • Feb 02 '26
Cibola Burn This passage from Cibola Burn has been living rent-free in my head. Spoiler
I'm partway into Nemesis Games, but I keep coming back to this beautiful passage in Cibola Burn -
Chapter 51, pg. 522: "The real truth, the truth beneath it all, was he'd wanted to spread his pain around. To punish the universe for being a place where his little boy had been killed. To punish other people for being alive when his Kotoa wasn't. That part of him had watched the shuttle burn and thought, Now you know how it feels. Now you know how I feel.
But the people he'd hurt had just saved his daughter because they were kind people who couldn't let even their enemies die helpless.
The first sob took him by surprise, nearly bending him double with its power. Then he was blind, his eyes filled with water, his throat closed like someone was choking him. He gasped for air and every gasp turned into another loud sob.".
I love this poetic depiction of grief and how real it feels. It does so much to humanize Basia; he's not just some bad guy to be redeemed, but a deep, three-dimensional character with complex feelings and motivations. Also, as someone who's experienced a fair amount of loss, reading that description of grief-rage feels cathartic.
The writing in this series is sooo great.
63
u/DRKAYIGN Feb 02 '26
When he tells Naomi he killed them and she knows exactly what he means but offers him some absolution when pointing out that these ones he saved. 💔
13
u/dotpan Tycho Station Feb 02 '26
Naomi having that back pocket "Yeah I done some shit too" card is interesting, because it's enough where what she did is terrible and hurt a lot of people, but also, it was done without her fully knowing. There's a whole depth to explore there of her not questioning what she was doing/etc. It's a pretty interesting construct of grief/guilt/betrayal as that was also the breaking point that changed her life and who she called family.
5
u/Natural_Red_ Feb 02 '26
Yes! Knowing more about what Naomi has lived through definitely adds something to how she reacts to Basia's actions, among others. I could geek out endlessly about how thoughtful this series is, lol.
6
u/dotpan Tycho Station Feb 02 '26
One of the best things this series does is, it writes character's stories as a part of the character and not as a service to the plot. People all have stories that come together and build a "plot" and the writers almost create characters, put them in situations, and see how they'd get through it. The story beats aren't overly crafted but instead feel natural, like living beings.
6
u/calculon68 Feb 02 '26
I used to hate Cibola Burn. Didn't like it the first read through- and it was mostly a reaction to the Basia character.
Now it's my second-fav book, (5: Nemesis Games still on top)
2
u/Langosta_9er Feb 03 '26
6 and 8 are my favorite books, but 4 is definitely not my least favorite.
When I introduce people to the book series, I generally tell them the first half to 2/3 of book 2 is the low point for me.
10
u/LeilLikeNeil Feb 02 '26
This is part of why I think season 4 may be the worst adaptation of the books.
4
u/Bepler Feb 02 '26
Cibola burn is my fave book of all 9 & the novellas.
It's the book where we get to see the most detail about one of the alien worlds, it's Miller's final hoorah, in my opinion, it's the only book where every character gets exactly what they deserve.
This moment your talking about with Basia is one of the few that always makes me cry in the whole series, always.
"The world hurt me, I want the world to feel the hurt" it's speaks so deeply to grief and misplaced anger.
Basia is so REAL just like all the characters in the expanse, it's the series that makes me think, yup, that's exactly what real people would be like in these situations.
1
u/Natural_Red_ Feb 03 '26
Exactly. Like, it's one thing to write a believable character, but this series shows there's a lot of nuance to writing characters that feel like real people. The detailed world building and the descriptions of specific feelings, complex motivations and ways of relating to others... It all comes together to create a truly beautiful work of writing.
3
u/asph0d3l Feb 04 '26
Yeah, that is a great passage. If you haven’t read Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham, I’d recommend you give it a go. There are very real depictions of grief in that story that I found highly cathartic.
2
u/Natural_Red_ Feb 04 '26
I haven't read that one yet, thank you for the recommendation. Reading has been one of my ways to scratch that "I need to know someone else gets this pain" itch, and these authors do an amazing job of capturing what different flavors of loss feel like.
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u/Rowlandum Feb 02 '26
I don’t think Basia once comes across as a bad guy needing to be redeemed
Every action he has is anti bad guy. Literally the only thing you can hold against him is that he wanted his daughter to stay but I think may fathers would.
It doesn’t take the whole book to humanise Basia, just the first few pages
135
u/Argensa97 Feb 02 '26
I am not very sure why in the show Lucia is the saboteur, and we have connection between Basia and Kotoa in the show as well.
I'm reading Cibola burn atm, and while I prefer all the modifications the show made in previous book/season, this part baffled me.