The Mercy of Gods (The Captive's War, #1) by James S.A. Corey Series: The Captive's War
Published by Orbit on August 13th 2024
Pages: 432
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Source: Orbit Books
How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to end.
The Carryx—part empire, part hive—have waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy. Now, they are facing a great and deathless enemy. The key to their survival may rest with the humans of Anjiin.
Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them.
They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure. Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to survive: learning to understand—and manipulate—the Carryx themselves.
With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers.
Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people.
This is where his story begins.
Ever since I read Megan E. O’Keefe’s The Blighted Stars, I, a predominately fantasy reader, have strived to read more science fiction. The Mercy of Gods, a story about an alien takeover, by renowned author James S.A. Corey (made up of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), seemed like a great pick. It wasn’t exactly what I expected in an alien takeover novel, but did a fantastic job creating flawed human characters in devastating situations and highly original aliens.
“I think some important scientific questions have finally been answered. Alien life exists, and they are assholes.”
I was immediately blown away by just how realistic the alien takeover in The Mercy of Gods seemed. As someone who believes in life outside of our planet, but doesn’t really have any ideas of what that life looks like, I was floored by such original depictions of extraterrestrial life forms. Everything regarding the aliens—their appearance, technology, and discrepancies in understanding between the different species—was so original. I was awed just by the ideas and how the authors came up with them and presented them. I don’t know how to say this in any other way, but the aliens do feel incredibly, well, alien. The cognitive dissonance we hear about when speaking of the existence of aliens and how they fit into our own understanding of life and roles in our own world (and the galaxy beyond, for that matter) is definitely present as well.
The pacing was pretty fast in the beginning of The Mercy of Gods. I loved the time the authors spent on the period before the invasion. They spent just enough time showing what life was like on the planet before dealing with the otherworld species. In establishing this world, they also introduced the main characters, who are all scientists, and all of the politics surrounding their projects and coworkers, which perfectly juxtaposed their new concerns for survival under the alien takeover. Their reactions to the catastrophic dilemma they find themselves in against their will are nothing if not painfully realistic.
“On the one hand, it was a little shitty of her to just refuse to help and to rely on the rest of them like that. On the other, what was the point in fighting her over it? They were in hell. She could burn whatever way suited her.”
That being said, I didn’t find any of these characters particularly likable, which is completely understandable given their present dire circumstances. But my lack of ability to outright care for any of these characters made it more challenging for me to be invested in their survival. Out of all of the characters, the only one I managed to feel any attachment to was a research assistant named Dafyd. I really enjoyed seeing the low man on the totem pole of the research team being the most adaptable to the new situations and I enjoyed watching the ripple effects caused by his newfound capabilities and willingness to take risks. It was such a great depiction of humans having hidden depths in unexpected places, which I think is something that is going to be very important going forward in the series.
I probably should have expected an alien conquest novel to be somewhat depressing, but it kind of took me by surprise just how bleak The Mercy of Gods was. If you’re looking for a fun alien invasion book where you can just sit back and turn your brain off to watch the chaos unfold, this just isn’t that type of novel. Instead The Mercy of Gods spends most of the time on its portrayal of people and their differences in dealing with things, rather than the galaxy and the empire of the aliens. The readers find out little snippets of information about their alien conquerors and the galaxy as the characters do, which makes it pretty compelling.
“Life went on. That was the terrible thing. They were ripped out of their world, their lives, their sense of who and what they were. Their history. They were killed, or made to watch the people they loved die. And then at some point, they were hungry. Thirsty. They had to piss. Someone told a joke, and they laughed, however darkly. They washed dishes. Changed clothes. Held funerals. It felt like it should have stopped, all of it, and it didn’t. The slow low pulse of being kept alive making its demands, no matter what. However bad it was, however mind-breaking and strange and painful, the mundane insisted on its cut.”
The breakdown of the characters’ mental health and interpersonal relationships was excellently portrayed, but certainly didn’t make for an easy read. Though this book is about aliens taking over a world and conquering its humans, it’s not a simple story of aliens versus humans, it’s really about the flaws of the human race. The Mercy of Gods also does not shy away from graphic depictions of violence, so if that’s triggering for you, this may not be the book for you.
Along with the heavy subject matter, I did also struggle with what I think of as the scientific word salad of the book. As The Mercy of Gods follows a team of scientific researchers, it should be no surprise that there’s a lot of scientific theories, terms, and jargon being bandied about. Most, if not all of it, meant absolutely nothing to me, which was frustrating. This made me reluctant to pick up the novel at times. It‘s abundantly clear the authors put a lot of time, effort, and research into making this story and the expertise of its characters plausible, and I applaud them for it, but this kind of scientific data being unleashed upon me in dialogue between scientists is unfortunately just not my cup of tea. It was rather isolating to feel like the only one who didn’t understand the implications of certain scientific results. The explanations put me to mind of reading all of the quantum physics theories in Timeline by Michael Crichton, a book I almost DNFed.
I haven’t read any of the authors’ other works, whether as James S.A. Corey or individually, so I can’t really offer a comparison to the other series. While I liked The Mercy of Gods and think it will be right up a lot of readers’ alleys, especially those who love unique and detailed world-building, I find that I’m on the fence on whether or not I will continue reading future books in the series. Though I did enjoy the novel, its unique ideas and their presentation of them, it was a bit too realistically dark for me at this juncture of my life. Personally, I enjoy reading books as a form of escape and the bleak tone of the book, complete with the (albeit suitable) abject misery of very flawed characters, didn’t feel like much of an escape from our own reality filled with constant new historical events.
“‘We’d have fought anyway,’ he said…. ‘it’s what we do.’
‘I don’t know if they idea is stupid or noble,’ Else said
‘Human,’ Dafyd said. ‘it’s just human. We don’t stop just because there’s no hope.’
Else nodded, stopped with her brow furrowed. A tear dropped from her eye unnoticed, and she shrugged. ‘There’s always hope for something. Just not always . . . Not always what we want.’”
It also didn’t help matters that I couldn’t celebrate what little moments of success or happiness occurred in the novel because I knew the next tragic incident was around the corner. Unfortunately, this constant series of misfortunate events made for a bit of a stressful and tense read, which is probably the whole point of a novel like this. After reading The Mercy of Gods, I am unable to picture a remotely comfortable existence or happy ending for even one of the characters, if any at all. While that’s not a deal breaker for a lot of readers, it might be for me.
Though the novel ends rather abruptly, it’s not quite on a cliffhanger, expertly delivering a satisfying ending with just enough mystery for readers to pick up the next book in the series. I’d still be interested to know what happens in the series, but unfortunately, I’m not quite sure I’m up to the task of experiencing that journey firsthand. I’d certainly recommend The Mercy of Gods to fans of science fiction, and readers who enjoy a realistically dark read with heavier subject matter, even on fantastical subjects, and aren’t afraid of a cast of characters with no clear “good guys” or “bad guys.”
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I’m starting this later today, and I’m not sure this is the right book to pull me out of my slump, lol. I guess we’ll see!
Oh, man, I hope the world-building really snags you and that you love it! 🤞😆