Title: The Mercy of Gods
Series: The Captive’s War, #1
Author: James S. A. Corey
Publisher: Orbit
Publication date: August 6, 2024
Length: 433 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

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.

I’m not sure how an author (or in this case, an author duo) manages to start something new after completing what could easily be considered their magnum opus. Fortunately for readers, James S. A. Corey has done just that, and have published their first novel since the conclusion of The Expanse series. And it’s a doozy.

The Mercy of Gods opens by introducing us to humans on their home world, Anjiin. No one quite knows how humans ended up on this planet**, whose native flora and fauna are not compatible with human biology — but there they are, and have been for thousands of years. As the story opens, another year of scientific achievement is wrapping up with a celebration, and no one is more lauded than rockstar scientist Tonner Freis and his team of researchers.

**I’m sure this is just me going off on a wild goose chase, but could these humans on Anjiin have originally passed through the gate in the Expanse series to a new world? Perhaps this is all happening several thousand years later… just a thought.

Trouble looms when lowly research assistant Dafyd Alkhor catches wind that their team may be acquired and split up by rival labs. That devastating news is quickly overshadowed by a world-changing cataclysm, as Anjiin is attacked and quickly defeated by the invading forces of the Carryx — proving for the first time that humans are not alone in the universe.

The Carryx are vastly superior in technology and firepower, and humans don’t stand a chance. The research team and countless others are rounded up, taken aboard a Carryx ship, and transported back to their world, where the nature of their new lives soon becomes apparent. The Carryx evaluate humans and all other captive species by one metric — how useful are they? If Dafyd and the others want to survive, they have to demonstrate their utility. Species that can’t or won’t live up to this standard are eliminated. There’s no mercy, there’s no kindness — and hope seems pointless. Humans are chattel; Carryx see them as animals, just the same as the many other species they’re penned up with.

As the first in a series, The Mercy of Gods has a lot of heavy lifting to do in terms of world building, and this is literally the case as life on Anjiin is established, as is the new world the human captives find themselves in after being captured. It’s a lot to take in, and requires a great deal of concentration, but it’s well worth the effort.

The plot of The Mercy of Gods is complicated, and the authors throw a lot at readers right from the start, with terminology and structures and societal norms introduced without explanation. We can figure it out, eventually, but at least for me, it was a struggle for the first third or so of the book to find a rhythm. (Oddly, once the alien invasion begins, I found the plot and writing easier to follow, and ended up completely immersed.)

Does The Mercy of Gods live up to The Expanse? Well, it’s probably not fair to compare the first book in a series to a series that’s already complete. Still, I have opinions! While I found the plot, the conflicts, and the concepts in The Mercy of Gods fascinating, I didn’t feel the same sort of connection to the characters themselves as I did with the characters of The Expanse. Yes, the characters of The Mercy of Gods are interesting, some more so than others, and the relationships, needs, and motivations of the characters make for compelling conflicts and circumstances. Still, I didn’t feel an emotional connection to these people — but perhaps that will come with the rest of the books in the series, as the story continues to build and deepen.

The synopsis, as well as some asides early in the book, all make clear that Dafyd will be a driving force in whatever is yet to come. He’s referred to as “champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people” — and I haven’t seen that yet, or at least, not more than just the earliest steps toward what’s to come. I’m frustrated to not know more… but also appreciate how well the suspense is built up by the end of The Mercy of Gods. I need the next book!

All in all, The Mercy of Gods is a fantastic read. While initially a bit challenging to get into, it quickly becomes an absorbing, frightening, high stakes story that’s impossible to put down.