The Mercy of Gods
Ratings44
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings44
Average rating4.1
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Expanse comes a spectacular new space opera that sees humanity fighting for its survival in a war as old as the universe itself.
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.
Featured Series
1 primary bookThe Captive's War is a 1-book series first released in 2024 with contributions by James S. A. Corey.
Reviews with the most likes.
There are a lot of interesting plot points here, and a lot to think about. It's a well-written book. I didn't find myself connecting to any of the characters in it, however, and that limited my ability to enjoy it.
Incredibly rich world building, alot of aliens to consider but the main characters are not what I would consider hanging out with and the situation is pretty bleak; even dark and gruesome at times.
I don't think I'll be continuing in the series.
I've been wanting to try out this author duo for the longest but didn't want to jump into another big series (but of course, this is series as well SURPRISE!) and this sounded like the perfect chance.
I enjoyed this book, mainly because of the plot twists. I loved that I couldn't really tell when one was about to happen which lead to a lot of 😲😲😲 moments.
The pace good as well. Nearing the end of part one so much has happened in one particular setting that it was kind of like overwhelming but in a good way.
I really appreciate the wide variety of characters and all their different motives and journeys throughout the story. One con about that though is that I couldn't for the life of me keep people straight especially when more people were introduced near the last act BUT I was just listening to the audiobook and didn't have the names in front of my eyes so it's not a really a slight on the story ... perhaps (they're just an a lot of people which IS realistic for the situation sooo idk 😅)
Overall, I'm glad I finally got to give this author a chance and as someone who is notoriously bad at following up with series, I leaning towards yeah more than meh when it comes to picking up book 2 so win!
As a long time lover of The Expanse I was excited to see what the author duo of James S.A. Corey would come up with this time around. While not "Hard Science Fiction" as the Expanse was, it was wonderful seeing their imaginations run wild. Given that this is first in a series it's hard to know where things will go from here and the book does world building very well but left me wanting more and doesn't feel like it stands alone in the end. I look forward to continuing the series and see how everything plays out.
