Hardcover, 432 pages
English language
Published Aug. 6, 2024 by Orbit.
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 …
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.
Most reviews are filled with spoilers, it's good. I cannot wait for the next book.
Coming back to doing reviews after a year away. Sometimes, reviewing everything feels like a job (especially as I was doing reviews on both Goodreads and Mastodon) so a break was needed. It's kind of a shame this is the first review as the book was kind of not very good for me. I was a huge fan of The Expanse and one of it's great strengths, even in moments where it dipped a bit (a 9 book series is going to have dips), was the engaging characters. The Mercy of Gods very much did not have engaging characters, for me. Given the plot was a bit lacking in interest as well, this didn't make for a book that I could whole-heartedly enjoy or even recommend. It may have suffered from 'first in a series' issues but if the first in the series does not engage then how can someone …
Coming back to doing reviews after a year away. Sometimes, reviewing everything feels like a job (especially as I was doing reviews on both Goodreads and Mastodon) so a break was needed. It's kind of a shame this is the first review as the book was kind of not very good for me. I was a huge fan of The Expanse and one of it's great strengths, even in moments where it dipped a bit (a 9 book series is going to have dips), was the engaging characters. The Mercy of Gods very much did not have engaging characters, for me. Given the plot was a bit lacking in interest as well, this didn't make for a book that I could whole-heartedly enjoy or even recommend. It may have suffered from 'first in a series' issues but if the first in the series does not engage then how can someone be expected to get into the next installment? In short, something was off with this for me so I am giving it 3 stars. In my personal scoring lexicon that's a 'decently executed and I finished it but I can't recommend'.
