Book Review: "The Mercy of Gods"

The newest novel from James S.A. Corey is a powerful piece of space opera that is, at its root, about the indomitable nature of the human spirit.

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Warning: Full spoilers for the book ahead.

I’m always on the hunt for a new space opera, so I was very excited to see that James S.A. Corey had a new book out. The Mercy of Gods is everything I love about the genre, with lots of major historical events, evocatively drawn human drama, and a sinister enemy who threatens the lives of almost every living thing in the universe. Even though I haven’t read the authors’ most notable work, The Expanse, I’ve heard enough praise of the series to know that I was in for a magnificent ride. And so it proved to be. This book sank its hooks in me from the very first page; I couldn’t put it down until I’d finished.

When the novel begins humans have settled on the planet of Anjiin, and by all appearances life there is very similar to that on Earth. Soon, however, their lives and the planet itself are turned upside down by the crushing invasion of an alien race known as the Carryx, who are on a relentless march of conquest. After millions of people are killed, a select group is taken away to the master’s world, enduring a terrible interspace passage that robs them of their dignity and comes close to taking away their very humanity. Once they arrive, their lives become ever more difficult once it’s revealed that they must demonstrate to the Carryx that they can be useful; if they fail in this, they will be destroyed. In addition to completing their tasks, the various characters also have to contend with their own internal and external dramas, as well as threats from the other alien species enslaved by the Carryx.

The genuine human dramas give this novel a remarkable emotional texture. There are several main characters who give us an anchor in the strange new world in which they find themselves, though in many ways Dafyd Alkhor is the emotional anchor of the book. Many of the chapters are told from his perspective and, more than any of the human characters, he seems to genuinely want to understand their current predicament–and the nature of the Carryx–rather than just lashing out with anger or frustration or rebellion.

Interspersed with the point of view chapters of the human characters are ones told from the point of view of the entity known simply as “the swarm.” It’s unclear just where this particular entity comes from, but what is absolutely clear is that this being intends to destroy the Carryx from within, no matter how many human bodies (which it can inhabit) it must leave behind. The chapters told from this being’s point of view are some of the most compelling, and disturbing, in the entire novel, as they force us as readers to inhabit the point of view of something quite thoroughly not human.

This is one of those novels that excels at both crafting compelling action and claustrophobic atmosphere and, despite the dire straits in which the characters find themselves, we are repeatedly reminded of the undying strength of the human will. By the time that the book comes to an end, the human survivors are poised to begin a new, more subtle rebellion against their alien overlords. The Carryx may believe that they have rendered humans into their perfect servants, but the truth is that Dafyd and his fellow survivors are now armed with more knowledge than they possessed before, and they are going to use that to bring about the utter destruction of those who have brought humanity itself to such abjection.

The novel as a whole sets up a fascinating and compelling narrative dynamic based on knowledge and ignorance. The fundamental task facing the book’s various human characters is learning enough to survive, even though all of the odds are stacked against them. So alien is the Carryx’s way of looking at the world–and so intent are they on forcing humans to prove their utility–that it’s hard for even the smartest of the human characters to figure out the rules of the game let alone to win it. Adding to the complexity of all of this are the struggles the various characters face, whether it’s Jessyn’s mental illness or Tonner’s unrequited desire for Else. When you add in the nascent rebellion that some of the other humans are fomenting against their overlords, you get quite a propulsive and complex narrative.

This fraught situation particularly impacts Dafyd, who ultimately faces a choice between exposing a nascent rebellion among his fellow humans or embracing what will certainly be destruction for all of them. He ultimately decides on the former option, believing that doing so gives the rest of humanity–both those who have been tasked by the Carryx to show their usefulness as well as those who continue to dwell on their home planet the greatest chance of survival. Is this the right decision? Is it the moral one? The novel doesn’t really seem to come down on one side or the other, and it is precisely this ambiguity that makes it so compelling.

The Mercy of Gods is an expertly-crafted piece of space opera. It gives us plenty of mysteries and enigmas to draw us in, and it gives us just enough answers to satisfy us while also leaving some mysteries to subsequent volumes. Even though, through Dafyd’s eyes, we’ve come to learn more about the Carryx and their strange way of looking at themselves and the various forms of life with which they share the cosmos, there are still many things we don’t know. We still don’t know, for example, who exactly created the swarm and what their motivations might be (other than destroying the Carryx, of course). We also don’t know just what the Carryx plan to do with their human captives now that they seem to have proven themselves, but it’s clear that it’s not going to be pleasant.

At its best, science fiction has the ability to make us both feel and think deeply about the world around us, about the things that we take for granted as humans. The Mercy of Gods more than delivers in this regard and, perhaps more than anything else, it’s a tale about what humans can do when they are reduced to their most basic and primitive state. The Carryx might be the equivalent of gods, but even they, in all of their might, can never fully quash the indomitable human spirit.