The Best New Sci-Fi Book?? | The Mercy of Gods Review |

[@GoobertownHobbies]

I enjoyed the heck out of this book! The main characters being a bickering lab group appealed to me. I also noticed the quality of the prose. One little sentence that stuck with me, when two characters were talking in a dark room: "The silence felt like a smile" wonderful, just wonderful 🙂 As everyone else has said, DO finish the expanse series, my personal favorite is book 8.

[@Paul_Todkill]

The prose was definitely a step up from a lot of what I've read this year. Honestly a bit jarring but a really welcome palette cleanse. That's a great call-out on the line. The expanse is on my 2025 list. I was doing it in audio book but since I started WFH I just haven't had the time (used to be my commute every day) to commit to just listening to reading. I need to paint more and fill it in! If you haven't yet - Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's insane but I think you'll like it.

[@GoobertownHobbies]

@@Paul_Todkill I haven't yet! I'll check it out now, thanks for the rec

[@Ntwolf1220]

Great review man. I really enjoyed this book, similar rating to you. I found it pretty easy to suspend disbelief about the human’s losing their history just because the idea of like a lost generation ship or whatever having to start over on another planet is just so cool lol

[@Funder1Nk]

I don’t think they “punished” the librarian of the humans. They said he was honored to die. They just have rules that they’re so far above the “animals” that if an animal saves them, they aren’t fit for the species. But because it succeeded, it was given an honorable death.

[@rhinestonesamurai]

Just found your channel brother, and wanted to say keep up the content! Love the slightly longer-form videos and your thoughts/opinions are very enjoyable

[@Paul_Todkill]

Hey man, thanks so much!! Will definitely keep the content rolling. Will try and intersperse the real long form stuff in if I feel like I have serious thoughts on a book.

[@nathantowns2043]

Speaking of cosmere(and specifically Roshar) connections, this wouldn’t be the first James SA Corey novel with (in the former case almost certainly coincidental) connections to stormlight. Cibola Burns takes place on a planet with a single continent with periodic storms

[@Paul_Todkill]

If Sanderson keeps writing at the pace he's going it's going to turn into a Simpsons meme: "Oh, Sanderson did it." Sucks for a lot of authors because I feel like you'll be expected to keep up to date with it just to not "rip him off".

[@klc6769]

YT just recommended your channel to me and I'm so pleased. I really enjoyed your review of this book.

[@Paul_Todkill]

Thank you so much! The next review will definitely be a little... Spicier, lol. Read a book I expected to be better and was pretty disappointed.

[@docdetroit99]

I'm a big fan of The Expanse and I liked the new book a lot. I must confess, I didn't fully apreciate that humans had appeared on this planet without understanding how they got there. But knowing that makes the story a bit more intriguing.Very interested to see where it goes.

[@Paul_Todkill]

If you haven't yet, I definitely recommend reading the new novella that just came out - Livesuit. It had some pretty crazy revelations. Did a whole video on it just because I wanted to nerd out ahah.

[@bartsbookspace]

Great review, at least the spoiler free part. 👍 I’m looking forward to reading The Mercy of Gods soon!

[@Paul_Todkill]

Appreciate it! Come back after you've read it! There are SO many potential fan theories for this one, I'm curious what your thoughts are. I have zero idea if I'm even remotely on track.

[@Nerdthropic]

Do yourself a favour and finish The Expanse. Based upon your review here, I'll be checking out the new book in their new series. The nature of The Expanse means anything these guys write could be within the same Universe.

[@Paul_Todkill]

Let me know what you think! Given how it ended I'm really curious to hear how people interpreted it/fan theories. There are a LOT of directions this can go.

[@markfelten436]

Agreed about finishing Expanse, esp 5/6

[@AkaBigWurm77]

I can see this being the same universe as the expanse, would explain how a world of humans got somewhere far away and was cut off.

[@Arios189]

The swarms says explicitly that Anjiin was set up as a trap for the Carryx. That probably explains the strange nuked island and people not knowing their past but having high tech.

[@Paul_Todkill]

Just went back and checked, it specified six months in advance was when the swarm arrived, when they discovered Anjiin would be targeted. Was there something more specific to imply that the Swarm's creators put humans there? I didn't see anything so implicit. It was a trap yes, but more felt like they were taking advantage of a situation. Not ruling it out, but was there a specific line?

[@PonderingsOfPete]

great review, great discussion. spoilers for the book below re: the swarm taking over the brother at the end. I don't think that was supposed to be a mystery. the authors signposted that super hard. like REALLY hard. I think it was supposed to be an emotionally tragic scene because of Dafyd's obliviousness to the pain that the swarm was having internally due to the absorbed hosts and the love (?) that the swarm had for Dafyd. One of the themes that I think is pretty big in this book is "how do we stay ourselves (and what does that even mean) in the face of immense change and trauma. How do we retain our identity?" And the swarm is the opposite end of the spectrum of this, something that is finding its identity as it absorbs these other lifeforms. and once it finds love, it cannot have it due to sacrifice and social conventions. The book definitely feels like the set up to all this, and I trust Abraham to pull all the themes through like he does in his solo work. This feels like a much more Abraham book than the Expanse was.

[@Paul_Todkill]

Love that insight! I haven't read either of their standalone books but now I really want to, to see if I can pick out the individual bits of them in the Corey books. And yeah okay good, the scene was kind of odd with Else, but I think my guess is their eventual merger makes this roadbump not hit so hard? I was more invested in Dayfd+Swarm than the Else host, so that lessened that blow. Agree that it's certainly a big setup book. One I don't think a lot of other authors would be able to get away with tbh. Definitely capitalizing on the good grace built up from The Expanse. I am very curious where it goes, though, so I guess they succeeded.

[@PonderingsOfPete]

@@Paul_Todkill Long Price Quartet is a great place to start with Abraham. Really intriguing magic system and the themes of the series are really gut wrenching and poignant. It showcases Abraham’s main strength, which is as a writer of a series, with the final book making each of the previous books improve a lot in retrospect when they already were great on their own. Library of Allenxandria has great reviews of the individual books and Johanna Reads has a great review of the series if you want more eloquent people than me to sell you on it

[@stuartbarclay129]

@@Paul_Todkill Dan Abrahams solo work are honestly some of my favourite books I've ever read. He has just a supreme talent for creating characters and stories that never fit an easy label of good or bad. Really looking forward to how he ties his newest series (kithamar trilogy) together. Agree with the gentleman below though the Long Price Quartet is a wonderful series, odd mechanics, super fast paced with huge themes and highly relatable characters. I re-read it all within the space of a couple of years!

[@mle1ravens1]

I don't think people are talking enough about "how" the swarm retains the personalities of the humans...like their souls are there after death? So what does that suggest?

[@PonderingsOfPete]

@ yeah, that’s a really cool feature for sure! I dont think it means those are souls, it depends on whether it’s biological or it’s a technological based swarm (which I don’t recall). If biological, I’d say the integration causes a sort of DID in the swarm, since that’s how it functions in each host. If technological, then its self replicating nature retains “ghosts in the code,” remnants generated by code it didn’t get rid of in the transfer, essentially. That’s my guesses

[@stuartbarclay129]

Well this is going to be made into a show on Amazon - so that's gonna be interesting :)

[@Paul_Todkill]

Is it??? When was that announced? Haven't heard that anywhere. Considering it's not done, I would be pretty surprised. Even with their speedy timeline. Not sure how well this would lend itself to TV tbh.

[@spookyatthemovies1193]

Dafyd is a common Welsh name.

[@Paul_Todkill]

Yeah my gf pointed that out to me after I posted it lol. Whoops. Kinda feed like a dick.

[@btothec4650]

It looked Welsh to me (as an Aussie whose knowledge of Welsh is from watching Gavin and Stacey lol) I decided early on in the book that my brain would read “David” when it saw Dafyd, I think that actually checks out pretty closely with Welsh pronunciation?

[@Paul_Todkill]

I did the same thing. Cheers, Dave lol.

[@DODW]

I came here to write that!

[@doublez3ta]

I'm wondering if the humans on Anjiin were created/ engineered/ placed there by humans from Earth, which are the enemy of the Carryx. There is mention to Ekur-Tkalal towards the end that the species they captured in Ayayeh, which revealed themselves to be artificially created, to be related biochemically to the humans (or the subject species Tkson was about to be relieved of) . And maybe that also had something to do with the biochemistry "test"

[@Paul_Todkill]

I missed the line about them being related. That's a helluva drop to include in one single line of text ahaha. Great catch. Yeah I mean, I had wondered given they have 5 limbs... I envisioned them as giant hands? Or starfish? But would make sense given humans have five fingers. That would be funny if humans were actually the "enemy" after all this. It seems like the obvious outcome, (again. Back to those TikTok stories). I wouldn't be surprised if they were put there as bait. Either created, or just transported. So many different directions this can go, but knowing they're related to the pilots in some way is huge. Great call-out.

[@jakobwetzel7065]

@@Paul_Todkillthey did say it but I missed it too. That was muddy. I had a feeling this was all going to end with the origins of earth but maybe that blows it up.

[@Paul_Todkill]

@jakobwetzel7065 yeah that one line really throws a wrench in things! Was a great catch. Not surprised so many of us missed it. Humans either as the big bad, or as equally created tools... I dunno. My big thing is, if combining a swarm with a human created such a powerful weapon.. why would that not be the default? Why would this "ultra human" send out "un swarmed" old humans out into the world? This swarm was only on Anjiin for six months out of 3k years. They did a good job leaving tons of options open.

[@doublez3ta]

I think the other mystery is the other sentient life that the half-mind alluded to in the beginning, being mostly beneath the surface of Anjiin

[@ericholt3266]

Here's my take on the test, it's more than just solving the scientific problem, they are looking for a species that will begin to dominate those weaker than the tested group as well as show loyalty. They took responsibility for eliminating the monkey beings. A kind of three part test, technically proficient, sufficiently aggressive and loyal to the Carrak (sp). If you finish the Expanse a plausible explanation for humans ignorant of their past presents itself. I also think all those questions will be answered in the subsequent books. Leviathan Wakes is much more of a stand alone, whereas this seemed much more of an introduction with lots of questions.

[@Paul_Todkill]

Will try and plug away at the Expanse for sure. Still a long way to go. And that's an interesting addition. Will defeat others to succeed, will accomplish a set task, will self-omit members of their species unwilling to serve. A 3-part trial. I can see that.

[@ParanoidMarvin]

Unfortunately this is the first book ever that I had to DNF after 40% or so. I just could not care less for any of the characters. And the prose was just way too verbose with very little actually happening. Most of the characters are just talking in their head and thinking about what others are thinking about them. I really wanted to like this book. I guess I was just too hyped for this book and my disappointment was immeasurable! Nice review though as you did point out that it is a chore to get into. Glad that you liked it.

[@Paul_Todkill]

To be fair, your criticism is 100% valid. I walked that line for essentially the whole book. If I wasn't so curious about the worldbuilding (knowing how hard that can go from the expanse) I might have also DNF'd. I think they got into their own heads a bit tbh. I understand wanting to write this biblically-inspired, cerebral, deeply introspective book... But doing so at the cost of the characters was bizarre. I think the issue was having them all be scientists. The Roci worked because everyone was so different. I legit had a hard time keeping track of the core group because it's like "great. Seven biologists".

[@johnjanuary4137]

I thought the Swarm were a "weapon" designed by the Big Shrimp's main enemy who we only kinda met? Not that humans were special. Only that they knew the Shrimps would be coming for them and laid in wait. What did I miss? I know the Swarm was learning as it went but not that they just stumbled on humanity. Also, it's just a totally different story so why worry about how it compares to the Expanse? Let's just see where this one goes. I am ready for book 2 yesterday.

[@Paul_Todkill]

LIVESUIT SPOILERS (go read it, then watch that video, then come back to this, lol) We basically got confirmation that Humans - the greater collective of humanity - are 'the enemy'. The big enemy at war with the Carryx. The entities that were captured and said they were created life forms, are the final evolution of a livesuit. The Swarm is also a weapon of humanity - that greater version of humanity. It knew of, and could communicate with, the livesuits, meaning it is also a weapon of the humans. We also got confirmation of genetic similarities between the captured entities and humans, basically confirming yes - 100% those are livesuits. Now the question is, how do the humans of Anjiin fall into this. Are they a lost colony? Defectors? Or, are they bait. A settlement intentionally left for the Carryx in order to use the Swarm to infiltrate.

[@johnjanuary4137]

@@Paul_Todkill I just burned through Livesuits. For whatever reason, I am firmly yoked.

[@Paul_Todkill]

@johnjanuary4137 MY MAN. It's just a super compelling world. Honestly really enjoyed the basic storytelling on this one. The trickle of larger lore. Such a small little short hit way harder than it should have.

[@gstokker]

Dafyd… might not want to go to Wales then 🤣

[@Paul_Todkill]

*look*. I MAY feel like an asshole after only learning that AFTER the video went live. I'm sorry Wales, I love you, you contain literally the only football club that I follow with any regularity (thank you Ryan Reynolds).

[@gstokker]

@@Paul_Todkill I wouldn’t expect anyone to feel like an asshole for an honest mistake 🤣 just wanted to point out (why I included the ROFL and not any rage emoji)

[@EverMake3D]

Spoilers: I just finished the book. When Else revealed to Dafyd she was also the swarm, it mentioned it was sent to Anjin because its creators knew it was going to be taken by the Carryx. Also, there is a cultural reference to something biblical (I believe Galatians), which is actually from a different book in the Bible. I believe this reference implies they were all originally from Earth. Maybe there was a cataclysm on Anjin like there was on the planet in the fourth book of the expanse and this is actually in the same universe as the expanse. Just a theory. I read the entire “The Expanse” series as well. Definitely a colder start, but I didn’t really find it boring either. I found the intro pretty interesting and it seemed more like a Dune introduction because of all the politicking and foreshadowing, but the attack only happened much later like in Dune.

[@Paul_Todkill]

Yeah my impression on that reveal was that different swarms were all being sent out to various potential worlds. They were all trying to achieve what "our" swarm was able to accomplish. Get in, get the Intel, get out. And yeah I got that too. I guess my question was were they from earth, an earth colony. If they had left fleeing the Carryx they would already be in their system so it must have been something else. And yeah I would not at all be surprised if this is in the expanse universe. Though I still need to finish the series lol. Now more than ever I want to get back into it. Very curious to see where this series goes.

[@EverMake3D]

I think I had also come to the same potential conclusion about the Carryx being at war against the humans from Earth or some other world. With there being so many different alien species, I’d say it would be more likely it would be an alliance of alien species all trying to work together against the Carryx that may include humans as part of that alliance. I just have to believe that there is going to be the “irony” of the main characters making weapons of war for the Carryx that would destroy their kin. However, if the Carryx have been at war for so long and the Carryx are determining if the humans are useful, wouldn’t that mean that they would be less likely to know of other humans out there. They had captured some of the enemy, but it didn’t seem to make a connection. Most likely an alliance of alien species with humans as part of it in my opinion.

[@EverMake3D]

That way it would be a war against 2 opposing ideological principles: 1 of collaboration (human) vs. 1 of subjugation and integration (Carryx). The question is, which is going to succeed?

[@Paul_Todkill]

Agreed. I think the twist of "it was humans all along", is certainly possible, but unlikely, just given that they LET Anjiin get taken. If I was humans and a rogue offshoot colony was going to get picked up, that would be bad. Also the swarm didn't seem to know/Think humans were their creator. If a human/swarm hybrid has the potential to be so powerful, I feel like it would be more common? So either humans are a small part of that collective, or it's just other aliens. But I agree with the philosophical concept.

[@DPRacingWhereRacingLives]

The Dune feeling definitely came through to me as well, especially with the parts looking back from the view of the Carryx. It reminded me a lot of the blurbs at the beginning of each chapter of Dune from Princess Irulan.

[@steaminghottake6221]

this book has one of the most boring and torturous starts to any scifi book ive read in the last 5 years. I ended up skipping vast sections of this book to try and find something interesting and relatable. This is not even close to being as good as any of the Expanse series. Go get it from a library. DO NOT waste money if you want to see what it's like.

[@spitbleach]

Spollers: I wonder if the humans are being farmed, and that's how the Swarm knew they were going to be harvested? Is that why the humans forgot their past? Humans are the inner part of the berry.

[@Paul_Todkill]

I feel like it's a bait, or a double bait or even triple lol. Humans being livestock is definitely a possibility, but I don't feel like they'd be left in free reign, retaining so much culture of their culture. I think the first bait is that humans are actually "the enemy" the creators of the swarm. Maybe this group fled, or was sent away as an experiment. All for the purpose of eventually baiting in the Carryx. The fact that "the enemy" is kept intentionally hidden potentially reinforces this. That being said it feels a little cliche, and wouldn't explain why this version of humanity seems to come from a relative modern (by our standards) version of humanity. Would also be odd as to why the swarm didn't recognize us as their creators. I hope we get the "why were the humans on Anjiin in the first place" explained and it's not just glossed over. That's a mystery I want solved. In the end I think that this group of humans was just wrong place wrong time. Left earth with some tech and blew themselves up trying to get back. SO many possibilities though, I love how open ended it is.