The Mercy of Gods - Reviewing James S. A. Corey's new book

[@jharohit]

Theory (multiple spoilers!) The humans colony here is one of the ships of humans that got cut off from last book of Expanse (as the gates closed off). Over time Dafyd and that human moeity, they make contact with other cut off human colonies and eventually make contact with Amos. Finally with the protomolecule tech they have a way to fight back the Carryx.

[@hugonautspod]

Oooo this is good. It does feel kind of like it's in the Expanse universe to me, and this would be such a fun way to bring it all together in the end. I'd bet on the reveal that it's one of the cut off human colonies - time will tell!

[@edkako]

I had this thought exactly! The real giveaway IMO is that Anjiin, their homeworld, has "two trees of life" and that they've forgotten their world or origin. But I suspect they'll defeat the Carryx on their own. Once they've won -- and appropriated the Carryx tech for FTL travel -- that's when they (or their descendants) arrive on a redsicovered Earth in the scene depicted at the end of Leviathan Falls. If this theory is correct, it raises questions about whether the Carryx ever encountered the Builders. It certainly seems as though they have no knowledge of the ring gate system (which, to be sure, was dormant for a very long time before Holden and his crew reactivated it).

[@jharohit]

@@edkako doubt it they can defeat carryx on their own. Then there is no purpose plotwise to connect to the other universe. Needs to be more high stakes to deus ex machina amos. I don’t think the second tree of life has any more relevance to the stories ahead though. Was probably used to just setup the usefulness of this research group. On the other hand, the new tiny bioreactor they have made - oof! - will most likely be their main weapon against carryx going ahead. Can do all kinds of funky strength enhancing, mutant powers unlocking drugs to give them some edge in the future

[@LoganKearsley]

Humans coexisting with crystal life reminds me of Unicorn Jelly.

[@francoisbouchart4050]

I am happy to hear that this new series is different from The Expanse. If I wanted The Expanse, I would just reread the series.

[@timzin9438]

I'm glad to hear that The Expanse is better. I've had Expanse on my TBR for so long, but decided to jump into Mercy of Gods first, and it was just okay for me. Looking forward to seeing where the story goes, but also glad to know that Expanse was better than this.

[@gordonburroughs2474]

Nice job, fellas! I had fun with it overall. What did you end up rating it, Cody? Brent gave it a three, but other than you liking it more, I didn’t catch it. I’ll omment more on the Discord.

[@hugonautspod]

4 stars from code dog

[@r3lativ]

I enjoyed the book, but I think it has a fundamental incoherence at its core. The Carryx harvest intelligence and knowledge -- super cool idea, and a good critique of all other alien invasion stories where aliens invade because of some (super common) resource. However, for an alien species that understands the scarcity of intelligence and knowledge, the Carryx are way too quick to mass murder. So it seems to me that the authors had a great idea about a realistic motivation for alien invasion, but didn't follow the consequences of this idea very well. This idea would imply an alien species more similar to the aliens in Arthur Clarke's End of Childhood than the ultra-violence of the Carryx. Also, the authors equate intelligence with a small group of high performers, neglecting how much intelligence is embedded in the social system as a whole. The Carryx destroy 1/8th of the humans, which should lead to a significant loss of knowledge, contrary to their goals.

[@hugonautspod]

Ya this is an interesting point. The decimation sort of made sense to us as a way to inspire subservience, but yea totally feel you on intelligence and productivity being the result of our entire social system / species level coordination, not just some smart people in labs that you can pluck out. Making the humans rebuild / reconnect their society on the Carryx planet (in miniature) was weird if they really wanted the humans to succeed and be useful to them, it does seem like it would have been a lot easier to give them their research tasks / imperatives while they just stayed on the human home world.

[@InternationalSpaceBacon]

I'll reserve judgement on the series until there's a few more books finished but overall I was pretty bored by this one. I'll give that a pass though because world building.

[@hugonautspod]

Only supposed to be 2 more books in this series, so sounds like they better put the pedal to the metal if they wanna keep you onboard

[@victormartin5042]

Is it Camar or Campar? Its Campar.

[@hugonautspod]

Haha thank you. But are we sure it's not daffodil?