Waiting on Wednesday – The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. In my latest Waiting on Wednesday, I highlight probably the most anticipated science fiction release of 2024 with The Mercy of Gods, written by the brains behind The Expanse series, James S. A. Corey.

The Mercy of Gods Cover

Amazon

There are many great science fiction series out there, but few have gained the love, fandom and recognition that The Expanse books by James S. A. Corey have. The joint pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, both of whom are impressive authors in their own right, James S. A. Corey have been writing together since 2011 and while they have authored other works, specifically a Star Wars novel (Honor Among Thieves), they team is best known for their highly regarded The Expanse series. Set in the future, The Expanse deals with war, intrigue, politics and murder in space, with events becomes even more intense and destructive once ancient alien technology and life forms are discovered. While this series was always highly regarded by fans of science fiction novels, The Expanse gained even more recognition when its excellent television adaptation came out.

I personally came into The Expanse books a bit later than other readers, having only read the last three novels in the series, Persepolis Rising, Tiamat’s Wrath and Leviathan Falls. While I might not have explored the whole series, I still really enjoyed these last three novels, with Tiamat’s Wrath being one of my top books and audiobooks of 2019. I do wish I had come into this series at the beginning, but I never had the time to fit it into my schedule. However, it looks like I’ll be able to start one of their series from the beginning thanks to the upcoming book The Mercy of Gods.

The Mercy of Gods is another piece of epic science fiction and will be the first entry in The Captive’s War series, the first original series from the pair since they started The Expanse. The Mercy of Gods has an impressive plot behind it that will see the inhabitants of a human world get enslaved by a powerful alien race and forced to face off against other captured alien species in an elaborate competition.

Plot Synopsis:

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.

Ok, now this sounds like a book with some real potential. Putting aside the notable and highly proven writing skills of Corey, the plot alone of The Mercy of Gods has me pretty damn excited. I love the idea of humans being taken by an advanced alien race, who themselves are on the brink of extinction, which is a bold story idea to start with. However, combine that with an apparent dark competition arc, where the human protagonists need to compete against, betray and overcome other captive species to become their new master’s favoured servants, and you have something extremely special. An elaborate and deadly competition between species is such a great concept, and the fact that the authors are going to go even deeper than that with additional elements that look at the Carryx, a human rebellion, and murderous enemies attacking the protagonist, and you have one hell of an adventure that is sure to be particularly epic.

Based on the author’s writing style in the past, you must imagine that they are going to use this first book to set up a particularly intricate space setting, and no doubt all the competing alien races will have an intriguing history, unique features, and a proven desire to win and destroy the humans. The authors thrive when they get to deal in elaborate detail, and I cannot wait to see how they construct this new universe and the elaborate worlds and species featured within, especially as all these details are likely to have impacts on the larger story. The combination of unique science fiction elements and a dark story of desperate survivors and competitors is bound to result in something particularly impressive and I am really looking forward to it.

Honestly, the fact that this is the first book in a new series by James S. A. Corey instantly guaranteed that I would read The Mercy of Gods in 2024, and I am sure many other science fiction fans think the same way. However, I am also so in love with the extraordinary plot synopsis above and the incredible story it describes is something I cannot wait to see. As such, I have very little doubt that The Mercy of Gods is going to be a particularly epic and awesome novel, and it will probably end up being one of the top science fiction books of the year. I am so, very, very excited for The Mercy of Gods, and this new series from James S. A. Corey is going to be a firm fixture on my reading schedule for years to come.