Price: $0.00
(as of Sep 18, 2024 08:51:03 UTC – Details)
From the Hugo Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author of the Expanse, James S. A. Corey, comes the start of a monumental new space opera series.
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—has waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy in its conflict with an ancient and deathless enemy.
When they descend on the isolated world of Anjiin, the human population is abased, slaughtered, and put in chains. The best and brightest are abducted, taken to the Carryx world-palace to join prisoners from a thousand other species.
Dafyd Alkhor, assistant to a prestigious scientist, is captured along with his team.
Even he doesn’t suspect that his peculiar insight and skills will be the key to seeing past their captors’ terrifying agenda.
Swept up in a conflict beyond his control and vaster than his imagination, Dafyd is poised to become humanity’s champion—and its betrayer.
This is where his story begins.
“No one builds a universe like James S. A. Corey. The Mercy of Gods is wilder and weirder than you can imagine, and when it ends, all you’ll want is … more.”—John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author
4.5
Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Compelling Premise / Well-Written / Fascinating Right to the End
Review: I am a fan of “The Expanse” – both the TV series and the book(s) – so I was really looking forward to this book being released. And it did not disappoint!! It took me about 50 pages to really get into it (I actually went back and re-read the first few chapters before I read on) because I have a burning need to understand every little detail. But at that point I was hooked! I loved the character development – including that of the antagonists – which added greatly to the flow of the very creative storyline. I’m not going to get into the premise of the tale itself — just do yourself a favor and read this book!
Reviewer: Josh Pitterle
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Immerse worldbuilding and thought-provoking direction
Review: Corey pulled no punches in developing this universe filled with massive and unyielding aliens, sending the humans of a fledgling world named Anjinn far below their perceived dominance as a species. Where the viewpoint is less concentrated than in the authors’ previous work, their worldbuilding, descriptive detail, and glimpses inside compelling antagonist viewpoints create a rich page-turner. The climax hit like a brick, stole a survivor I’d been rooting for since the opening act, and left me speculating where the series would go. Admittedly, I was disappointed that the invasion seemed to end right when it was getting good, and describing phrases tended to repeat and occasionally take me out of the action.
Reviewer: Blake Walters
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent and Out of the world!
Review: The authors is simply amazing. From book one of their other series -The Expanse – they have a great way of building an entirely new world and painting the picture beautifully. I love the characters, I love the thrill and suspense. Overall I highly recommend, and I believe this is the start to a beautiful new series! Great great job!
Reviewer: Erik Martenson
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A New Epic Sci-Fi Series
Review: The Captiveâs War is a new sci-fi series by the authors behind The Expanse, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, writing under the pen name James S. A. Corey. I have, obviously, read the whole Expanse saga, and watched the TV show too.While The Expanse is set in a near future, with Earth at the center, Captiveâs War is set far into the future, distant from Earth, on a planet called Ajiin. (Maybe inspired by the Disney show Shogun, where the main character is called Anjin?)About 10% of the book is assigned to exposition, which isnât a bad thing. After the first 10% it quickly gets very interesting.Enter the Carryx. An ancient species whose empire reaches across thousands of worlds. They are constantly at war, and much like the Borg, they do not kill all other species, instead they assimilate them into their society. Except those species that they find useless, of course. Those are eradicated like vermin.Humans, of course, are found useful to the Carryx, which is nice. Otherwise this wouldâve become a very short book series.Beside a couple of anachronismsâlike cigarettes and «spooling»âI found no mistakes in the book. This is rare. I used to work as a proofreader. The writers have done an excellent job, and I found the book hard to put down. The language is rich, the pacing exquisite, and the story unfolds in an entertaining and logical fashion. This is good storytelling. The Kindle book has also been properly formatted.To summarize, this is a promising start of something that can become truly epic, and maybe even bigger than the Expanse?
Reviewer: Asana-gi
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: What will these humans reveal?
Review: Intricately wooven, our writers tell an enticing tale. Each character comes alive, human and non human fit into a vast story at once intimate and Expansive. I am assuming there will be subsequent books as this epic plays out. It is well worth your reading as what is, is revealed.
Reviewer: Robert J. Robinson
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great introduction to new Space Opera: Questionable science
Review: Having read (and become tired of in the end) the Expanse novels, I took a chance on this new departure for James S. A. Corey with this (to my mind) somewhat expensive introductory novel. There is no question that Corey has matured as a novelist, his writing is brisk and engaging, a mature writer with a great deal to say. I won’t spoil the plot here, other to say that this is a wonderfully-written world-building exercise, setting us up for compelling adventures going forward.Thematically, I am reminded of the CJ Cherryh Foreigner universe, where understanding the alien, and in fact trying to some extent to become the alien, it essential to survival. The other thing this new world reminded me of was Greg Bear’s Forge of God series in that we are looking at a traumatized group of survivors dealing with a civilization-ending alien coup, looking for both meaning and revenge, regardless of how unlikely that seems initially.On the negative side, (hence the 4 stars), while this is more contemplative than the Expanse series, James Corey remains a better plot writer than character sketcher. His humans are somewhat stilted and less than 3-dimensional, although the scenario is so compelling that I can forgive that. More problematic are some basic science issues, most glaringly the notion that a vast variety of aliens can all occupy the same ecosystem, particularly sharing a common atmosphere and gravity (which just happens to be perfectly fine for human physiology), despite massively different physical forms and evolutionary histories, without any ill-effects (except for one notable and somewhat puzzling example).I am bemused by this oversight, it is addressable with little effort for a writer of Corey’s skills, and I wonder why this was left dangling out there, it does make the suspension of disbelief a lot harder to maintain. I’m wondering when and if this will be remediated in the sequels to this promising start.
Reviewer: michelle girard
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I got The Mercy of God’s because I loved and read Corey’s Expanse series may times. The Mercy of God’s is aver different book. It was a slow beginning and I had trouble caring about any of the characters. However as the story progressed I was caught up in the plight of the captives and the swarm was fascinating. First wondering who it was in and later feeling empathy for its changing perspectives as it becomes influenced by the people it possesses. Yes the swarm was my favourite character. I have already pre ordered the novella the carries the story forward. I believe this is going to be another fantastic tale by a great author
Reviewer: Graham Sweetman
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The start of a new series. Read all of the Leviathon series and really enjoyed it. Nearly half way through this and although it’s a bit confusing at the start is now turning out to be a good read.
Reviewer: Fitipaldi
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I couldn’t put this book down, Corey’s writing is so detailed, crisp and enticing.This is a promising first chapter in what already feels like the next big thing in current scifi, despite the not-so-flattering comparisons with the first Expanse novels.The writing style is fluid and pleasant, but the use of an omniscient third person pov (for my tastes at least) at times feels a bit haphazard.I liked how the chapters of The Expanse novels were organized with different pov characters, just as much as the more relatable setting and characters influenced by a real-life Earth which wasn’t so distant in time and space, as compared to the more generic far-space feeling of Anjiin(*).(If you’re looking for detailed world-building and lore, look elsewhere.)Compelling action, interplanetary drama, romance, tragedy.SPOILERS FOLLOW:…The human protagonists of this novel hail not from Earth, but from the exoplanet Anjiin, and are quickly spirited away from the apparently all-powerful Carryx. What follows is a mix of ptsd-induced survival in a sandbox prison full of wondrous alien species that were enslaved just like our humans, the management of a high level biochemistry lab during incarceration, love triangles and other familiar incarceration tropes. The main characters are less charming and quirky than the lovable Rocinante crew of The Expanse fame, but my feelings echoed theirs with the underlying feeling that “something’s missing”, and something’s more than it seems to be.(*) Anjiin isn’t characterized at all, except for the frequent mentions of “forest coral” and the knowledge that humans appeared on the planet from who-knows-where roughly 3500 years before the novel takes place; moreover the anjiian biome is crystal-based instead of DNA – with the successful merging of the two “trees of life” as the main characters’ job.
Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Really good book, decent pace, interesting world building, only downside really is that it is only the first of a brand new trilogy and I have no idea how long it’ll be for books 2 and 3 and it hints a few times at big things to come as the story progresses.
Reviewer: schaumschaf
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Wer The Expanse mochte, wird das hier auch mögen, es ist in einem ähnlichen Stil geschrieben.Anfangs war es mir etwas zu dunkel, aber dennoch muss ich sagen, dass ich insgesamt sehr beeindruckt war…Fazit: bin auf die weiteren Bücher gespannt.
