The Mercy of Gods

Story and Plot

Rating: 5/5

Over three millennia ago, a ship crashed on an island on an alien world. Out of the vessel came the ancestors of the humans that now inhabit the planet Anjiin, as well as the predecessors of the other terrestrial plants and animals that populate its surface. Anjiin was already occupied by native life forms, but the two ecologies eventually adapted to live side by side. Fast forward to the ‘present day’, and humans have spread across the planet, forming nations and fighting wars and doing other human things.

The story mainly centers around Dafyd Alkhor, a well connected young man paying his dues as a research assistant. Though ultimately destined for an administrative role, his prominent family believes that it’s important for him to learn things from the ground up. The research group he’s assigned to has made an incredible breakthrough, bridging the two trees of life that inhabit the world. Riding the high of the discovery, the group’s moment in the sun is threatened by a rival institution.

All of that is rendered irrelevant though when aliens invade. Quickly subduing the human population, the Carryx establish their dominance over Anjiin with their advanced technology and force of alien auxiliaries. Along with the other best and brightest, Dafyd and his group are rounded up and sent on a brutal interstellar voyage to a Carryx palace world. There, along with other groups of humans, they must prove themselves useful to their new overlords. Given limited resources and facing off against aliens that are indifferent at best and hostile at worst, the group’s ingenuity and resourcefulness is tested as they must race to complete a research project dictated to them by the inscrutable Carryx. Should they bow to the will of their new masters, or should they make a definitive statement with a final stand? Is there even any hope for humanity either way? The answer will test the will, resilience and personal loyalties of Dafyd and his group.

I was hooked on this audiobook from the start. While some portions were a little painful to listen to, especially the part detailing the transportation of humans in abysmal conditions to the Carryx world, the plot kept me engaged and wanting to hear more. Interweaving both human and alien perspectives and storylines, Cory paints a grim picture of humanity’s fate in this universe while offering a glimmer of hope through foreshadowing. This kept me engaged, even when the narrative took some dark turns and things seemed hopeless for the human characters. I also love how Corey builds internally complex and nuanced characters. This contrasts though with my opinion of Corey’s intercharacter dialogue, which I’ve always found to be a bit one dimensional and feeling like ‘cardboard’. As you can tell though from my rating, realistic dialogue doesn’t factor too much into my enjoyment of an audiobook; this is sci fi after all!

Worldbuilding

Rating: 5/5

Corey does a great job of building a hostile universe populated by mysterious and implacable aliens. We don’t learn too much about the history of humans on the planet Anjiin besides the broad strokes, so we know little about the nations, ethnic makeup, languages, religions or social customs of the planet besides some oblique references here and there. However, the authors paint a vivid picture of the setting in which the human captives find themselves for the bulk of the story. We learn about the Carryx empire and how it works through the eyes of Dafyd and his research group as they navigate the physical and social maze of the world to which they’ve been so brutally transplanted, which is a satisfying and rewarding way to build a world. 

Narration

Rating: 2.5/5

Jefferson Mays returns to narrate this newest James S.A. Corey series, and while I hate to be negative, it’s to the detriment of this audiobook and likely the others in the series. Mays reads with very little in the way of variation from his narrative voice to those of the different characters. This, combined with the audio engineering, can make it difficult to keep track of what’s going on in the story. Scenes often flow into each other without noticeable pauses, so when Mays continues along without any change to his intonation, it can be confusing to realize that the setting and characters have changed. Likewise, with only slight variation in character voicing, keeping track of who is saying what can get tricky. 

Now, I’m not someone who needs an over the top voice or accent for each character in an audiobook. In this case though, just a little more distinction would really help the listener keep track of progression and dialogue, as well as breathing some life into the story. Mays is a Broadway performer after all, so he should be more than capable of this, which leads me to wonder whether this is a stylistic choice by the authors or production team. Regardless of the cause, the narration is sadly one of the weaker aspects of this otherwise excellent audiobook.

Value

Rating: 3/5

At right around 15 hours, The Mercy of Gods is slightly shorter than what I typically target for an audiobook, and based solely on that metric, my rating is obviously less favorable. I use audiobooks to pass the time during my commute, while doing chores or falling asleep, so typically ‘more is better’. However, quality of the material was such that I would spend the audible credit again in a heartbeat, and I’m definitely going to be grabbing the sequel as soon as it’s available.

Final Thoughts

I love space operas, and The Captive’s War saga promises to be a fresh iteration of the genre in an age where the same tired old IP’s get trotted out and rehashed over and over again. Unsurprisingly, it’s already been picked up for a streaming series, one which I’ll be sure to catch as soon as it airs.