🖼️ New photo posted!
Finished reading #TheMercyOfGods today (42 pages thus far...), so on to #TheFaithOfBeasts. #TheCaptivesWar #bookstodon
https://some.pics/6ab1583e7da65
#themercyofgods — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #themercyofgods, aggregated by home.social.
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57 pages read in #TheMercyOfGods and 41 pages to go!
I can smell it, I'm so close.
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68 pages today in #TheMercyOfGods and within a hundred to go!
Probably done for today.
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Late update this time, but read 62 pages yesterday in #TheMercyOfGods
Getting closer!
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12 day streak. 45 pages read. 227 pages left.
Moving through #TheMercyOfGods pretty steadily.
It's an interesting story thus far, I kind of like the the universe building and can't wait to see where it winds up at.
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Only managed 43 pages in #TheMercyOfGods today.
Not as much as I would have liked, but still good and well enough to continue building the habit.
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GMBC ep04 - Navigating Brutal Science Fiction on the Tabletop: The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/7ef0d30b-6fb4-4e3b-b197-03b165fe0f6a.mp3
#JamesSACorey #scifi #aliens #TheMercyofGods #TheCaptivesWar #ttrpgpodcast #gamemastersbookclub -
#TheFaithOfBeasts is out! Second Book in #JamesSACorey's latest #SciFi epic, #TheCaptivesWar
I loved the first book, #TheMercyOfGods. This is the same writing team that brought us #TheExpanse. The new series is in a different setting, much further in the future.
So far it hits on similar themes and ideas to the ones that made the first series so great. This one promises to be less military-oriented, and more focused on how to resist when violence isn't a viable option.
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Book 59 is "The Mercy of Gods" by James S.A. Corey, first of The Captive's War.
Edit: finished 24th September.
#CurrentlyReading #Bookstodon #JamesSACorey #TheCaptivesWar #TheMercyOfGods
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I've gotten a bit bored of the same-ness of thrillers and romance books so decided to try expand my listening to sci-fi with an author and story I don't really care that much about. Experiment was a success, so now I have a whole new genre of audio books to explore!
I've never read anything from Corey before and wasn't much impressed with the series based on The Expanse, but The Mercy of Gods was generic and light enough to work in audio format.
(Light in the way that it wasn't heavy in detail, can't imagine listening to A Memory Called Empire, for example, without wanting to tear my hair out for not remembering all the details that are important to understand the story.)
There were some details that I missed and that I wished I could glance back to recheck, but nothing that made it difficult to understand the plot.
(For context - I listen while I craft so my attention is not always 100% on the story)
#bookstodon #KirjaMasto #kirjafedi #BookToot #themercyofgods #JamesSACorey
https://hardcover.app/books/the-mercy-of-gods/reviews/@asta?referrer_id=34098
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"The ones who were victorious were better suited. The ones that failed were inferior because they had failed. Possibility was an illusion. That was what the librarian had said, but what it meant was choice. What happened, happened. What didn’t, didn’t. A species was useful to the Carryx, or it was not. They ruled their universe because they did. The other species didn’t because they didn’t."
What is the name for this way of thinking? (The quote is about in Carryx in #TheMercyOfGods.)
🔁
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Has anyone read the latest James S. A. Corey novel, the Mercy of Gods? Would love to chat with anyone who has as I recently finished it!
#TheMercyOfGods #JamesSACorey #TheExpanse #Books #Reading #SciFi
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I'm about halfway through #TheMercyOfGods and had to re-read one part for a few minutes before realizing 20 or so pages are out of order.
Then I had to stop and wonder if it was deliberate like the "remembering something before experiencing it" description earlier in the book.
Probably just a misprint, though. 😐
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I really enjoyed #TheMercyOfGods, the new book from #JamesSACorey, the authors of #TheExpanse
My biggest issue was that sinking feeling at the end when I remembered it’s a series but book two hasn’t been written yet!
Does anyone who’s read this feel it could make a great anime series? Eccentric scientists, diabolical aliens, nanobot swarms, love triangles, violent uprisings, interior monologues!
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And that horrifying difference isn't acknowledged enough, I think.
But, as the novel itself tells us, the Carryx' empire will rally and Dafyd will bring that fall. So I guess it's too early to tell - but so far, it's a very mixed bag: neat aliens, yes, but very flat human characters; realistic university politics, but a somewhat unoriginal premise with Earth (well, human) exceptionalism I just don't like.
(5/n, n=5)
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Based on @ergative's review*, I have to admit I expected something different: less genocidal and horrible. The review very much reads it as the darkest academia, the "publish or perish" metaphor made literal. Given the terms of their imprisonment, I couldn't help but read it through a different lens - as full of Holocaust analogies. So much reminded me of the camps, and the horror of people going along with crimes like these.
*http://www.nerds-feather.com/2024/08/book-review-mercy-of-gods-by-james-s.html
(3/n)
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That made for a read quite a bit darker than I expected this novel to be.
I'm also not sure it really works. There's an obvious symmetry in the novel's construction: the group making a breakthrough, being screwed over, and Dafyd's superior social skills saving them both from the administration and the Carryx. But these two things actually aren't very similar: no university administration has killed 1/8 of the population.
(4/n)
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What happens next, however, decidedly doesn't: the alien Carryx and their subjugate species make contact by sending a message, killing lots of people and abducting some, including Dafyd and his colleagues. They're given a lab and an assignment, but the real test seems to be something else - and they're trying to figure out if and how to resist against this overwhelmingly powerful foe.
(2/n)
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So. "The Mercy of Gods" by James S. A. Corey, apparently the first in a series.
We're in humanity's future, on the planet Anjiin: Earth is lost und unknown. And we're, in the beginning, in a familiar academic setting: junior researcher Dafyd's workgroup has won prestige and funding, but is being split up, and schemes against the administration to undo this. Yeah, feels just like home to every academic, I guess.
(1/n)
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CW: Spoiler "The Mercy of Gods"
Okay, that beginning-ending symmetry is neat: Tonner making a celebrated breakthrough, the group being split up by the administration, Dafyd saving the day with his superior social skills.
But both situations are so different; the symmetry is so thoroughly broken I wonder why it's there in the first place. The Carryx are far too horrible for dark satire.
I just don't get it.
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The horror of ending a chapter with humiliation and possibly mass execution, and then starting the next with the captive scientists admiring their new lab equipment.
It's very effective, but I'm not actually sure it's by design on the authors' part.
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I also have to say that I wasn't fond of the privileged do-gooder kid protagonist in "The Expanse", and I'm not fond of him (of course it's a him) here.
"The Expanse", at least, had Naomi and Bobbie and Avasarala, while this only has Jessyn the depressed girl, Else who sleeps with whoever has the highest status*, and Synnia the crazed widow.
(All the human characters feel very cardboard-y TBH)
*she says so herself
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Okay, I *so* didn't need that folksy "he he I was nekkid" reunion. Just nope.
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It's chilling to see how easily the scientists can be like "they set us a task, let's do it and be the best" after seeing how evil these aliens are. How they just assume they'll be provided for, and ultimately spared, if they do well.
It's not unrealistic. And that's the most horrible thing. Academia made them like this; that says a lot, a d nothing good about it.
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"What about these other creatures,” Dafyd asked. “Are they being tested too? This same test?” The librarian’s answer came quickly this time. “The only test is whether a subject species is useful. Usefulness is survival.” [...] Campar chuckled. “Come on, that’s pretty much what every funding committee says."
Well, most funding committees aren't that evil.
This really is reminding me of the camps, and medical experiments in them.
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CW: Concentration camp mention
Their imprisonment and how they (don't) cope reminds me a lot of what I've read about concentration camps. People being filthy. People giving up. People pulling together. People trying to get out. People being scared of these attempts.
Horrifying.
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"If there was a war coming, it would find them gardening."
Planting an apple tree as the world is ending, eh.
But still: words to aspire to.
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"What they hadn’t predicted, what had never been predicted, was the signal from the planet. It covered a broad spectrum, but a narrow band of space. The chances that it was a random effect were vanishingly small, and one band penetrated their protections, echoing back toward the target planet. The seventeen ships prepared for violence. But hours passed, and no violence came."
Ominous. But also 🥹 because we do well and are peaceful.
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I wonder what's up with all these researcher-couples. I know that happens, but the density seems a bit... high. Is that a cultural difference? Are they going for BioNTech vibes?
I do hope there's not much jealousy and drama coming - that just annoys me.
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German speaker's problem: I have a hard time taking a character named "Nöl" seriously.
(German verb "nölen": to complain or nag)