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The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey
Aug. 31st, 2024 02:42 pmThe Mercy of Gods
3/5. Start of a new series in which humans (not on Earth, this is important) are subjugated by aliens. A university science team is taken to a work camp where they must figure out what they have to do to be useful enough to survive and, largely in theory, how they could possibly fight back.
Something of a departure from The Expanse -- way slower and more interpersonal. That’s not a criticism. Unfortunately, I was disinterested or put off by pretty much every interpersonal dynamic here. Way too much time spent on which unlikable man is in charge of what. I mean, it’s a book about a lot of realistically flawed people suffering unspeakable trauma and fracturing in various ways. It’s not that the book isn’t good at that – it is – but the particular fracturings here were unpleasant to me.
I do kinda want to know the resolution to the big alien power struggle, though not enough to read more books.
Content notes: Mentions of genocide, violence, suicidality, what it’s like to be mentally ill in a prison work camp where you can’t get your meds, mind control and associated dubious consent in the way where two people are having sex and one has not consented but the other does not know that and has no way of understanding what is happening
3/5. Start of a new series in which humans (not on Earth, this is important) are subjugated by aliens. A university science team is taken to a work camp where they must figure out what they have to do to be useful enough to survive and, largely in theory, how they could possibly fight back.
Something of a departure from The Expanse -- way slower and more interpersonal. That’s not a criticism. Unfortunately, I was disinterested or put off by pretty much every interpersonal dynamic here. Way too much time spent on which unlikable man is in charge of what. I mean, it’s a book about a lot of realistically flawed people suffering unspeakable trauma and fracturing in various ways. It’s not that the book isn’t good at that – it is – but the particular fracturings here were unpleasant to me.
I do kinda want to know the resolution to the big alien power struggle, though not enough to read more books.
Content notes: Mentions of genocide, violence, suicidality, what it’s like to be mentally ill in a prison work camp where you can’t get your meds, mind control and associated dubious consent in the way where two people are having sex and one has not consented but the other does not know that and has no way of understanding what is happening
