The Mercy of Gods - BookWyrm for Social Yetis

Feroand@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

Ne okudum ben?

3 stars

Gerçekten, ne okudum ben? Karakterlerin düştüğü şaşkınlığı bende de yaşatma konusunda harika iş çıkarttı. Mevzulara anlam vermek, bir şeyleri tahmin etmek için tırmaladım.

Kitabın çoğunun aynı mekanda geçmesi, bilinmezlikler, alışılmadık şunlar vs. çok fazla gelince pek bir zevk alamadım. Expanse böyle değildi. Bambaşka yerlere gidip bambaşka ortamlarda bulunuyor, tanıdık insanların bilindik eylemlerini ve sonuçlarını ön görmeye çalışıyorduk. Bu kitap bambaşka.

Keyif almadım. Serinin devamını okumayı daha sonra değerlendireceğim. Kitap, kendi manası bakımından doğru bir teknik tutturmuş ama o "mana" pek de eğlendirmiyor ya da ufuk açmıyor. Okuduğunuza değeceğini düşünmüyorum.

EDİT: Belirtme ihtiyacı hissediyorum. Dungeon Crawler Carl'dan sonra uzun süredir bir dungeon crawl kitabı arıyordum. Bilimkurgu ile birleştirilmiş bir örneği duruyor karşımızda. Ama... İşte. Tatsız. Kalp kırıcı bir durum.

Gerçekten, ne okudum ben? Karakterlerin düştüğü şaşkınlığı bende de yaşatma konusunda harika iş çıkarttı. Mevzulara anlam vermek, bir şeyleri tahmin etmek için tırmaladım.

Kitabın çoğunun aynı mekanda geçmesi, bilinmezlikler, alışılmadık şunlar vs. çok fazla gelince pek bir zevk alamadım. Expanse böyle değildi. Bambaşka yerlere gidip bambaşka ortamlarda bulunuyor, tanıdık insanların bilindik eylemlerini ve sonuçlarını ön görmeye çalışıyorduk. Bu kitap bambaşka.

Keyif almadım. Serinin devamını okumayı daha sonra değerlendireceğim. Kitap, kendi manası bakımından doğru bir teknik tutturmuş ama o "mana" pek de eğlendirmiyor ya da ufuk açmıyor. Okuduğunuza değeceğini düşünmüyorum.

EDİT: Belirtme ihtiyacı hissediyorum. Dungeon Crawler Carl'dan sonra uzun süredir bir dungeon crawl kitabı arıyordum. Bilimkurgu ile birleştirilmiş bir örneği duruyor karşımızda. Ama... İşte. Tatsız. Kalp kırıcı bir durum.

📚torstein📚 reviewed The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

I really enjoyed this book and was unable to put it down during the last half.

4 stars

Content warning Some spoilerish thoughts

My main and (almost) only complaint about this book is that it ends just about when it starts to get really good.

It starts a bit slow, and first few chapters feels like they were just backstory filler we needed to slog thru before the action starts in earnest. The frequent foreshadowing - and not very subtle, in some cases just stating things like "this is the last time he will see her again" - definitively contributed to this.

But then the alien Carryx arrive and it really takes of. One thing that stands out in hindsight is how this alien invasion avoids most of standard SF tropes. Reading this book felt a bit like when I read all those old (outdated even half an age ago) Golden Age of SF histories as a boy, when everything seemed fresh and wonderful. Except what happens to the humans invaded here isn't wonderful, it is horrible.

These aliens aren't Martians invading because they are jealous of our women/food/water - these aliens are a brutal colonialist empire just after grabbing planets to gather resources in their Endless War. This isn't a clash of civilisations - this is a gunboat showing up to a remote island, shelling the natives on first sight and kidnapping a boat load of them to see if the population is useful as slaves, or if they all should be exterminated. No hard feelings, just ice cold logic and calculations. The transport from Anjiin to the closest alien stronghold is reminiscent to the nightmarish transport on slaver ships, or the freight cars going to an extermination camp - except aliens at least attempts to keep most of their cargo alive. Freight across the stars is expensive after all.

On arrival the instruction is clear - be useful or die - but also frustratingly unclear, because the alien overlords doesn't care enough to understand their new slaves.

And this of course is mirrored in the captive humans own attitudes to their fellow slaves. Outside of Dafyd, none of the others even consider that the other species enslaved by the Carryx may have their own agendas or struggles. At least not until another group of alien slaves decides the humans are making too good progress on their tasks.

Hopefully this theme will be further explored in remainder of the trilogy. Because being human is to try to understand and have empathy.

knizer@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

Enjoyed, looking forward to sequel(s)

5 stars

Lots of alien culture clash and dealing with trauma; compelling.

reconbot reviewed The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

The intensity slowly ramps up and it doesn't stop rising.

5 stars

Most reviews are filled with spoilers, it's good. I cannot wait for the next book.

Frank Burns reviewed The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

Not quite on par with The Expanse

3 stars

Coming back to doing reviews after a year away. Sometimes, reviewing everything feels like a job (especially as I was doing reviews on both Goodreads and Mastodon) so a break was needed. It's kind of a shame this is the first review as the book was kind of not very good for me. I was a huge fan of The Expanse and one of it's great strengths, even in moments where it dipped a bit (a 9 book series is going to have dips), was the engaging characters. The Mercy of Gods very much did not have engaging characters, for me. Given the plot was a bit lacking in interest as well, this didn't make for a book that I could whole-heartedly enjoy or even recommend. It may have suffered from 'first in a series' issues but if the first in the series does not engage then how can someone …

Coming back to doing reviews after a year away. Sometimes, reviewing everything feels like a job (especially as I was doing reviews on both Goodreads and Mastodon) so a break was needed. It's kind of a shame this is the first review as the book was kind of not very good for me. I was a huge fan of The Expanse and one of it's great strengths, even in moments where it dipped a bit (a 9 book series is going to have dips), was the engaging characters. The Mercy of Gods very much did not have engaging characters, for me. Given the plot was a bit lacking in interest as well, this didn't make for a book that I could whole-heartedly enjoy or even recommend. It may have suffered from 'first in a series' issues but if the first in the series does not engage then how can someone be expected to get into the next installment? In short, something was off with this for me so I am giving it 3 stars. In my personal scoring lexicon that's a 'decently executed and I finished it but I can't recommend'.