The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey

This one was written by the two-author team (sharing a single pseudonym) who brought you The Expanse (I haven’t read it, or seen the incredibly successful TV series). I did read LiveSuit a few months ago, which was brilliant — so I thought this one was worth a punt.

The story is set around a human colony on a distant planet. Despite having conquered the stars, the human race has yet to encounter an alien species.

Unfortunately, this is about to change.

The Mercy of Gods

Enter the Carryx: a race of insect-like creatures who conquer other races for their own good (apparently). The colony is invaded and completely overwhelmed in a matter of days, during which time the Carryx ensure compliance by slaughtering an eighth of the population (millions of people), they also transport the best scientists, soldiers, musicians, and politicians (can’t think why they would need the last lot) to their own outpost and put them to work.

The story follows a team of research scientists from days before the invasion, through their harrowing transportation to the Carryx outpost, and a fairly detailed account of the work their captors demand they carry out.

The main hero of the story is Dafyd Alkhor, a research assistant who, before the invasion, seemed to be relying on his questionable charm and an important relative’s connections to meander his way through life. Post-invasion, he comes into his own, learning how Carryx work in order to keep his fellow captives from dying at their captor’s hands — or being killed by captives from other conquered civilisations.

And if that wasn’t enough, Dafyd learns that this wasn’t the first time their planet was invaded …

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Here and Beyond by Hal LaCroix

So, with the Earth heating up like an oven, whole cities submerged underwater, and global civil rest now beyond the ability of governments to control, one enterprising billionaire proposes a daring solution — leave.

So he puts assembles a massive starship, along with a crew of six hundred people to fly the ship to a distant planet (about fourteen light years away) to start a new human colony.

The only sticking point is that it will take about three hundred years and at least ten generations to reach it. So this is an epic of a tale about the thousands of people who are born, live and die on the journey to HD-40307g, the vast majority of whom will never see Earth or their future home.

Here and Beyond

Most of the journey will, of course, pass without incident, so the story concentrates on the events and people (mutineers, dissenters, power failures, and famine) that threaten to destabilise Shipworld and endanger the whole mission.

Okay, first off the bat, there are no space battles, no aliens (well, maybe one), and no real sense of jeopardy. So if you’re looking for that, then look elsewhere.

What you do get is a humorous, sensitive exploration of love, courage, and loss based around an ever-changing population (so many, that you may find it hard to keep track) sealed in a massive tin can careening through the void. The book is touching in places, and very funny in others (odd that the Shipworld designers knew that the ship would have flip around and back into orbit, ten years before making planetfall, but didn’t think it would be nice to fit windows near the aft of the spacecraft). Some of the crew’s stories are covered from birth to death, but some mysteries are touched upon, but not really explored. For example, the billionaire who instigated the project didn’t travel with them. It was hinted that he may have joined a Chinese mission to the same planet, and chosen to go with them because he spend the journey in cryogenic sleep — but we didn’t find out, one way or the other.

Still, aside from that, and an ending I felt was a little incomplete, a very enjoyable book.