Finally finished The Faith of Beasts so I can check this sub again
In place of a blog, I thought I would put my thoughts down here and talk with whoever wants to engage. I listened to the audiobook (love me some Jefferson Mays). Sorry for not posting in the megathread, but it doesn't seem to have any legs left since I finished the book so late.
Overall, I liked it and will have to give it another listen later this year. I think The Mercy of Gods was better, but that could just be because it was new and first. After all the rereads and rewatches of The Expanse, I was desperate for more James S. A. Corey.
Heavy spoilers beyond this point.
The first thing I enjoyed most was Vaudai. Great character, and read with the monotone voice of the black boxes, his jokes hit even harder. I loved how Rickar made friends with an alien to the point they had funny names for each other. I imagined myself doing that while reading the first book. I hope he makes another appearance. Rickar's death at the hands of the Swarm did piss me off though.
I immediately loved Dafyd from his introduction in the first book, and exploring his character more here in regard to acting as a conduit to the Carryx was very interesting. My favorite part was him breaking Brun's arm and threatening their lives, as a Carryx would. And his realization at the end that the Carryx are not like bees. Also I think he sort of quotes Mordin from Mass Effect, "If it wasn't me then it would have been someone else. And they would have gotten it wrong."
Glad to see Korval, or what was left of him. And I like to think there was actually still some of him left in that black mass.
The worst part for me was Tonner's death. While he was mostly insufferable, chapters from his POV really had me feeling for the guy, and he was incredibly smart—so much so that after his death, I thought there were going to have to be massive changes, as he had been solving most of their problems so far. And the chapter even starts by telling us he is going to die. Crazy.
Campar is my favorite character, and while he was great—and I'm so glad he had a boyfriend for a while—the things that have happened to him make me fear they are going to take away from his humor. I hope not, but he's been through so much to the point that I think he might be permanently disheartened. Though when his boyfriend and Vaudai come in to see him about their next mission, it did give me hope.
The swarm was freaking annoying in this book. They need to learn a lot more about the world and their place in it, and with more revealing information about the deathless, I'm starting to think that neither side is the good side. Are humans or the silver squids even in control? Or is this artificial life machine thing—the swarm and the livesuits—going to take away any humanity we have left, even if we win? Millions of years the deathless have been around?! What? I can't even comprehend how this whole Captive's War has been going on with that time scale.
Looking forward to most posts in this sub in the future to analyze this book and the overall story.