This is a space about authors creative works. The rampant use of generative AI, that exist from the blatant thief of creative's work is disgusting. Being in subreddit for a seris book seris and posting slop is hypocritical bullshit. And this is not even counting then environmental impact or general misinformation AI is used to perpetuate.
Fuck. AI. Slop
Please do better.
The deathless masters are steering the human side’s war coalition from the shadows. I think humans, even most of the top brass, may not know this, though. The situation seems to mirror how the Swarm has been able to steer the Human Moiety from the shadows—for example, it was the Swarm that compelled a reluctant Dafyd to sell out the rebels.
I imagine a similar nanotechnological parasite may be influencing and directing top admirals and government figures in human civilization, covertly feeding their military R&D departments and so on. Humanity probably thinks it’s running the show. This is likely why the interrogator had no knowledge of the Swarm: from his perspective, humans are the leaders of their war coalition.
I'm re-reading (ok, re-listening) to The Faith of Beasts. I just came to the introduction of Garral Pär, and two things jumped out at me right away.
This sounds exactly like what Clae was doing when she was trying to integrate herself into the human moiety. She was using pheromones that made it easier to convince people they knew her and that she belonged. And after all that happens on World, Garral leaves with the human rescue mission. He manipulates Jessyn into helping him, in the same way that the Swarm does with the human moiety.
Did anybody else get goosebumps when this line was repeated in the Faith of Beasts? It opens the first chapter in Mercy, referring to how Dafyd's crush on Else and his decision to act on it is what shapes the entire rest of the story (I think due to how it formed the Dafyd/Swarm partnership which ultimately leads to the Carryx' downfall). In Faith it's repeated in a Jessyn chapter when she decides to do research at the orchard because it gives her an excuse to see more of Garral, and that decision leads to the Anjiin branch of humanity making contact with other humans. I haven't read the beginning of Mercy in a year and a half but I immediately recognized the line when I saw it again. This is a story about history being shaped by people having crushes.
I’ve just finished the second book and Livesuit, and enjoyed them both immensely. But they also left me with a lot of questions, so I’d love some help connecting the dots.
Spoiler alert: if you haven’t finished the books yet, don’t venture any further.
>!The Carryx are a highly specialised, pheromone-driven, technologically superior, insect-like species. Space travel, asymmetric space, constant warfare — all of that seems to imply a strong scientific caste or at least some kind of serious research infrastructure. And yet we don’t really get a glimpse of it in the series, apart from the huge databank in the World Palace.!<
>!They capture “animals” and assign them tasks. But why? If you can literally transform any Carryx into a specialised specimen, why bother managing the zoo?!<
>!I understand why early human societies used dogs. But now, for most people, dogs are mostly companions, apart from selected trained units. So why would a highly developed civilisation need so many alien species for practical work, especially scientific research? Unless they are lab rats — but so far, I haven’t seen experiments in the usual sense.!<
>!Then there are the tasks themselves. Developing a food converter sounds like something you would do if you had just landed on an alien planet for the first time, with no imports, no familiar resources, and serious biochemical incompatibility. But the Carryx have already conquered innumerable worlds, and they are not even operating from their home planet. Surely this problem should have been solved a very long time ago?!<
>!They also claim that the war with the undying enemy has lasted for millennia. But in TFOB, we learn that Sovran lives for only a few years; eight years are considered a long time. So what is the Carryx lifecycle? How do they die naturally? How long do they live?!<
>!Obviously, not every Carryx gets promoted to creche elder. But even the librarian of Sovran becomes an elder within eight years, and we don’t know how long it took him to become a librarian in the first place. So there is at least a chance that those “millennia” might mean something different from what we instinctively assume.!<
>!The key word for any warring civilisation is intelligence. That is what you collect first: you know your enemy, or you don’t win. The Carryx and the undying enemy seem to have been fighting almost forever. And while the Carryx spy on the systems they are about to conquer, we are shown no labs where they dissect, dissolve, grind down, or otherwise research the enemy.!<
>!They should have plenty of material. We see at least three lifesuits crushed to death, and the story implies there are more dead soldiers elsewhere. After thousands of years, you would expect the Carryx to have developed something more effective than tactics alone.!<
>!Then there is the undying enemy itself: the black substance that seems rather helpless on its own, but becomes extremely effective when applied to living organisms, giving them extra strength, endurance, and recovery. It needs supplies to function properly. It is unclear whether it has intent, consciousness, or intelligence of its own; at this point, we mostly have assumptions. Its origin is still unknown.!<
>!And the people using it against the Carryx do not seem to know that much about them either. The Swarm — assuming it was sent by humans and not by some other people — appears to be one of the first serious spies gathering data from the World Palace. Again, if this war has been going on for thousands of years, and the black substance technology has probably been known since the beginning, or at least from an early stage, then what happened? Why only now? Why are there no labs dissecting, dissolving, grinding, testing? What did I miss?!<
>!And finally, the other species. It seems wildly arrogant of the Carryx to assume they are safe while collecting so many oppressed peoples in one place and applying the same “be useful or be culled” policy to all of them. We know of at least two conspiracies already, and I wouldn’t dismiss the others. With the amount of freedom they are given, plenty of them might have their own resistance networks, grudges, or long games quietly unfolding in the corners.!<
So I’d love to hear what you think. Are these actual gaps, clues for future books, or have I simply missed something obvious?
>!I thought the "five fold symmetry" creatures were livesuits - it's just that the 5th appendage is shorter (the head). Imagine a livesuit where the human inside has been completely replaced.!<
>!I thought the Deathless were livesuits. The human bits inside being dead/replaced.!<
>!I assumed the Swarm was created by humanity. I still think that's the case but less sure.!<
>!I think the pentapods are artificially life (because it appeared to need ships power on to become functional again - I don't think that was coincidence - though I'm unsure of the mechanism).!<
>!Could the pentapods be livesuits without a host?!<
Does anyone remember how long the first book took before the paperback version was released? Idk what fresh hell my city is in but they ONLY have paperback for book one and, obviously, only have hardback for book two. My ocd just cannot take this. 😂
>!How did the Carryx not know about the Soft Lothark's ability to communicate through the oils on their skin? I'm re-reading the first book right now and it goes into a lot of detail about what the half-mind knew about humans before they'd even set foot on Anjin - how could they know this much about humans and miss something relatively obvious about the Soft Lothark for thousands of years. Surely they must have noticed something. Seems like a plot hole to me.!<
>>!The half-mind gathered what it had instead of knowledge. The primary species communicated with sound and a narrow spectrum of light. Some chemoreception, but rarely at a conscious level. No protein messaging, no blood sharing. No fusion, either of full bodies or child organisms. No qliph. Many technological connections made through frequency and amplitude modulated electromagnetic waves, although there were also similar modulations along mineral channels laid between structures. Some of these converted to pressure waves in air, some into patterns of light on mechanisms that the species built for the purpose. All of it was deep and rich with pattern, language, meaning.!<
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.
I put casting in quotes, because I mean hypothetical casting, like in your mind while reading. I love unconventional ideas about casting...I asked a friend once, who would make a good Uncle Fester, and without hesitating, he said, "Jacky Chan." I usually picture people I know or knew as characters, but theres always a few celebrities.
Tonner is Gordon Ramsey. Rickar is Aaron Paul. Dafyd is Nacho, from Better Call Saul. I picture Compar as Hermes from Futurama for some reason. Jessyn is ChefTova. Vaudai is voiced by Peewee Herman.The rest are all people I know.
On Ayayeh and on “the world” in The Faith of Beast the planetary grid seems misused or inconsistent in power scaling. On Ayayeh, many carryx are lost, however, with the planetary grid why not simply dry lightning every creature that gets within 100 meters of a Carryx. Why risk a single Carryx with an all seeing all knowing super weapon near orbit.
Also, humans are hiding out on the world and make contact with Jessyn. How were they able to hide at all? On Anjiin every single human was identified and known and killable even ones deep inside bunkers due to the grid half mind combo. Yet, a ragtag group of humans was able to evade detection in caves on “the world”?
I don’t really like the planetary grid/half mind combo as a story telling mechanism. It’s a cool concept but being able to instantly wipe out even the deathless enemy and have all seeing surveillance as well means many of the plot points shouldn’t be possible.
Warning, this post contains spoilers for both The Faith of Beasts and Season 2 of the Pitt!
I read The Faith of Beasts in about two days, right around the same time season two of The Pitt ended. The similar themes and narratives were so glaring and I have no one else to talk to about it!
Dr. Robbie and Dafyd both struggling with the weight of their lives, careers, and choices. Smaller more immediate problems taking precedent for our characters over the ACTUAL bad guy (for the Pitt: the systems that keep people sick or from accessing the care they need, for FoB: the Carryx). And of course, the final scene of the Book and Season focusing on hope through adorable babies.
Did anyone else notice these parallels? Am I going crazy?
Do we know? Assuming they aren’t killed ofc
I listened to the audiobook and don’t have the book version. I was wondering if someone can paste the origin myth in its entirety here?
Also curious if people think this is an old myth from Ajjin or a new myth they are making for the new children.
If it’s a secret message to the new children, what symbolism could it be to guide them?
If it’s an old myth, does it have this kind of symbolism from whoever/whatever put the humans on Ajjin?
Very curious to hear what people think!