The Expanse is one of my favorite stories ever told. The characters, their relationships, and the way the universe functions are all so coherent and well written, and come together to make such an engaging and believable story of humanity venturing into the unknown. When I saw that the writers had started a new story I dove into it immediately, and expectations were high.

The Setup#

The Mercy of Gods did not disappoint. The world is a bit more overwhelming when they first drop you in - we are not on Earth, instead humanity calls the planet of Anjiin its home. However, it is not where humans originate from. There are two trees of life on Anjiin, the one we are familiar with - humans, squirrels, crabs, and trees - all your normal earth life, and another native tree of life that functions completely differently. They don’t use DNA to copy their genetics, and they don’t use the same mechanisms to create and use energy. These differences are what our main cast of characters has spent their life focused on. We follow a research group whose main project has been “reconciling” these two trees of life, and allowing on to nourish the other. Humanity also knows that their tree of life is the invader on this planet, although they have no idea how this came to be. In the fossil record, one day humans and all their accompanying species just showed up, but the other life had been there for much longer.

These scientists live a fairly average life, and although there are differences like their homes being grown from “coral” from the other tree of life, they live in a fairly familiar world to what we inhabit. Technology is around the same point, give or take. Humanity has satellites and missiles, but is no where close to conquering the stars. We do use these satellites to watch into space though, and one day we noticed something abnormal in space. After Jellit, one of our main characters twin brother, was able to see through the abnormality to what was truly happening, humanity was shocked by the sight of an armada of ships headed to Anjiin.

This is where the story really kicks off. Humanity is conquered in just over a week. The aliens, a race known as the Carryx, kill 1 in 8 humans as soon as they arrive, simply to send the message that they can. This is not done via war as we know it. Rather, as soon as the Carryx arrive they set up a grid over the entire planet, that hovers in the sky stationary above the ground. These thousands of pods, then proceed to shoot the 1 in 8 people all at once with no warning. Humanity tries to fight back, the battle is lost before it has begun.

The Journey#

Most of the research group ends up all aboard the same vessel which has left Anjiin for who known where. All of the prisoners were boarded onto this ship with no context, and left in a room with no instruction. The prison does have fresh water and “food” if you can call it that, but nothing else. It is always cold, there is nothing to do, and they do not now know what is happening. On the ship, we mainly follow two people, Dafyd Alkhor and Jessyn Kaul. If there is a main character in this story, you would likely say it is Dafyd. He was just the lowly research assistant in the group, not even a full fledged researcher. However, he likes people underestimating him and often uses this to his advantage.

On Anjiin, Dafyd always lusts after Else Yannin, a beautiful woman who also just happens to be his boss’s partner. However, the lead researcher Tonner is not on this ship, and if you put a bunch of stressed primates in a box for an extended period of time, they are going to do the thing primates do to release stress. So, Dafyd and Else start their relationship looking for comfort wherever they can while imprisioned traveling through non-symetrical space.

Jessyn is a skilled researcher, however privately she has always struggled with mental issues. The way it is described, I think we can best call it depression. She often eludes to having had suicidal thoughts in the past, and makes it sound like even when things were good she still had fairly dark thoughts. Jessyn is able to keep herself sane in her day to day life with the assistance on Jellit and her medication. On this ship though, there is no Jellit, and there are only a few weeks worth on pills. She often spends her days counting how many pills she has left in pocket, and worrying about what will come once she runs out. She knows that it would hard for her to keep her mind under this kind of stress even with her pills, and she is not going to have those for much longer.

The climax of this act comes as some of the humans plan violence against the guards the Carryx use. Dafyd is firmly against the violence. He has sought to understand the Carryx and the other species around him, although he has not yet figured them out. He keeps trying to put himself in their shoes and try to predict their reaction to their actions. He assumes that if the prisoners get rowdy and violent, than the Carryx will simply dispose of their unarguable cargo. However, when the violence does come, and one of the aliens are killed, there is no reprisal or violence against the prisoners. Instead, another one of the species that was killed comes out, and consumes the corpse of its dead companion.

At first Dafyd can not understand this. This ends up being his first major realization that his jailers aren’t human. Not only in the literal sense, but in their logic as well. The Carryx and all the other species we have and will encounter do not think like our characters and us. We will later learn that the Carryx often use the motto of “What is, is”. Is a Carryx or one of their soldiers was ever weak enough to get killed by a human, it didn’t deserve to live. There is no need to punish the humans for being humans.

The Takeaway#

SciFi explores facets of the real world by stripping away or adding on new elements to it. The Mercy of Gods examines our humanity and our sanity. Do we remain human when we lose our family? How about after watching your partner die? When all the guards rails are removed and the rules are not the same as they have been for your whole life?

What about your mind - can you stay positive, or even stay yourself when you run out of the pharmaceuticals that keep your brain chemistry normal? What about after being placed into a cold unforgiving metal box with nothing besides water and nutrient paste for months? After you watch one of your few surviving friends get blown up?

The Mercy of Gods shows us what it means to be human and to exist in a tribe when we are pushed to our extremes.