Synopsis:
The monstrous Carryx empire was built by subjugation and war. Thousands of species are bound to their Sovran’s command in an endless, blood-soaked test: be useful in the eternal conflict or be slaughtered.
Dafyd Alkhor, highest among their human captives, is feared and despised by the very people he champions. Ruthless in carving out his niche in the eternal war machine of the empire, he will reshape human nature itself as a tool for their alien masters’ use. But Dafyd’s loyalty is not what it seems.
The Swarm, an agent of the Carryx’s deathless enemy, has been smuggled into the Carryx world-palace along with the human slaves. Its mission: discover a way to bring down the empire’s eternal reign. But the longer it lives among and within humanity, the more it forgets that it is a weapon.
As the human captives spread through the battlefronts of empire, the awesome power of the Carryx becomes clear. And with it, a desperate plan for their destruction.
But empires hide secrets, and even the deathless enemy may not be what it appears…
Review:
In ancient Egypt, life kept going century after century, largely unchanged from one dynasty to the next. Due to the nature of the Nile River and the vast deserts surrounding them, visitors were rare, and true threats were even rarer. But the Middle Kingdom of Egypt ended when a group from Asia invaded named the Hyksos. The Hyksos had more advanced technology like bronze weapons, a composite bow, and a horse and chariot. Since Egypt rarely fought other powers, they were behind technologically and were ruled by the Hyksos for around 150 years. But something happened during that century and a half. The Egyptians were patient. After all, the Great Pyramid was already a thousand years old. As the Hyksos settled in and took over, the Egyptians befriended them, learned from them about the secrets of making bronze, and eventually used the very technology they were enslaved with to break free and defeat the Hyksos to start the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt.
The writing team of James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) have tapped into something interesting with their Captive’s War series, the latest addition of which, The Faith of Beasts, released earlier this week. In this second book of the series, Corey picks back up after the events that shifted everything at the end of The Mercy of Gods. I read the first book earlier this year, and now that I’ve finished The Faith of Beasts, I officially can’t wait until the third book releases.
After the success of Andor in the Star Wars universe, we can see now that rebellions aren’t easy. We all loved the original movie from 1977 where Luke Skywalker goes from being a poor farmer to the one who destroys the entire Death Star at the end of two hours. But the groundwork to make that one-in-a-million shot (with the help of the Force) from Luke’s x-wing took years of espionage by Cassian Andor and Mon Mothma.
In Faith of the Beasts, I see parallels to some of the newest stories from Star Wars as well as some ancient ones about the Egyptians and the Hyksos. In the first book, we’re thrust into the center of a hostile alien takeover as humanity is decimated on their planet of Anjiin. It’s made clear early on that humanity has actually lost their own origin story, but they know it didn’t start on Anjiin. With that limited awareness of the universe, along come the Carryx, a species who only care about value. What can humanity do for them as they wage an interstellar war against a mysterious foe? The Carryx are so overwhelming to the residents of Anjiin there is no way to even contemplate fighting back. But as the book develops and the research team the book is based around settles into their new life as lab rats for the Carryx, there are small moments where hope manages to stay alive. Moments that show that just like with the ancient Egyptians, there will be a moment for retaking what was once theirs…but that moment may not appear right away.
That hope trickles into this book and it slowly grows. Humanity, led by Dafyd Alkhor, is uncovering little truths about themselves, the ongoing war, and the opponent the Carryx fear so much. With small incremental steps, the survivors of Anjiin have created a new life for themselves while planning (perhaps even generations down the line) to take back control of their own future. Alkhor and his conspirators realize it may not happen in their lifetimes, but whatever they can do to make it easier for humanity to defeat the Carryx is up to them.
A fun wrinkle of the plot is the addition of a wildcard — the Swarm, a spy who inhabits the body of one of the humans. Even before the Carryx invaded, the Swarm had a mission to defeat them. The Swarm’s presence alters what can or can’t be done and complicates things on an interpersonal level with who it chooses to confide in and that person’s relationship with the Swarm’s host. For both the Swarm and the various aliens that appear, Corey does an admirable job making each of them truly alien — perhaps not quite to the level that Adrian Tchaikovsky does in some of his first contact novels, but I felt a distinct different between humanity and the creatures from the Carryx and beyond.
Corey is planning three overall books and two novellas in this series, so at this point we’re past the halfway mark on it with the first two books and the novella Livesuit. I ended up listening to the audiobook of Livesuit after I’d read Faith of the Beasts and while it alludes to a plot point in the book, it isn’t strictly necessary to understand the second novel in the series.
I have really enjoyed the story of one of the final groups of humans using science, planning, and ingenuity to eventually defeat their captors. The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey is a well-done sci-fi space opera that handles its drama on a galactic scale.
Thank you to Orbit for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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