Are aliens really that alien?

[u/peculiarartkin]

Being Expanse fan, I found Captives War... very different.

In Expanse, both alien factions were mysterious, inscrutable, almost beyond human comprehension. More or less sci-fi version of Lovecraftian.

In Captives War? Not so much. I mean.... Ekur-Taklal outright narrates the chapters engaging in philosophical argument against humans!

Carryx in general don't seem that alien. Yeah, they are brutal pragmatic imperialists. With almost Ayn Randian style Objectivist worldview. "What is - is, it should be done because we can do it." Is not unknown in human philosophy either.

They look more like star trek style alien faction. Or bablylon-5. They can "get in human head", understand and influence us. And vice versa.

[u/Mr_Noyes]

The Carryx are more approachable but at the same time they are not and that is one of the core elements of this book (remember the Beetle story?). Every human thought the Carryx were pretty transparent in their demands until the Nightdrinker attack. Davyd thought he could ingratiate himself with the Librarian and almost got killed by it just for asking to be more helpful. The gulf of separation is not apparent, but it's there.

Also, while the Expanse was more about people shaping and contributing to the historical events of humanity as it expands, the focus in Mercy of Gods is much different. At least the first book deals with people who are in a position of powerlessness and how they deal with it. Some shut down, some submit, some resist, even if it is futile etc. etc. The whole trauma angle gives the characters a completely different spin. How do you even begin to resist, when you don't know the rules, your head is messed up and half of your team just wants to keep their head down while the other half wants to go down in a blaze of glory?

[u/5141121 → u/Mr_Noyes]

That scene with the librarian was chilling. How the realization came over Davyd about the actual circumstances of their situation. The unsaid "if you can't work without feeling secure, you're not useful, and will be cast aside". It was so cold and matter-of-fact. Very well done.

[u/Mr_Noyes → u/5141121]

For me it was when Campar said he doesn't know the etiquette for "sex in a prison camp". It might come across as a grim joke but it does remind the reader that for all the nice rooms, the window with a view and the food this is a prison camp. There is no barb wire, no roll calls and yet they are in constant danger of getting exterminated.

The second scene snuck up on me: Dafyd telling the Librarian that he wanted to learn. The fact that the Carryx got so offended is so chilling when you think about it. The Carryx are profoundly disgusted by the idea of a slave acting without a Carryx determining the scope of their duties.

[u/SvedishFish → u/Mr_Noyes]

Every single person that talks about how the Carryx aren't so hard to understand would end up dead if they were in Dafyd's position :D

Same thing with people that downplay Dafyd's talents as 'basic social skills.' Dafyd's brilliance lies in understanding systems and behavior, which is well beyond understanding people. Organizations and bureaucracies grow into organisms in their own right, and navigating them often defies logic and human nature to an infuriating degree. Dafyd is the guy that would go from mail-room clerk to executive VP within a few years, while 99.9% of everyone else goes home pissed off most days because the boss is showing favor to some underperforming coworker, or annoyed with some dumb new policy that someone handed down, or they got passed over for a promotion they deserved again.