The Captive's War

The Mercy of Gods (The Captive's War #1) by James S. A. Corey

On a distant world, generations of humans have lived without any memory of how they got there. Their society—isolated, quietly advanced, and curiously untouched—unfolds beneath the looming question of origin. And then the Carryx arrive.

Everything changes the moment this insectoid empire descends. Alien in every sense, the Carryx don’t seek war in the way humanity understands it. They don’t conquer with brutality—they absorb, repurpose, and twist. Their captives become tools, their cultures become resources. When a group of scientists and scholars from Anjiin are taken, they’re not imprisoned behind bars—they're immersed in the machinery of an empire that doesn’t believe it’s doing anything wrong.

The Captive’s War peels back the traditional layers of alien invasion and reframes them through quiet horror and psychological unease. It’s not about planetary battles or fleets in the sky—it’s about cultural survival, about what happens when resistance looks less like rebellion and more like remembering who you are in a world determined to erase that knowledge.

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The Captive's War consists of one book and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of two more books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.


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Book Covers
★ 8.34 / 3
⧗ 9.40 / 10
⧗ 8.00 / 1

Speculative Fiction Books

(The Captive's War #1 / 3)
2024 | science fiction, space opera
(The Captive's War #2 / 3)
2026 | science fiction, space opera | Release date April 14, 2026
(The Captive's War #3 / 3)
2026 | science fiction, space opera | Release date 2026

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