Hardcover, 432 pages
English language
Published Aug. 6, 2024 by Orbit UK.
Starts dark and goes darker. Only shows a glimpse of sunlight toward the end. A very thrilling read that does an excellent job at mirroring the dreadful and slow moving time our human heroes endure. Their powerlessness is palpable and the books offers no respite until the smallest off a sliver on the last 20 pages. Loved it and look forward to the next iteration.
Este libro ha pasado de máxima puntuación a mínima puntuación a máxima puntuación en mi cabeza a medida que leía, así que se queda en un aprobado para contentar a los dos lados.
De estos libros que está tan bien llevado, va tan fino y sabe tan bien cuando mover las piezas que te has finiquitado 500 páginas sin darte cuenta y estás dándote de bruces con la realidad de que no hay un segundo hasta vete a saber cuándo.
No soy muy fan de llevar a tus personajes hasta las últimas consecuencias para conseguir desarrollo, máxime cuando a la mayoría les falta una vuelta para acabar de ser interesantes. Les reconozco a los autores el tiempo que le dedican a las dinámicas del grupo, pero tal y como termina es como si estas no hubieran servido de nada (o sólo unilateralmente).
Coming back to doing reviews after a year away. Sometimes, reviewing everything feels like a job (especially as I was doing reviews on both Goodreads and Mastodon) so a break was needed. It's kind of a shame this is the first review as the book was kind of not very good for me. I was a huge fan of The Expanse and one of it's great strengths, even in moments where it dipped a bit (a 9 book series is going to have dips), was the engaging characters. The Mercy of Gods very much did not have engaging characters, for me. Given the plot was a bit lacking in interest as well, this didn't make for a book that I could whole-heartedly enjoy or even recommend. It may have suffered from 'first in a series' issues but if the first in the series does not engage then how can someone …
Coming back to doing reviews after a year away. Sometimes, reviewing everything feels like a job (especially as I was doing reviews on both Goodreads and Mastodon) so a break was needed. It's kind of a shame this is the first review as the book was kind of not very good for me. I was a huge fan of The Expanse and one of it's great strengths, even in moments where it dipped a bit (a 9 book series is going to have dips), was the engaging characters. The Mercy of Gods very much did not have engaging characters, for me. Given the plot was a bit lacking in interest as well, this didn't make for a book that I could whole-heartedly enjoy or even recommend. It may have suffered from 'first in a series' issues but if the first in the series does not engage then how can someone be expected to get into the next installment? In short, something was off with this for me so I am giving it 3 stars. In my personal scoring lexicon that's a 'decently executed and I finished it but I can't recommend'.
