The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dafyd has really grown into a complex and compelling character for me. I feel the true horror of the human captivity, the scale of the loss and what they have to do to survive, but for me, Dafyd hits the hardest of all.

It's the overwhelming nature of the Carryx empire. They just don't care. They're the ultimate totalitarian boss who can't be bothered to know your name or whether you need time to grieve or eat or sleep. It just needs you to be useful, to breed, and bring forth something useful to their war effort or you'll be written off. Fired. You know... as a race. Set on fire as a race.

It really puts everything in a truly bleak light. But survival does what survival does, right? And when survivors actually make a little headway under the yoke of an alien empire, who's to blame them if they start feeling like they ought to have a little reward or think they have a little power just because they're finally BEING useful?

But that's just it. We're just animals. Beasts. Only as good as we are useful. And perhaps... we're only useful in a certain way.


This novel really made me feel. It took me through so many stages of grief, but for humanity itself. Denial, bargaining, rage, depression... and even acceptance.

This is some serious SF, but I won't deny that it's some hard stuff. Hard stuff to process. It's not light in the slightest. But it IS very good.

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