The Mercy of Gods

“You wish to know of our first encounter with the enemy, but it seems more likely to me that there were many first encounters spread across the face of distance and time in ways that simultaneity cannot map. The ending, though. I saw the beginning of that catastrophe. It was the abasement of an insignificant world that called itself Anjiin.”

The epigraph that opens the novel establishes several important things, including the war between the Carryx and some unknown enemy, and the character Ekur-Tkalal, whose relevance doesn’t become clear until later. In addition, this epigraph foreshadows both the invasion of Anjiin and the eventual downfall of the Carryx, as Ekur’s final statement looks back at the beginning from the future.

“It was built to learn, built for plasticity. Its design is like water, flowing through whatever channels the universe provides it. It understands now that water also carries what it passes through. It has already traded purity for experience, and there is no path back.”

The swarm appears in sudden shifts in perspective, marked by italics and present-tense narration. Each passage from the swarm’s point of view provides clues to its identity and purpose. Here, it becomes clear that the swarm is an artificially created being meant to be a tool and spy, which has been altered by its interactions with its hosts.

“[H]e’d had an epiphany about the vastness and strangeness of the universe and his place in it. The insignificance of one boy on a strange planet in the vastness of galaxies. For a moment, his mind had reached out to the farthest ends of the universe, and he’d felt the weight of his life, his ego, his struggles as less than a feather.”

Jessyn recalls a priest she knew who explained that his epiphany helped him handle his mental health struggles. She feels a similar sensation when she learns from Jellit that scientists have detected an alien object in their solar system. This moment highlights one reaction to the revelation of life beyond one’s experience, which later contrasts with Rickar’s later reaction of terror.