The Captive's War Books in Order

The Captive's War is a science fiction series by James S. A. Corey, the writing partnership of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. It begins with The Mercy of Gods, in a universe separate from The Expanse. The premise is stark: a human world called Anjiin is conquered by the Carryx, an alien empire that takes species captive and judges them by one standard, usefulness.

Survival is not the same as freedom.

At the center of the first book is Dafyd Alkhor, a research assistant whose life is overturned along with everyone else's. He and other human captives must learn how to function inside a vast alien system, where people can be assigned roles, traded between powers, or discarded if they fail to serve a purpose. The immediate stakes are personal, but the setting opens onto an ancient conflict far beyond Anjiin.

The Carryx are frightening not just because they are powerful. Their empire has been built by absorbing and using conquered species, so cooperation can become another form of danger. The humans have to decide how much compromise will keep people alive, and how much will erase what they are trying to preserve.

Livesuit is a connected novella that looks at the wider war from another direction. It follows a human soldier in an elite force whose body and identity are shaped by the technology designed to fight the Carryx. It is a shorter, more military-focused story, but it gives useful perspective on the scale of the conflict.

The Faith of Beasts continues Dafyd's story within the Carryx system. The series keeps widening from there, bringing together questions of occupation, adaptation, loyalty, and resistance. Like The Expanse, it is interested in institutions and power, but this world is stranger and more openly alien from the start.

Expect pressure, uncertainty, and hard choices.

Begin with The Mercy of Gods, then read Livesuit before The Faith of Beasts. That order introduces the human captives first, broadens the war through the novella, and then returns to the main storyline with a stronger sense of what is at stake.