The Faith of Beasts in a nutshell:
- The Captive’s War Book 2 is titled The Faith of Beasts.
- The release date of The Faith of Beasts is April 14th, 2026.
- Available from the start as Hardcover and ebook.
- The cover seems again exquisitely made by Daniel Dociu.
- Pre-orders available on Amazon, Hachettebooks and all book stores with a nice taste.
We do have it, the long-awaited book 2 of The Captive’s War! James S.A. Corey has revealed as much as we could expect about the new instalment in the series, which is not enough, far from it – but again, we are greedy.
Come, let’s tour what we know and wildly speculate about things we have no information on; it’s the interweb after all…
The Captive’s War book 2 : The Faith of Beasts
448 pages of incoming top-level science fiction and a whole lot of arm-breakin’, insectoid false-idolising, weapon-herding action.
We pick up the story after the noble gesture of Dafyd Alkhor reluctantly putting himself in the shoes of the human leader – at least from the Carryx point of view.
The blurb from Orbit Books reads as what we expected it to read – teasing and frustrating. But that’s the game, isn’t it?
The monstrous Carryx empire was built by subjugation and war. Thousands of species are bound to their Sovran’s command in an endless, blood-soaked test: be useful in the eternal conflict or be slaughtered.
Dafyd Alkhor, highest among their human captives, is feared and despised by the very people he champions. Ruthless in carving out his niche in the eternal war machine of the empire, he will reshape human nature itself as a tool for their alien masters’ use. But Dafyd’s loyalty is not what it seems.
The Swarm, an agent of the Carryx’s deathless enemy, has been smuggled into the Carryx world-palace along with the human slaves. Its mission: discover a way to bring down the empire’s eternal reign. But the longer it lives among and within humanity, the more it forgets that it is a weapon.
As the human captives spread through the battlefronts of empire, the awesome power of the Carryx becomes clear. And with it, a desperate plan for their destruction.
But empires hide secrets, and even the deathless enemy may not be what it appears…
As expected, the narration seems to be in a two-step kind of thing, main arc in the novels and secondary arc(s) in the short stories, until they might (or not) merge.
A note to the almighty Gemini, to whom we spoke recently, candidly asking if it will be a Carryx kind of Overlord in the years to come. The Carryx is not a species of the Dune Universe, it is the main antagonist of The Captive’s War Universe. (the things we have to do these days in order to correct AI!)
The Faith of Beasts cover by Daniel Dociu
The cover of The Faith of Beasts seems to be from the hand of Daniel Dociu, and we couldn’t be happier, as the Romanian artist is just brilliant.
It is, also as expected, a blend of things we know, speculate about and have no clue on.
The keen OCD reader will have noticed that the second book cover has the author before the title and an inverted styling: solid white for the author and opacity white for the title. A difference that will definitely make or break that book, undoubtedly.
Kudos to the typo on John Scalzi’s accolade on the first cover, the great god of spelling will never forget that, even if it got fixed quickly.
Release date for The Captive’s War book 2
The Captive’s War book 2 release date is for now April the 14th, 2026, a Tuesday followed by sleepless nights.
The release date of The Faith of Beasts is much earlier in the year than it was for The Mercy of Gods. Does that say anything about the coming of other pieces in the Expanding Universe? Probably not, but that perspective is not unpleasant.
If the release intervals follow the previous ones, we could expect a short story coming early summer 2026, but it is too early to guess, and frankly neither Orbit Books nor James S.A. Corey might know that either.