The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton

The Fourth Consort is a sci-fi novel set in a universe where the earth is still very much like present, but part of the space-faring Unity, after aliens showed up to make sure humans don’t destroy the planet. But the Unity isn’t quite that altruistic and they always get something in return. From the earth, they get people.

Dalton Greaves is an engineer, a former soldier, and an all-around accomplished person who has lost the grip of his life after his father died. No other family is mentioned. When even his girlfriend dumps him, he’s more than willing to accept an offer to work for the Unity and leave the earth.

Three years later, somewhere deep in the universe, he’s starting to question the wisdom of the decision. For years, he’s travelled from one potential planet to another in a three-person grew captained by Boreau who is a giant slug representing the Unity, and Neera, a fellow human who recruited him. He hasn’t really had a chance to do what he was hired to do, diplomacy to win over the inhabitants of whichever planet they want won over. Mostly, he and Neera are very bored.

When they finally find a promising planet with intelligent civilisations, it turns out they’re not the first ones there. The Assembly, a rivalling alien organisation on the same mission as the Unity is there as well. Dalton, Neera, and the representative of the Assembly have barely landed on the planet, when both their motherships are destroyed, stranding them.

For Neera, the proper way to handle things is immediately to kill the person from the Assembly, an insectoid species derogatorily called stickman, though we never learn what they call themselves. Dalton refuses. As a former soldier who has done his fair share of shady missions in Bolivian jungles, there are things that shouldn’t be done, and unprovoked killing of an unarmed person is one. Miffed, Neera decides to stay in their landing craft while Dalton and the stickman go to negotiate with the natives of the planet, giant ant-like people called minarchs who live in underground hives.

The negotiation takes a bizarre turn though, when the queen of minarchs (First Among Equals) decides to make Dalton his fourth consort. Consorts two and three (Bob and Randall) are still around, but the first consort has met an unfortunate end. Consorts don’t have any power—males are powerless in the female led society—and Dalton finds himself confined to a harem and sidelined from the negotiations.

For minarchs, exchanging consorts is a way to deal and consolidate power with neighbouring hives. But choosing Dalton, who they see as a prey species, is an odd choice that triggers a coup to remove the queen. And the easiest way to do that is to kill Dalton.

That’s only the beginning of his troubles. He’s constantly juggling between trying to stay alive, the pressure from Neera to kill Breaker, the stickman he’s sort of befriending, and making sure the Unity wins the negotiations. But it seems that the only thing he has any influence on is choosing how to die, honourably—according to the codes both minarchs and Breaker subscribe to—or dishonourably. Someone will be disappointed, no matter how he chooses. But increasingly, he’s starting to lean towards disappointing Neera and the Unity.

This was a really good and entertaining novel. It’s deceptively small; it takes place in one hive, and nothing major happens, even if a coup is going on in the background. Dalton sort of drifts from one event to another, with no real agency over anything but his own reactions to them. But he’s not helpless, and in the end, he pulls through on his own terms.

Dalton is a great character with a good moral code, even if Breaker and the minarchs don’t understand or respect it. Neera, for her part, is a corporate drone and her actions are dictated by her fear of the Unity leaders. Breaker is the aloof knight type of a character, a teacher or sensei, who is more atop of things thanks to his clearer understanding of what kind of people minarchs are. He has the teacher’s hope of elevating Dalton to his and the Assembly’s level, and in the end, the two come to understand each other as friends. (The description mentions a bizarre love triangle, but that’s misleading in every way, as there is no third or even a romance.)

The ending is good, and while it concludes the story, it does have a seed for a new beginning. I’d definitely read more stories of Dalton travelling the universe.

Bob and Randall forever.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Case File Compendium Vol. 4 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Case File Compendium vol 4 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

Volume four did something I thought could never happen: reduced the hostilities between He Yu and Xie Qingcheng. Not easily and completely, but it’s a step in the right direction if one wants a happy ending for the men.

The volume continues from where the previous left, with the men about to drown inside an airtight chamber. Since they think this is their last moment, Xie Qingcheng tells the younger man his greatest secret. It’s nothing I had imagined. And then they’re saved at the last moment. Now that they’re alive, the truth completely changes how He Yu sees him. The same isn’t true for Xie Qingcheng.

They agree to stay apart. Easy for Xie Qingcheng, but impossible for He Yu. Even when Xie Xue falls ill, clearly because of the illegal drug He Yu’s been affected with, Xie Qingcheng doesn’t contact He Yu. But He Yu finds about it anyway and decides to investigate. Eventually, he has Xie Qingcheng roped into it too.

But the shady organisation is constantly one step ahead of them. Every time He Yu thinks he’s about to have a breakthrough, the clue is removed, usually with violence. Until he stumbles onto one that even the masterminds haven’t come to think of. It sends the men to a remote village, which turns out to be the home village of many players they’ve come across so far. It can’t be a coincidence.

As they investigate, they find a crime that has nothing to do with them or the case, but which the perp wants to keep secret anyway. It puts the men in mortal peril once again. The volume ends with a cliffhanger, with Xie Qingcheng on his last breath.

This was the best volume so far. Focus was on the men and their relationship, with only brief glimpses of other players, which weren’t terribly important. He Yu is mostly sane, and while he still wants to force Xie Qingcheng to have sex with him, he manages to stop himself. He’s found a new truth about his relationship with Xie Qingcheng and he has no idea what to do with it. For his part, Xie Qingcheng is starting to see He Yu in new light. Not enough to forgive him yet, but maybe he doesn’t hate him as much anymore. I’m eagerly waiting to find out how that turns out.

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett

In the third Emily Wilde book, it has come time for Emily and Wendell to claim back his kingdom in the faerie. The book picks up right where the previous ended, with the same journal entry, as the pair go through the door to faerie. They prepare for the worst, but everything goes well.

Too well, it turns out. Because the former queen has put a curse on the land which kills the nature, and it’s spreading. Emily must head back to the human realm and search for suitable fairytales to find out what kind of curse it is and how it’s broken. She even has surprise help from Professor Rose and her niece Ariadne.

And they find the solution. Problem is, someone has to die for it. Back to research it is. And it turns out, you can cheat death and change the story. But the fairytales don’t like it. At all. To stop things from becoming even worse, Emily has to get help from someone who might want her dead to rescue someone who definitely does.

This was another great story. Stakes were high and academic research was on point. Emily had less trouble in faerie than she feared, but she was happy for a chance to stay in the human realm too. Wendell was as attentive of her as ever, even more so now that his magic is properly back. (Endless journals for Emily.) The ending was good, if this was the last book, but as it sent the pair on yet another research expedition, there’s room for more books of their adventures too. I’d definitely read them.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison

The Orb of Cairado wasn’t on my reading list for this month, solely because I didn’t know it existed. It came out at the end of January and I’d completely managed to miss all mentions of it beforehand whilst waiting for The Tomb of Dragons to be published in March. It’s book 1.1 in The Chronicles of Osreth series, aka The Goblin Emperor world, a novella that takes place at the same time as the first book.

The explosion of airship Wisdom of Choharo that kills the emperor at the beginning of The Goblin Emperor also kills its captain Mara Lilana, the best friend since their childhood of Ulcetha Zhorvena. His widow finds a random map in an envelope addressed to Ulcetha, who after a brief bemusement realises it’s the first clue of a mystery.

Ulcetha is a former historian second class at the University of Cairado, but he was accused of stealing a priceless artefact and was thrown out of academia. Mara’s clues lead him to where the artefact had been hiding all these years, which only leads to another puzzle: how did Mara know it’s there when he’s not an academic nor knows anyone in academia.

Ulcetha also faces the dilemma of returning the artefact so that he’s not accused of stealing it again. The historian first class he contacts is very helpful though. The artefact is a map to The Orb of Cairado, a relic of great importance, and together they travel to unearth it and a treasure buried with it. As a reward, Ulcetha gets his academic position back.

But the original mystery won’t leave him alone. Who stole the artefact in the first place? Because it could only have been one of his fellow historians. Finding the answer changes his life forever.

This was an amazing novella in a sense that events that could’ve easily filled a full-length book took place during nine chapters and about a hundred pages, effortlessly and without rushing. It has a satisfying three act structure, and nothing was lacking, information or descriptions. The mystery was perhaps easily solved, once Ulcetha put his mind to it, and key witnesses didn’t waste anyone’s time by denying knowledge, but even that came across as the way it should be. And while the thief was easy to guess, I for one didn’t foresee the answer to how Mara had known about it.

Ulcetha was like all the main characters in this series, an underdog trodden by life, but kind, resilient, and just (even if he worked as a forger). In a world of elves and goblins, it would’ve been nice to know which one he was (or I missed the clues), but in the end it was more important to know that he wasn’t an aristocrat like the other historians, the reason they so willingly believed he was the thief. The ending sets him on a new path. Maybe we encounter him later again. I would like that.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Emily Wilde's Map of th Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands is the second book in Fawcett’s delightful alt-history series set in 1910s academia. Emily Wilde is a researcher in dryadology that studies fairies and other mythological beings that aren’t mere folktales in this universe. She’s a resourceful, no-nonsense woman in her early thirties, and the books are narrated as her journal entries.

In the first book, she conducted field studies in Norway with her colleague and academic rival Wendell Bambleby, but it turned out he’s not a human but an exiled king of a fairyland. He’s joined academia because he’s searching for the door to his dominion. The two became romantically involved and he even asked for her to marry him. She didn’t give him an answer.

In this second book, the pair sets out to search for the door. Emily has become convinced that a researcher who disappeared in the Austrian Alps fifty years earlier had found a nexus that is a door to several places simultaneously, Wendell’s kingdom included. All they have to do is trace her footsteps.

Joining them is their head of department, Professor Rose, who doesn’t trust her research methods, and Emily’s niece and assistant, Ariadne, who is a bit afraid of her and a lot afraid of Wendell, after learning who he truly is.

They find themselves in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere surrounded by borderlands to fairy and with people who are at least partially fay themselves. Finding the door isn’t easy though, even if the villagers can pinpoint the exact place where the researcher disappeared, and have seen her wandering around for decades, lost in the fairylands. Making things even more difficult are the hostile or mischievous fairies attacking or hindering them, and the assassins sent by Wendell’s step-mother who has usurped his throne.

The biggest problem is, however, that Wendell has been poisoned by the assassins. They try everything to cure him, but in the end the only solution is for Emily to travel to his kingdom for a special cure. It’s never wise for a human to go to fairy, and less so when the place is ruled by the person who wants them both dead.

This was another great book. I like Emily’s dry academic tone with which she records everything, with footnotes, and her unwavering belief in herself. Wendell is funny with his fastidious ways, and his devotion to Emily is heartwarming. Professor Rose was a good addition, if annoying at times, and Ariadne was nice, even if she didn’t really rise from the background.

The story flowed smoothly, helped by Emily’s habit of recording only the pertinent. That lowered the tension during the action scenes though, as she left a lot unsaid, but it made the overall feel of the book cozier. And she finally gave her answer to Wendell’s proposal too. Onwards to the next book.