The story really gets going in volume 3. It
starts at the encampment of the Western Khaganate where Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao
had been honoured guests until the second prince was suddenly murdered at the
end of the previous volume. Now the men stand accused of the deed. The way out
of the situation is to solve the crime themselves. But instead of Cui Buqu
doing the investigation, he volunteers to stay as a hostage while Feng Xiao
investigates. Only, the latter has no intention of doing so.
Cui Buqu has an ace on his sleeve though,
and doesn’t need Feng Xiao—until he does. In the end, the mystery is solved
rather fast, and not in any way I thought it would. The men are now free to
travel back home where they are hailed as heroes.
Their adventures at end, they continue
their separate lives as heads of their rivalling secret service organisations.
But Cui Buqu has promised a rare musical instrument for Feng Xiao as a reward
for saving his life. It turns out to be in the hands of Cui clan, and the men
travel together to fetch it. But the instrument is all but forgotten when Feng
Xiao has a chance to learn about Cui Buqu’s past and his connection to Cui clan.
It’s an interesting and sad story, but Cui Buqu has a chance to air old
grievances and eventually emerge on the top.
But the men haven’t forgotten the mysterious
secret organisation that seems to be behind all their troubles. Going after it
again leads to a sudden gut-wrenching twist and betrayal the kind that’s familiar
from the author’s Thousand Autumns novel. The end is a huge cliffhanger that
leaves Cui Buqu in mortal peril. It’ll be an agony to wait for the next volume.
This was maybe the best volume so far. A
lot happened and the men really became their own characters. Cui Buqu
especially had a chance to shine. There wasn’t much in the way of romance, only
brief teasing moments, and after this volume, the road to a happy ending will
be long. The secret organisation and its motives remain a bit over the top, but
as an adversary, it’s interesting. Side characters from previous volumes didn’t
really show up and new ones didn’t take their place. All in all, an entertaining read.
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.
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
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 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 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.
As a new thing this year, I decided to
start summarising what I’ve read each month. I read a lot of manga that I only
review on Goodreads, some of them review copies, and I’d like to give them a
wider audience.
In January, I read and reviewed 24 books,
22 of which were mangas/manhwas. Well, Dawn of the Dragon vols. 1-2 I’d read as
a webtoon on Lezhin last year, but they have entries on Goodreads now, so I added
them there.
Eight of my reads were review copies for
NetGalley and Edelweiss, plus I started but didn’t finish one review copy that
I didn’t like. Only one review copy was a novel, Water Moon by Samantha Sotto
Yambao, an interesting but not entirely satisfying read.
The rest were mangas/manhwas. My favourite was
I'm Here, Beside You, Vol. 1 by Tea Natsuno, a second chance high school romance
where the main character finds himself back in his high school body. Hell Is Dark with No Flowers, Vol. 1 by Ruka Todo was also interesting, a paranormal
manga of a young man who can see criminals as monsters, so he ends up working
for an envoy from hell who punishes the monsters. Men of the Harem, Vol. 1 by Yeongbin
is, despite its name, a court intrigue fantasy.
Of the reads that weren’t review copies, my
favourite novel was, unexpectedly, Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's
Conjecture, Vol. 5 by Mikage Sawamura. It’s a comfort read series that hasn’t
failed me yet. I also started, but didn’t finish yet Remnants of Filth vol 5
and Ballad of Sword and Wine vol 3. Those I will read and review here
eventually.
A favourite manhua was Sanctify by
Godstation about an exorcist trying to solve two massacres that have happened decades
apart. It was advertised as a romance, but it’s definitely not that. You can
read my Goodreads reviews here: vol. 1, 2, and 3.
Mostly though, I’ve been binge reading Solo
Leveling by Chugong & Dubu, of which I read vols. 4-8. I’ve been reading it
on Tappytoon, but reviewing volume at the time on Goodreads. You can read my
reviews at: 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. I’ve also
started other similar manhuas there, but those haven’t progressed to reviewing
state yet, on top of which I’ve continued reading Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint
by singNsong and all the ongoing series on Lezhin.
All in all, a fun reading month, even if I
didn’t read or finish all the review copies of novels I was supposed to. I have
three novels and several mangas waiting to be reviewed in February. Hopefully I’ll
do better this month.
