Review: The 5th Gender by G.L. Carriger

The 5th Gender
(A Tinkered Star Mystery #1)
G.L. Carriger
Release: May 18, 2019
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A species that has no word for murder, has a murderer aboard their spaceship.

ALIEN

Tristol lives in exile. But he’s built a life for himself aboard a human space station. He’s even begun to understand the complex nuances of human courting rituals.

Detective Hastion is finally flirting back!

MURDER

Except that Tristol’s beloved space station is unexpectedly contacted by the galoi – a xenophobic species with five genders, purple skin, and serious attitude. They need the help of a human detective because there’s a murderer aboard their spaceship. Murder is so rare, the galoi don’t even have a word for it.

Tristol knows this because he is galoi.

ROMANCE

Which means that he and Detective Hastion are on the case… together.

Delicate Sensibilities?

Contains men who love other men in graphic detail, regardless of gender, biology, or skin color... and lots of emotively sexy tentacle hair.

New York Times best selling author Gail Carriger (writing as G.L. Carriger) brings you a light-hearted romantic cozy mystery featuring an adorable lavender alien and his human crush.

Review:
You all know how much I love Gail Carriger and her books. I've especially been loving the adult paranormal romances she's been writing under the moniker G.L. Carriger. So when she announced she was writing an adult sci-fi romance, you know I had to immediately preorder it. I wasn't sure what to expect going into Gail's first foray into science fiction but I absolutely adored this book! It was cute and lightheartedly delightful! It's a sci-fi romance and a cozy mystery all in one! Plus, it had everything I love about Gail's other books but in space!

I love me some good worldbuilding and Gail doesn't disappoint with this one. I loved how she painted space station life and incorporated the different inhabitants and species into the story! I especially loved the worldbuilding and culture surrounding the Galoi! The fact that the Galoi are aliens of varying shades of purple with emotive tentacle hair and five genders was amazing! The whole story read like really excellent fanfiction and that's one of the highest praises I can give a book.

I loved the main character Tristol! He was so adorable! I will admit that it took me a bit to get used to the way the he talked but once I did I was completely enchanted. I loved how obsessed with discovering new things he is and how excited he is just to be living his life on the space station. The scene with the cat was something I never knew I needed in my science fiction! Tris as a character reminded of an omega in the A/B/O fanfic I've read in so many ways! And it was one of the things I loved about his character as a whole. His whole identity and relations to his own species was fascinating! I loved learning more about them and their culture as a whole.

I also loved Detective Hastion as the love interest. Because honestly, when you first met Tris on the page it's hard to imagine a love interest for him but Detective Hastion was perfect for him! I really loved reading about how that grumpy, gruff security officer softened and fell head over heels for a little lavender alien. Yay! For more queer sci-fi romance books! 

And can we talk about how diverse this book was? There were different alien species and the different genders and sexualities were intriguing! And the spectrum of identities and sexualities we got among the humans was amazing as well. As for the mystery, all I will say is that it was enthralling. I did manage to guess the whodunit correctly but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story at all.

Overall, I adored this book and I really hope that we get more books covering Tris and Detective Hastion's adventures! I want to watch their relationship evolve and Tris to experience more new things. They'll be auto-buy books for sure!

    1/2

  4.5 / 5 Stars

Book 18: Cozy Corner- Read a Cozy Mystery