Synopsis:
Upholding her tribe’s highest law, Fenri must keep her heart—the body’s fourth portal—closed at all times, or face execution.
Fenri is a Knowledger, a brilliant collector of information who dreams of discovering the ocean’s secrets. The tribe’s Masters grant her permission to explore the ocean, but only if she first traverses the perilous desert with four strangers to retrieve a precious base metal. Despite a condition that makes her slower and weaker than her counterparts, Fenri accepts the mission, eager to prove her worth. She will succeed or die trying.
When hormone-sniffing beasts begin stalking their group, it’s clear that someone has opened their fourth portal. Determined to protect her chances of exploring the ocean, Fenri vows to find and eliminate the traitor before the love virus spreads. As forbidden feelings surface, the group begins to unravel, turning their mission into a race to close the fourth portal before the beasts or their fellow tribesmen end them. That is, if they don’t kill each other first.
Review:
The Fourth Portal is a science fiction, character-driven story in the vein of Dune but if told from the viewpoint of the Fremen and without the whole prophesied one, instead focusing on control. Control of the tribe and control of the heart.
On a hostile, desert-like planet, this tribe of people live by a very strict and rigorous code: their fourth portal (or heart, aka emotions, aka feelings, aka love) must remain closed, otherwise said planet will consume them. As in the beasties of said planet will try to eat them (okay, maybe not that simplistic but good enough for this review). They are descended from some ancestors who fled somewhere and to survive, they implemented this code. Pretty standard sci-fi fare. But to keep their survival ongoing, constant missions are sent out into the far reaches of this planet for food, materials, experience, etc. And it is on one particular mission where this story unfolds, and with it, some major upheavals of the tribe’s beliefs.
Because this story is so character driven, I want to start with the lore of this book before diving into the characters. From following Mr. Merkel previous to reading this book on the social picture place, I learned that a lot of this story’s worldbuilding is based on the seven chakras, but in-world, these are the seven portals. The tribe and its people all are able to tap into six of the portals but they are forbidden from tapping into the fourth (heart) and while I’m not fully knowledgeable about the chakras, I found this concept highly interesting. And to take it a step further, the tribe has set roles for its people, and these roles signify which portals they are trained in. There are Knowledgers, Healers, Guardians, Makers, Planeteers, and more. Fairly easy to glean what their roles entail. All governed by the Masters. And while we don’t get a lot of backstory in this book, what we are presented is very interesting, and I very much enjoyed the lore.
This book also has its own version of spice (from Dune if you aren’t familiar) but unlike spice ruling the galaxies, tilq in The Fourth Portal is the means of controlling the aforementioned fourth portal. Basically tilq is a drug to make the tribespeople forget their emotions, amongst other things. A painkiller as well. Tilq plays a major role in the story and the actual reveals associated with one character’s history was really really neat but oh so spoilery.
We also get some really nifty alienesque beasties that are drawn to emotions somehow. I don’t care that it’s really not explained because the attacks by the various beasts were great action, but also helped move the character interactions forward. They were excellent sources of tension, but I will say there were times when our cast gets wounded pretty badly but were kinda healed quickly enough to keep moving.
That said, this book is all about its cast. This is a multi-POV cast, with 7 total POVs, 5 main and 2 smaller ones. We have Fenri the Knowledger, Craeya the Healer, Luzon the Maker, Pau the Guardian, Stone the Planeteer, and Master Qi, plus Eidar the Assassin.
If I had to boil it down, Fenri is the main main character. She’s somewhat the ties that bind all the others even if Craeya is the catalyst. Fenri has this innate need to know everything (she’s a Knowledger afterall) but she’s also somewhat broken, both physically and emotionally/mentally. Fenri questions her beliefs and that of the tribe’s, and when some profound revelations are exposed from her use of tilq, I found myself gravitating toward Fenri’s story more and more. I also really liked her ending, mainly what she decides to do.
Craeya was also very interesting as she has opened her fourth portal very young and because she’s done it, her addition to the mission is basically the cause for everything that happens in this story. She’s a hothead, brazenly disregards the caution needed on missions (it is her first), and she’s pretty much going through some lust throughout the entire story.
Luzon and Pau were both fun in their own right and I really liked how the Makers and Guardians are raised/trained. Luzon is more of a free thinker and tinkerer, thus making his arc quite integral to the overall story. Pau is the stoic leader, but he also does get some interesting asides that lead up to Fenri’s revelations. Of the main five, I really liked Stone as he’s sort of this prophetic mute character that joins the team later and dude essentially has visions that come true throughout the story.
The prose is quite solid, the pace steady. There is plenty of world-specific terms dropped on us but there really wasn’t ever a time when I felt confused by what they were. The story rolls along and never were there times I felt bored or didn’t care what came next, I was eagerly looking forward to what would be in store.
I will say I did struggle a tad with the why of the plot. I have my theories that was kinda explained in the final Master Qi chapter (which I won’t spell out here for spoiler reasons) but until then, it still felt kinda weird why this cast was assembled for such an important mission. And while I really enjoyed the group (aside from Pau mostly) questioning the beliefs of the tribe and the fourth portal, I wish there were some moments of questioning why they were chosen. I think that would have upped the ante more. I did also struggle with the timeline of this world. I wasn’t quite sure how long a cycle was, plus after an event happens that splits the team, the timeline between certain events felt off and/or confusing. But these were small things, nothing major.
My time spent with The Fourth Portal was pretty enjoyable. I love a good character-driven quest/adventure into unforgiving territory, then add in some excellent belief system questioning and I am sold. Highly recommend this story for anyone looking for a good sci-fi story!
*I was graciously given an ARC by the author for an honest review. The Fourth Portal is out now!
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