ARC Review: "The Fourth Portal" by J. A. Merkel (Song of Saudade #1) ★★★★

ARC Review: The Fourth Portal by J. A. Merkel

You could say “Oh my ancestors”, this was a fantastic read! A dystopian sci-fi filled with monsters and mayhem, with a touch of fantasy and romance that harkens back to the likes of The Hunger Games and Divergent.

I feel him as I feel the sun, unrelenting and ever-present. To me, he is everything I need. Like food, water, the promise of returning back to our ship unharmed. A safety I can only feel when I am near him. If they are to call this love defect a virus, then I am terribly infected.

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
Set in a dystopian future where humans have had to leave their dying home planet and move to one named QhaHadur adapt significantly, systems have been put in place to ensure such things do not happen again. The only rule is: do not love, or you will be killed for it. People are separated into groups (Harvester, Digger, Seeker, Knowledger, Healer, Maker, Guardian and Planeteer) and are sent every cycle as a dispatch team to learn how to gather resources and survive.

Resources are beginning to run thin but there is news of a batch of Klonden, a rare and versatile base metal, which could help. Master Qi wishes to assemble a group of special and highly skilled people to set out across the desert and retrieve it, naming this mission Project El.

Fenri the Knowledger (one who researches and holds an endless amount of information), also an Unable (name for individuals with a condition that causes random paralysis, hunger and need for sleep), discovers a plant in the Electric Ocean that nobody has encountered before. Unfortunately, things backfire before she can uncover much, but she yearns to go back again. She is promised that, if she succeeds Project El, she can do it. Desperate to prove herself, she agrees.

She is joined by three others:
• Craeya the Healer, a wild card rather inexperienced with the outside world, an ever-curious individual with a thirst for knowledge and a rule-breaker, but very skilled in her healing abilities.
• Luzon the Maker, an inventor who can remember his sleep-stories (though others cannot) and dreams of building a ship to traverse back to their home planet which has not been accomplished before and discouraged from.
• Pau the Guardian, the leader of the group with the most experience, having completed the most cycles. He is charged with looking after them all and making decisions. They will later meet with Stone the Planeteer, a mute who communicates through handspeak (sign language) with an extraordinary gift of vision and understands QuaHadur better than all of them combined.

“Find a Planeteer, enter the Quat Zones, bring back some Klonden,” Luzon said. “How hard could it be?”

Little do they know that there will be many problems along the way: from hostility to jealousy to trouble within the group, with the ever-looming threat of the fourth portal opening and thus the impending doom of the love virus. And there are dangerous assassins and beasts from the outside who are picking up the scent.

This is told predominantly from the third-person past-tense POV of Fenri, Craeya, Luzon, Pau and Stone with a few chapters from Master Qi and Eider the Assasin.

OVERALL OPINIONS
Sci-fi stories can be a hit or miss for me because it can be very easy to be thrown into settings and characters without much explanation world-building – or emotional depth. This is why I tend to prefer fantasy, but growing up I did read a lot of sci-fis with dystopian futures such as The Hunger Games and Divergent which I did enjoy so I am willing to take chances. I am pleased to inform you this was a great read and I did enjoy the concept of the story! In a lot of ways, this reminded me of the Covid-19 Pandemic, where catching the virus was dangerous but many wanted to defy people and visit loved ones.

Looking at the title, you would think the fourth portal is a physical portal. I did make that mistake but actually it is referring to different portals in the body (more commonly known as chakras). There are seven: Root, Sacral, Solar, Heart, Throat, Third Eye and Crown respectively. Heart is the fourth chakra, therefore the fourth portal, and its energy is a green colour.

The novel began strong with its beautiful dedication before I had even started the first chapter:

To those fighting an all-encompassing and sometimes invisible war, who love and push through the scars and pain so hard it aches, who are not fully darkened by their battles, but who, against all reason and odds, choose to keep on loving.

So many of us struggle through things others know nothing about, be it stressful times or chronic illnesses, and it is a wonderful thing that we can keep smiling through it.

There are plenty of quotes, that’s for sure – I was not expecting so many! An epigraph is provided at the start of each part and chapter, containing quotes from Masters with intriguing elements mentioned, like not knowing what the Project El members were “capable of until it was too late, encouraging the reader to want to find out what happened.

Indeed, the opening sentence itself provided a lot of intrigue too: “Fenri the Knowledger was watching the second moon in the sky when she decided she had to do it that night” – here we have the introduction of our main character Fenri, the faction/group she is in, the sci-fi setting being established with the two moons and then, through the rest of the chapter, we discover what she plans to do. This was very well done!

This is only the beginning of the book, but beyond that, so much was also done well. I loved the tensions between all the characters: Fenri with Craeya, seeing her as a threat as she is younger yet there are some things she knows that Fenri doesn’t; Pau and Fenri initially do not get on, because he sees her knowledge as a threat – he has known what to do and where to go every other cycle, thus he does not need her advice or questioning of it – I like that Fenri is able to cross bridges with him by heaving him teach her how to fight; and then the tension between Fenri, Craeya and Luzon because both Fenri and Craeya like him but also need them for their upcoming projects and desire to collaborate with him to achieve it. Craeya wants to create artificial bones in order to provide transplants for patients that don’t just cover organs but bones too; Fenri wants to explore the Electric Ocean in a submership but requires one to be built in order to do so. I like that they can set their differences aside and even end up crying and embracing each other. There is also upset as Stone betrays them then returns, and they do not know if they can trust him anymore.

The first book in the Song of Saudade series, it will be fascinating to see how this story turns out, and where the story will go next! Ultimately, this is a 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars as I commend Merkel and his efforts in creating an amazing world! I understand this is something that has been years in the making, so this should be appreciated. That sort of devotion is no easy feat.

<< Positives >>
🠚A map of the place was provided. I love when books do this! Always so helpful!
🠚The chapter header images are genius: Fenri the Knowledger has a book, Craeya the Healer has the rod of Asclepius (Greek God of medicine and healing) depicted as snakes coiled around a staff, Luzon the Maker has a cog, Pau the Guardian has a shield, Stone the Planeteer has a Jupiter-like planet. And the assassin has a target aim I enjoyed seeing these every time!
🠚I loved the changing of names as the story went on, one example being from Fenri the Knowledger to Fenri the Fighter or Craeya the Healer to Craeya the Cursed. Adds that extra touch to the narrative!
🠚I learned things about chakras because of this story.
🠚Some humour was within this book, be it through descriptions or what someone said.
🠚There are amazing descriptions to be found on most pages. “They disappeared into a buttery mirage of sun and death”
🠚There are some creative devices in this, such as the map-projector.
🠚There are insightful notes at the back if one struggles with any concepts, from the setting to words used to a pronunciation guide. A lot of authors forget this sort of thing and, without an explanation in the chapter itself, can be a frustrating read otherwise. I admit, at first, I did not realise these things were there for reference, but when I did it really helped.
🠚The love triangle between Fenri, Craeya and Luzon. It’s not always my favourite plot device but this was done effectively.
🠚The plot twists were good!

<< Negatives >>
🠚I found it slow to begin with so I found this quite a strain to read, with the pacing picking up about halfway through the book and onwards. I was not connecting to any of the characters the way I wanted to, though there was a lot of depth and complexity being made to all of them. When anyone writes the first book in a series, it can take a bit to introduce settings, characters, plots, etc. so it can be expected and I did think there was just the right amount of information.
🠚There were parts where I would have preferred a slower pacing, like suddenly several weeks have passed. But then the description of them all eating hearts at the nation feast I did not see the point of, perhaps some of that should have been omitted to make way for more character moments.
🠚Some words were introduced willy-nilly that could have benefited from a small explanation beside it. One example for me was: “The desert stretched eternally before them in a sea of ginger sand and swirling figvi red.” – now, figvi is a fruit, but here its use is meaningless because we do not know what exact shade of red it is.
🠚The world-building was absolutely there, but I came away with more questions than answers, such as the origins of Klonden, where the beasts come from, and why the cycles last a certain amount of time and not longer. I don’t think I ever quite worked out what exactly the Triunes’ purpose is, except of course they are important clans of Masters, and that their signature colours are yellow, orange and brown (for Mimenza, Yorbast and Oragami respectively). I am sure that some of these will be covered in more detail as the series continues.
🠚Characters like Jesimene, Rannum and Jade are introduced and then do not especially crop up again. Of course, Rannum is needed for Craeya’s character development – she loves him, but is rejected by him which hurts her as she longs for him, and this in turn opens her fourth portal. I thought Jade might appear in a vision or something but she didn’t, so I saw no real point in her introduction. Hopefully, they will appear in future books in the series.
🠚Was there any significance to Craeya having the same colour of eyes as Luzon’s teammate from a previous cycle, who he keeps seeing her face in Craeya’s?
🠚Some of the fighting at the end felt a little too convenient, I was surprised none of the main characters got killed. A beast happens out of nowhere and kills one of the side characters. The female assassin should have used that device before that point, though I understand it was more meant to be used as a last resort.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Fenri꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ I love her character and what she goes through. I feel sorry for her when she finds out what the Masters have done to her. I relate to her problems of being overlooked and underappreciated, unless her knowledge mattered to them.
🠚The fact she reads books and writes in logs all day also speaks to me haha.
🠚It is cool that Fenri has programmed her map-projector to do more. As someone with vast knowledge, this is the sort of thing we expect.

If she was being ignored, she would stand where she could be seen. If Craeya outshined her in a certain area, she would improve in that area. There was nothing a Healer knew that a Knowledger didn’t. Fenri knew so many things.

-ˋˏ ꒰ Other characters꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ The most complex character other than Fenri is Craeya. Interestingly, Fenri could be considered more of the main character but so is Craeya. She has so many layers to her, struggles with unrequited love, finds it elsewhere, turns the whole mission and things Fenri thought she knew upside down.
🠚Luzon is a great character, and a reminder to follow dreams because anything is possible. He believes he can fly, and he eventually does. I really liked that Luzon made Craeya a yo-yo to help distract her from her worries, that was very sweet!
🠚Pau grows on you as the story progresses. I like that he goes after Fenri at the end to keep her safe. I initially was for Luzon and Fenri getting together but I actually like the idea of Fenri with Pau now! Stone is so lovely, you feel so sorry for what happened that made him the way he is! It is nice that he realises he made a mistake and tries to help the group from then on.
🠚Master Qi always has these asides in his head that do not often match what he is actually saying, as if he himself disagrees with the system. “Is this what we taught them? To wish for the deaths of their brethren? I know the consequences of what has happened, but we are still one.” This makes him quite an intriguing character, making him neither hero nor villain, really.

FAV QUOTES
• The attitude of those who could stand to know more about what Knowledgers did angered her. Some acted as though they were nothing. Like *she* was nothing. Just some useless class of people who took pointless readings and wrote in books.
• She wanted to fix things, but the virus was not something broken as much as it was its own devastating force.
• That was the tricky thing about a human who preyed on knowledge as a plant intakes water and light. You had to give Fenri some information but never too much. She would find holes and ask you everything until those holes were filled and her knowledge was satiated.
• Unseen energies swirled around her, pressing on her chest. Rannum was her first thought in the morning and last one before sleep took her, a weight that never truly left her.
• “Sometimes those we think are useless are the ones we need the most. Don’t ever forget that.”
• Fenri knew the selection process. None of the members of their team were meant to get along. No. All that mattered was keeping one another alive.
• You get things you haven’t had before by doing things you haven’t done before.
• Only in the Dark Room, and only with permission. They were in a room, and it was dark, and they had given the permission to themselves.

══════════ ⋆★⋆ ══════════

I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank J. A. Merkel and BookSirens for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

“The Fourth Portal” is out now!