2019/55: The Fifth Gender -- G. L. Carriger

Tris had learned early on that there was very little humans would not do in pursuit of entertainment. They were easily entertained, especially, as it turned out, by Tris. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. Tris was wildly curious and naturally flirty, and humans were easily flattered by both. Perhaps cats were the same. [loc. 72]

Tristol, an exile from the planet Gal, has built a new life on a predominantly human space station. He has friends, colleagues and a massive crush on Detective Drey Hastion. But he doesn't know if Drey returns his interest ...

Drey Hastion is massively attracted to the lavender-skinned, tentacle-haired Tris, though he doesn't really understand the galoi, or the fact they are rumoured to identify five genders. And the galoi he's encountered are sexually promiscuous, though Drey would prefer to settle down in a comfortable monogamous relationship.

Then a galoi ship hails the station: there has been an intentional death on board: and the galoi don't even have a word for murder. Perhaps a human detective -- and his galoi companion -- can help solve the mystery.

In a lot of ways this was a delightful novel: the romance develops quickly, yet credibly, once Tris and Drey start actually communicating, and the world-building is thorough without any plot-halting explanations. The galoi are a mysterious race, and Tris is initially unwilling to explain his sociobiology to humans, though as the murder case progresses he does divulge relevant information about the roles of the five genders, and his own exile.

Tris and Drey are likeable characters, and Carriger's writing is well-paced and often humorous, with excellent dialogue. I felt that there was some feminisation of Tris: most noticeably, the repeated description of Tris as 'little' though he's only a little shorter -- though much slighter -- than Drey ... Many of the traits that could be read (by me, anyway) as skewing feminine, such as the homemaking instinct and the flightiness, are wholly appropriate to Tris's character and his gender role: but Drey, and perhaps some of the other humans, seemed to react to him as feminine, and this increased over the course of the book.

There were a few elements and allusions that felt underdeveloped: for instance, the 'pakaa nova' (an alien species that nobody likes?), and the 'advocate strand' notion, which I felt should have been highlighted much earlier in the novel.

I feel curmudgeonly for these criticisms, because The Fifth Gender is a fun, well-written and intriguing book: but it just ... didn't quite work for me in those specific aspects. I am definitely going to read more in Carriger's 'Tinkered Stars' series, though.