Pirate Consort is book number two in the main Telepathic Space Pirates series, and the third Telepathic Space Pirates book I’ve read. I enjoyed Pirate Nemesis and the Swag Stories novella Pirate Festival so much that my expectations for this book were really high, and I’m happy to report that I was not disappointed.
This novel picks up with the problem of Veritas, a group of enemy telepaths who were claimed against their will by Pirate Queen Mercy in book one. Mercy and her consort Reaper start out in the same location, on a neutral space station conducting tense negotiations with Veritas agents. But when mutual enemies arrive, Mercy is teleported to safety aboard Nemesis, while Reaper, his crew, and the Veritas Agents are trapped behind an enemy blockade.
The rest of the book follows Mercy’s and Reaper’s POV’s alternately as Mercy attempts to sway the Pirate Council into a rescue mission, while Reaper’s group works with Veritas to execute a covert escape.
Mercy’s forays into pirate politics make this book feel like a true Space Opera, while Reaper’s mission provides action and helps with the pacing.
And as with the other books in the series, the real fun is in the Pirates’ culture and the magic system made of their telepathy-related talents. As I said in my review of Pirate Nemesis, the telepathic abilities in this book go beyond the telepathy I’ve seen in many sci fi romance series. The pirates’ talents are so unique and varied that they really do constitute a full-fledged magic system in their own right. And we get to see some intriguing new manifestations of talent in this book, as well as dive deeper into the surprising capabilities of talents we thought we already knew.
There’s plenty of exploration of the cool worldbuilding set up in the first book, too–explanations of cool technology, intriguing history, and a massive dive into the backstory of Mercy’s grandmother Lillith that will challenge everything you thought you knew about the hated and feared former queen. The dive into Lillith’s story is done in a really cool way that I don’t want to spoil. But let’s just say that Mercy comes “face to face” with her grandmother and receives queenship training from her.
Unfortunately, Mercy’s training and some of the other threads of Mercy’s portion of the plot slowed the pacing down and at times made the narrative feel a little uneven.
But the sexy reunion between Mercy and Reaper and the epic-scale space battle near the end made up for the slight pacing issues, culminating in a climactic sequence that had me on the edge of my seat.
And this book gives us a glimpse of the larger scale problems–the Alpha Queen is at work, pulling threads through the whole narrative and giving us the sense that the real battle is just getting started! It also hints at a new relationship for Mercy, confirming that this is indeed intended to be a Reverse Harem series eventually. I personally don’t usually enjoy RH romances, but I don’t mind this one because it’s not one that focuses on group sex scenes. This book is almost all plot, with only one short romance scene between our established couple, and hints at a budding future relationship for Mercy and a second Consort.
Overall, this second book in the series really solidifies Telepathic Space Pirates as a true Space Opera, complete with spaceship battles, twisty politics, and galactic-scale stakes. I’m definitely going to finish bingeing the novels that have been released so far in preparation for the new release coming this spring! I’ve also got an interview planned with the author, and I’ll be asking all about the long-awaited fourth book! Be sure to sign up for my newsletter so that you get notified when the interview is available!
