The Fourth Consort - by Edward Ashton (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A new standalone sci-fi novel from Edward Ashton, author of Mickey7 (the inspiration for the major motion picture Mickey 17).

Dalton Greaves is a hero. He's one of humankind's first representatives to Unity, a pan-species confederation working to bring all sentient life into a single benevolent brotherhood.

That's what they told him, anyway. The only actual members of Unity that he's ever met are Boreau, a giant snail who seems more interested in plunder than spreading love and harmony, and Boreau's human sidekick, Neera, who Dalton strongly suspects roped him into this gig so that she wouldn't become the next one of Boreau's crew to get eaten by locals while prospecting.

Funny thing, though--turns out there actually is a benevolent confederation out there, working for the good of all life. They call themselves the Assembly, and they really don't like Unity. More to the point, they really, really don't like Unity's new human minions.

When an encounter between Boreau's scout ship and an Assembly cruiser over a newly discovered world ends badly for both parties, Dalton finds himself marooned, caught between a stickman, one of the Assembly's nightmarish shock troops, the planet's natives, who aren't winning any congeniality prizes themselves, and Neera, who might actually be the most dangerous of the three. To survive, he'll need to navigate palace intrigue, alien morality, and a proposal that he literally cannot refuse, all while making sure Neera doesn't come to the conclusion that he's worth more to her dead than alive.

Part first contact story, part dark comedy, and part bizarre love triangle, The Fourth Consort asks an important question: how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?

Review Quotes

"Humor, interspecies diplomacy, and unexpected alliances enliven this zippy sci-fi romp... Ashton strikes an impressive balance of humor, action, and thought-provoking sci-fi concepts. It's a lot of fun watching his eccentric characters navigate sticky situations." --Publishers Weekly

"This is a deep surprise of a story as it contemplates the perils and pitfalls of communication and the difficulty of reaching anything like understanding with a species with which one shares few if any frames of reference. Readers who found the struggle to communicate in Ray Nayler's The Mountain in the Sea will enjoy... [and] fans of the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok" will find this to be a familiar and similarly complex and heartbreaking tale." --Library Journal (starred)

"Ashton excels at creating compelling characters. Especially impressive is how believable his different alien races are: Each has its own culture and motivations, and they all make sense... Speculative fiction is a lens for us to reflect upon ourselves in interesting ways, and this is ultimately a delightful examination of what it means to be human." --Booklist

"Reminiscent of the movie Enemy Mine (1985) and Alan Dean Foster's novel Nor Crystal Tears (1982)--but much cozier... Light and enjoyable, it's less about galactic intrigue and more about a man realizing where he stands in the universe." --The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

EDWARD ASHTON is the author of the novels Three Days in April, The End of Ordinary, Mickey7, Antimatter Blues, and Mal Goes to War, as well as of short stories which have appeared in venues ranging from the newsletter of an Italian sausage company to Escape Pod, Analog, and Fireside Fiction. He lives in a cabin on the shore of an inland sea, where he enjoys cancer research, teaching quantum physics to sullen graduate students, and whittling.