This new sci-fi story started strong as we’re thrown into an unknown world. Unfortunately, the enjoyment didn’t last.

Dalton and Neera are humans representing Unity, a corporation looking to take advantage of a newly-discovered civilization, the Minarch. It doesn’t take long for the two to become stranded on the planet and Dalton is forced to become a diplomat.

Neera cops out and stays with the drop ship, but Dalton gets wrangled into being the Fourth Consort to the scary, insecticide Minarch queen, and his life is on the line daily. The rest of the book is Dalton attempting to get free while not killing Breaker, another representative of a competing corporation and yet a different, although more polite, species.

The majority of the politics, misunderstandings, species banter, and inaction were a real let-down for me. I kept expecting more from Dalton, whose “sacrifice” seemed unnecessary. Neera’s character was a complete washout, and I wondered why she was even in the story.

Barrie Kreinik does a fine job of narrating the audiobook, but at almost eight and a half hours, it was about five hours too long for me.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Edward Ashton, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this book in exchange for an honest review.

This author has a talent for constantly writing enjoyable science fiction novels. Like his previous novels, this one is a lighter sci fi story with the right balance of humor. I would recommend Ashton to readers who are a fan of John Scalzi and want another fun escapist author to follow.

I rarely appreciate humor in novels but this one had me smirking from the start. The humor is woven into the narrative in a way that worked for me.

I would recommend this novel as great representation of anyone looking to try out this author's work.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

While the work started off strong, I felt like it started lagging near the middle. I kept waiting for it to venture more deeply into the politics of the alien world, or some stronger worldbuilding, or some in-depth character development, but none of these things really happened. Things generally remained surface level. The protagonist was relatively passive throughout most of the book, which really made it difficult to engage with him.

I did enjoy the aspects of the book that dealt with "predator" versus "prey" species and how that would change the species' gut reactions to things. The translator was a fun addition and I enjoyed its personality. The aspects surrounding language barriers and errors in translation (especially relating to tones) was also fun. And the author's portrayal of the human species was also accurate and added much to the work.

This one was a bit of a mixed bag, and ended up just being somewhat average for me. If you enjoy very light sci-fi, then you'll probably enjoy this one. My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

As a die-hard fan of science fiction, I really appreciated this book. Good characters and even better dialog. I will definitely be looking into other books by this author.
However, I was a little disappointed in the book as a whole. I was expecting a larger story. For some reason, I felt as though once these characters get over this one hurdle, the real plot will ensue. I was wrong. What I perceived as the hurdle was actually the whole book. I'm not sure why I read it this way, and I'm sorry that this affected my rating. I would love to see these characters expanded into future books.

(4.9999999999 Stars)

This book was really great! The world building is superb, and the character development is fantastic. I really appreciate #NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

If you like science fiction, you should try this book. It reminds me a lot of John Scalzi, or Adrian Tchaikovsky.

I loved every part of this book except the final two paragraphs, but let me expand on that... I feel that the ending is not how I "wanted it" to end, but was perfectly in-line and appropriate with the characters, and how things would have played out in the world this author created. So the ending "made sense".

This one will stay with me for a while, and I really like this author.

I love a good first contact story. But what if 2 different groups, who have beef, make first contact for their respective outfits at the same time? That's what you get in "The Fourth Consort" by Edward Ashton. Out 25 February 2025.

Dalton Greaves is a bit out of his comfort zone. He took a job for Unity, a pan-pan species confederation that wants all sentient life to work together. Nothing like the folks in the Assembly. But he finds himself marooned on a planet with the representative of the Assembly, a fellow who really doesn't like humans and our lack of honor. Oh and the hosts are not the kind of aliens Kirk would take a pass at if you catch my meaning. Dalton has to survive politicking from a society he barely knows anything about while figuring out what kind of human he wants to be.

Narrated by Barrie Kreinik, I enjoyed the delivery of Second and Third very much.

Reasons to read:
-Stand alone scifi
-How does a being that has evolved like humans have cope with more armed species without the use of guns?
-Rather enjoyed that growing relationship
-When all the pieces are in play that politics makes a ton of sense

Cons:
-A certain name made the whole book kinda weird for me