The Fourth Consort
by Edward Ashton
You must sign in to see if this title is available for request. Sign In or Register Now
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 27 Feb 2025 | Archive Date 26 Feb 2025
Rebellion | Solaris
Talking about this book? Use #TheFourthConsort #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
A new, standalone SciFi from the author of Mickey7 (soon to be a major motion picture #Mickey17 from Bong Joon-Ho and starring Robert Pattison)!
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.
Advance Praise
"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 emphasizes character motivation without losing sight of the fact that readers are there for the high-stakes thrills." ―Publishers Weekly
Praise for Mickey7
"Mickey 7 is a unique blend of thought-provoking sci-fi concepts, farcical relationship drama and exotic body horror." -- David Wong, New York Times bestselling author
“Mickey 7 is a mind-bending and powerful exploration of identity.” -- Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of RAGE and INK
"I loved Mickey 7—a smart, breezy SF novel that doubles as a pitch-black comedy of errors." -- Dexter Palmer, critically acclaimed author of Version Control
"Fun, thoughtful, and immensely personable, Mickey7 is a brisk, spirited sci-fi romp with alien intelligences, extra lives, and a little romance, too. Hugely enjoyable." -- Max Barry, author of Providence
"Andy Weir, watch out!" -- Stephen Baxter
“Excellent” -- The FT
"Intelligent, heartfelt and very funny" -- SciFiNow
"Leaves the audience gasping" -- The Times
Available Editions
EDITION | Paperback |
ISBN | 9781837864119 |
PRICE | £9.99 (GBP) |
PAGES | 364 |