The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton is a fun and quick read
I just finished The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton, and it was a lighthearted laugh that explores some really fun themes. It’s a first-contact story and survival adventure, with a bit of political satire mixed in.
Ashton is best known for Mickey7, which Bong Joon-ho adapted as the film Mickey 17. Both of which are fun. This book also features a relatable and ordinary guy in an extreme situation. If you liked Mickey7, you will like this.
This review is spoiler-free.
What’s it all about?
The protagonist is an average fellow called Dalton Greaves. He was a bit down on his luck, and because he doesn’t have any friends, family, or prospects, but has a military background, he gets hired by Unity.
Unity is a kind of space federation, like in Star Trek, that contacts civilisations that are advanced enough and tries to get them to sign up to their group. The idea is that when a species reaches a certain level of development, it frequently destroys itself. Which sounds believable enough.
Unfortunately, there is a rival federation called the Assembly. And to make things worse, the Assembly seems like the nicer group.
In the book, Dalton and fellow crewmember Neera are in a first contact scenario when the Assembly turn up. Both he and the Assembly’s representative – a huge insectoid thing called Breaker – soon find themselves involved in the deadly local politics. Things get complicated.
Ashton writes good characters and aliens
Ashton is especially good at making likeable characters and creating aliens that feel genuinely alien. Dalton is similar to Mickey (from Mickey7) in that he’s a pretty average dude and very easy to like and relate to. The other standout character was the Assembly rival Breaker, who is also likeable while being simultaneously terrifying and very alien.
The species they are trying to get to join their respective federations are called the minarchs. These are also insectoid, but are otherwise pretty different from Breaker’s gang. They are a more matriarchal society, with a particularly lethal political system.
Dalton and Leela’s immediate boss is a kind of giant snail that also happens to be pretty deadly.
The Fourth Consort – the good and bad
As I said, the characters are good, but that is mostly based on Dalton and Breaker. Neera was ok, but she was mostly just kind of there. The minarch characters are pretty fun, especially the second and third consorts. For spoiler purposes, I won’t explain further. The vast majority of The Fourth Consort is focused on Dalton, so other characters (with the exception of Breaker) struggle to make much impact.
The way different aliens react to things, and how their societies operate, is really well done, and an aspect I really enjoyed. In particular, the way predator and prey species would develop, and see the world differently.
The world-building starts well. Everything is introduced without too many info dumps, and it is all very believable – as far as aliens and mysterious planets go. I would have liked a little more, though. I especially wanted to learn more about Unity and the Assembly. What we learned was basically enough for the story, but felt slightly lacking.
If this is part one of a series (which it isn’t at the time of writing), then all is forgiven, and I look forward to more insight. If it isn’t, then it’s a shame.
What other books is it like and should you buy it?
As I mentioned before, if you have read other Edward Ashton books and liked them, you will like this. I found it similar in style to John Scalzi books, or a bit like Dennis E. Taylor’s Bobiverse series. All of which are entertaining and lightly funny, but not as outright hilarious or insightful as say, Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett (which I’ll admit is a high bar).
In comparison to Salzi, I think The Fourth Consort is better than Redshirts (my review) but not as good as Old Man’s War (my review). I preferred this to the Bobiverse series (although the audiobooks are great – you can read about my favourite audiobooks here).
I hope this gives you a vague inkling of whether you’d like it – assuming you have read any of the stuff I just mentioned. If not, this book is light-hearted adventure scifi with some cool ideas and I recommend it. It isn’t perfect, but it is a fairly short and an easy read.
I don’t have a scoring system on this site, but if I did, it would get a solid 4 out of 5 stars.
You can check out The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton here (affiliate).
In case you are interested in some of the things mentioned above, you might like these:
My (slightly outdated as the film is out) review of Mickey7:
My review of Redshirts by John Scalzi:
Funny science fiction books:
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