The Fourth Consort

""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