Review: The Fourth Consort

Title: The Fourth Consort
Series: Standalone
Author: Edward Ashton
Narrator: Barrie Kreinik
Publish Date: February 25, 2025
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: SciFi & Fantasy
Age: 16+
Started Reading: February 24, 2025
Finished Reading: February 26, 2025
NetGalley?: Yes

Book Summary from Barnes & Noble:

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 how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?

My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating:  5 Stars

This book was such a fun ride. It feels like the sci-fi books I would read in high school in the 90s. It takes tropes and puts them on their head, the most interesting 'love triangle' I've read about in a while. The plot and descriptions were kept short and sweet without padding. The fact that you never know who's on the 'right side of history' and that as more information is revealed it changes where each group stands. A good amount of tension, without being overbearing, and characters that are interesting to read about make this a very enjoyable book. The ending really made me happy. The narrator did a fantastic job of all the voices and was part of what made this book so enjoyable. I listened to this audiobook through NetGalley.

To Sum Up: A wonderful sci-fi adventure that is a fun ride from start to finish.

Review: Scarlet

Title: Scarlet
Series: The Lunar Chronicles, Book 2
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publish Date: Feb 5, 2013
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Genre: Young Adult, Sci Fi, Reworked Fairy Tale
Started Reading: February 16, 2016
Finished Reading: February 19, 2016

Book Summary from Goodreads:

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars (I loved it)

I came to this series with high expectations as it was strongly recommended by my friends. I then had to wait rather impatiently for months for it to come available at my library. My expectations were totally met, it's no wonder that this series is popular.

This is a fabulous second outing for Lunar Chronicles. I was warned by other readers that it's the weakest of the series, but having only read the first two books I disagree. I felt that this book held its own when compared to the first book.

I loved the new characters and the way their adventure tied into Cinder's. The changing perspectives was written very well. I enjoyed the fact that I got to see what was happening with different groups of characters over the same period of time but the plot kept moving forward. 

The way that some of the characters motives were unclear and kept you guessing was fun to read. I was tense during a lot of this book just because situations could go very well or very poorly and there was no certainty as to how it was going to go. There was very little that I found predictable with this book.

The romance was built believably, and I am in love with a number of the side characters and how they interact with the mains. I also was very intrigued with the little bits of insight we saw from the villains, I'm definitely looking forward to learning more.

I've spoken of my love of reworked fairy tales before, and this is truly one of the best examples out there. I'm very eager to continue reading this series, apparently so are all the people ahead of me on the hold list at the library.

To sum up: This book was fantastic, the story was gripping, and I adored the new characters and what they added to the overall tale.