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| The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton |
The Fourth Consort is a sci-fi novel set in a universe where the earth is still very much like present, but part of the space-faring Unity, after aliens showed up to make sure humans don’t destroy the planet. But the Unity isn’t quite that altruistic and they always get something in return. From the earth, they get people.
Dalton Greaves is an engineer, a former soldier, and an all-around accomplished person who has lost the grip of his life after his father died. No other family is mentioned. When even his girlfriend dumps him, he’s more than willing to accept an offer to work for the Unity and leave the earth.
Three years later, somewhere deep in the universe, he’s starting to question the wisdom of the decision. For years, he’s travelled from one potential planet to another in a three-person grew captained by Boreau who is a giant slug representing the Unity, and Neera, a fellow human who recruited him. He hasn’t really had a chance to do what he was hired to do, diplomacy to win over the inhabitants of whichever planet they want won over. Mostly, he and Neera are very bored.
When they finally find a promising planet with intelligent civilisations, it turns out they’re not the first ones there. The Assembly, a rivalling alien organisation on the same mission as the Unity is there as well. Dalton, Neera, and the representative of the Assembly have barely landed on the planet, when both their motherships are destroyed, stranding them.
For Neera, the proper way to handle things is immediately to kill the person from the Assembly, an insectoid species derogatorily called stickman, though we never learn what they call themselves. Dalton refuses. As a former soldier who has done his fair share of shady missions in Bolivian jungles, there are things that shouldn’t be done, and unprovoked killing of an unarmed person is one. Miffed, Neera decides to stay in their landing craft while Dalton and the stickman go to negotiate with the natives of the planet, giant ant-like people called minarchs who live in underground hives.
The negotiation takes a bizarre turn though, when the queen of minarchs (First Among Equals) decides to make Dalton his fourth consort. Consorts two and three (Bob and Randall) are still around, but the first consort has met an unfortunate end. Consorts don’t have any power—males are powerless in the female led society—and Dalton finds himself confined to a harem and sidelined from the negotiations.
For minarchs, exchanging consorts is a way to deal and consolidate power with neighbouring hives. But choosing Dalton, who they see as a prey species, is an odd choice that triggers a coup to remove the queen. And the easiest way to do that is to kill Dalton.
That’s only the beginning of his troubles. He’s constantly juggling between trying to stay alive, the pressure from Neera to kill Breaker, the stickman he’s sort of befriending, and making sure the Unity wins the negotiations. But it seems that the only thing he has any influence on is choosing how to die, honourably—according to the codes both minarchs and Breaker subscribe to—or dishonourably. Someone will be disappointed, no matter how he chooses. But increasingly, he’s starting to lean towards disappointing Neera and the Unity.
This was a really good and entertaining novel. It’s deceptively small; it takes place in one hive, and nothing major happens, even if a coup is going on in the background. Dalton sort of drifts from one event to another, with no real agency over anything but his own reactions to them. But he’s not helpless, and in the end, he pulls through on his own terms.
Dalton is a great character with a good moral code, even if Breaker and the minarchs don’t understand or respect it. Neera, for her part, is a corporate drone and her actions are dictated by her fear of the Unity leaders. Breaker is the aloof knight type of a character, a teacher or sensei, who is more atop of things thanks to his clearer understanding of what kind of people minarchs are. He has the teacher’s hope of elevating Dalton to his and the Assembly’s level, and in the end, the two come to understand each other as friends. (The description mentions a bizarre love triangle, but that’s misleading in every way, as there is no third or even a romance.)
The ending is good, and while it concludes the story, it does have a seed for a new beginning. I’d definitely read more stories of Dalton travelling the universe.
Bob and Randall forever.
I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
