Ashton's (Mickey7; Mal Goes to War) new stand-alone sci-fi stars Dalton Greaves, one of the first human representatives to Unity, a confederation supposedly working to bring all sentient life together. But there's another confederation, the Assembly, that doesn't like Unity or humans, and Dalton soon finds himself marooned on an unfamiliar planet and in danger. Prepub Alert. Copyright 2024 Library Journal

In Ashton's (Mal Goes to War) latest, the Unity and the Alliance are enemies locked in a race to scoop up possible client civilizations over the wide sweep of the galaxy, but this isn't a story about the glories of war and conquest. Instead, the conflict between human Dalton Greaves and "stickman" Breaker takes place at the intersection of communication and commerce. They understand each other's words but have little grasp of each other's culture and context. As they fumble through misapprehension and misunderstanding, they eventually come to the realization that they have more in common with each other than with the cultures that sent them. 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. VERDICT Readers who found the struggle to communicate in Ray Nayler's The Mountain in the Sea will enjoy the equally fraught miscommunications between the minarchs, the "stickmen," and the humans, while fans of the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok" will find this to be a familiar and similarly complex and heartbreaking tale.—Marlene Harris

Humor, interspecies diplomacy, and unexpected alliances enliven this zippy sci-fi romp from Ashton (Mickey7). Set nearly 20 years after the galactic Unity confederation approached Earth about joining, the narrative finds former soldier and engineer Dalton Greaves disillusioned, unemployed, and newly single. When scientist Nee recruits him for a job as one of Unity's first earthling emissaries, he reluctantly joins the crew of Boreau, a giant snail-like alien. Their mission is to make first contact with a newly discovered sentient species, the minarch, described as looking like "the bastard child of a tarantula and a velociraptor." Dalton must convince the minarch to join Unity before Unity's rival organization, the arrogant, technologically superior Assembly, can do the same. While Dalton and Assembly foot soldier Breaker, who stands less than five feet tall with a "wolf-like" head, are on the planet for negotiations, Boreau and the Assembly destroy each other's ships in orbit, marooning them. During negotiations, the minarch queen, First Among Equals, astonishingly offers to make Dalton her consort. His answer must be diplomatic and honorable considering that in this society males have no rights—and that the last consort was eaten. 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. (Feb.)