The Android's Dream by john scalzi

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

John Scalzi has a great storytelling ability coupled with a great sense of humor. Both are on display in this enjoyable novel.

Taking place in the future, Earth has joined the other planets in becoming spacefaring peoples. During their contact with the Nidu, an Earth diplomat becomes involved in the assassination of a Nidu diplomat, both planets prepare for war.

It seems the only way to defuse this situation is to find a sheep that can be used in a Nidu ceremony. The catch is this is a specific breed of sheep called the Blue Android. There is another catch, the sheep is not a sheep at all. No more spoilers.

Into this mess is thrust Harry Creek of the State Department. harry must try to figure out a solution to this mess, but there are many more players involved than he thinks. Thus begins a humorous journey where Harry and his "sheep" must avoid dangerous assassins, enraged aliens and even their own government.

A very enjoyable sci-fi story that stands out for its wacky plot and great humor. A funny, exciting book that is very well written and very entertaining.

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Berrybird

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

The alien life forms, cultures and worlds Scalzi creates were really well thought out and fascinating (so complex and so believable). The plot was about political intrigue and power games in general, with a large dose of action, AI personalities, iffy science and some well formulated toilet humour. The twists and turns kept me on my toes - newly introduced characters, reactions or facts help shifted the focus of power on a number of ocasions and I was never sure what the ultimate outcome would be. All this was well executed and extremely clever.

I've read Scalzi before - he is one of my favourite authors. For some reason, though, I didn't enjoy the book as much as I probably should have.

Maybe the emphasis on politics was too much for me? There were definitely too many characters and names for me to keep track of and I didn't really care who came out on top.

The AI characters were my favourite quirk, but none of the other characters really appealed to my imagination, not even the main players. I think this was what ultimately let me down.

For me, this was one of Scalzi's less successful books, hence the 3 stars.

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SpiritualWolf

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

3.5 stars

This book is pretty weird yet still coherent with a fun plot.

It starts off with a major diplomatic incident caused by farting—I bet this first chapter was the result of a writing prompt—and then turns into a hunt for sheep.

Then it becomes a cat-and-mouse game that was a lot of fun. There’s also a real church with a fraudulent founding (and a sheep fetish) and a cheap cruise. And some lizard aliens. All this comes together, eventually. It feels like Scalzi wrote a bunch of satirical scenes for fun and later strung them together.

It takes a while before a good guy emerges in this story: Harry Creek. (This late appearance of a good guy is most likely because I couldn’t remember any characters’ names for a long time.) He works for the government, like many of the poor saps in this book, and his job is giving people bad news. But he’s also a bad-ass war veteran with cool skills. Best to go into this knowing as little as possible. It’s strange and funny and suspenseful all together.

Wonderful audio narration by Wil Wheaton. I was especially impressed by his ability to pronounce alien names that seemed to be spelled unpronounceable on purpose. He speaks so fast, I had to put the speed at 1.0 and even considered slowing it down.

While the title is inspired by PKD, the story has little to do with that book.

Language: Moderate amount of strong language
Sexual Content: vaguely mentioned once or twice
Violence: Not too graphic: assassination attempts; fighting resulting in broken bones; aliens who eat people, torture
Harm to Animals: A pet dog is killed.
Harm to Children: None
Other (Triggers): double-crossing, annoying villains

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audrrie

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

3.5 stars or a bit more. It was a fun read, a conspiracy theory, SF adventure with lots of tongue in cheek humor, coincidences & odd aliens. Scalzi has a lot of fun poking sticks at legal systems, religions & diplomacy. There is a lot of computer work in it, including some very interesting points about data collection & privacy that is quite obviously pointed at our current system. An interesting read, although I doubt I'll ever read it again. Half the fun was not knowing what would come next. Now that I do, I don't think it would be nearly as enjoyable.

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BlernsballMVP

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

4 Stars

My first John Scalzi book that I have read and I will now grab up his other books as I am now a fan. This is a tough review to write as by saying what I like about this book might make it seem like it less than it really is.

This is a funny book. It is filled with clever wit, funny parodies, and downright corny jokes. The jokes are all over this one and give it a great feel, without actually detracting from the science. This is a science fiction novel, a space opera, and a futuriistic conspiracy novel where the stakes are nothing less than the fate of the Earth and all the people living on it. The jokes add color and flare to the action and chase scenes. They coincide with the plot points and move the story forward. At times they have you laughing out loud.

The first chapter had me hooked, an Earth trade representive developed an anal device and used it to enrage an alien diplomat by farting. "We're pretty sure that it's a device used to send chemical signals the Nidu could smell and interpret through a code of theirs. We think that your guy hid this until he got into the room, and the used it to enrage the Nidu negotiator into a stroke. He had a heart attack right after. He died laughing, Ted. It didn't look very good.". Too funny, an alien strokes out because of too much bad farting and the gassy man dies of a heart attack laughing his butt off.

"Dr Atkinson had warned James for years to eat a more balanced diet..." James was eating too much meat.

"Then in the afternoon we start on livestock quotas. We begin with sheep."
" Do ewe think that's a good idea?". Haha so baaaaaad it's funny.

The story is a straight forward sci-fi involving the Earth, Alien races, traitors, and impending war(doom). There are many cool creatures, gadgets, and technologies. Creek is a likeable lead and Robin is equally easy to identify with. There are a couple of typical bad guys for us to hate, and a pace that keeps us interested. The action is decent, and the prose is competent too. I really feel that it is the integration of so much humor and sattire that made this one a good read.

I highly recommend this book to science fiction readers that don't take themselves too seriously and fans of books by Terry Pratchett would probably appreciate the wit of John Scalzi.

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Viewed

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Harry Creek had the misfortune of being an infantryman in Earth's biggest military defeat of the 21st century. His best friend's brother died in his arms during the retreat. Now Harry's kind of drifting, but he's about to get a short, sharp shock....

Robin Baker runs a small pet shop on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. She's leading a dull-normal suburban life, but she's about to meet Harry, on a truly memorable first date....

Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? inspired the title, and yes, unusual sheep are involved -- but this novel reads like prime-period Heinlein, updated to the 21st century. From the opening lines -- "Dirk Moeller didn't know if he could fart his way into a major diplomatic incident. But he was ready to find out." -- the pace and story-telling never slacken. We have a Competent Man protagonist, a spunky female lead, snappy dialogue, sneering villains, the Fate of Earth in the balance.... even a clever analogue to the Church of Foster (here the Church of the Evolved Lamb). All set in a well-lived-in near-future where the aliens have come to call. LOTS of aliens. Moore's Law marches on, with cool new cybertoys, with much the same problems of today's cool cybertoys.... And lots more really Neat Stuff, which I'm not going to tell you about here, but which you're gonna love ❤️. Trust me.

This is a pretty near perfect light planetary romance, ending splendidly with all Biters Bit, and the Good Guys (and Girl) well-rewarded. Really a wonderfully entertaining book -- definitely a keeper. This is my second John Scalzi novel -- I liked Old Man's War, but that was apprentice work, compared to The Android's Dream. Sure, there's a place or two where Scalzi noodges the plot-logic a little hard. Yeah, it's wish-fulfillment fantasy, laid on a little thick. So what? This is a remarkably well-crafted entertainment, squarely in the center of my SF home-comfort zone . If you don't have just a whole lot of old-fashioned SF fun reading this one -- well, our tastes differ greatly. Highly, and enthusiastically, recommended.

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Sir-up

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I always hate it when I don't like a book someone recommends to me, but after a chapter and a half I realized that a) I hadn't found a single character I liked yet, and b) the author and I don't share the same sense of humor at all. So, back to the library with this.

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mosenco

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I could have read The Ghost Brigades, could have read Fuzzy Nation, but if there is a book in the “to be read” stack whose title is an unmistakable Philip K. Dick reference, then this was clearly the right choice.

And it was a good choice

Like a book by PKD, John Scalzi’s The Android’s Dream packs a lot to think about into an economically written, tightly wound package. From the genetically designed electric blue sheep, to a variety of alien races, to competing paranoid and invasive government agencies, featuring and aggrandizing a small business owner, to a complicating and weird religions Scalzi has done for Philip K. Dick what he did for Heinlein in Old Man's War – he has highlighted the best of the grandmaster and re-tooled the message for today’s audience.

The Android’s Dream tells the unlikely but highly entertaining story of Harry Creek, an erstwhile, reluctant but capable hero who is not out to save the world – but he’s just the man to do just that. Harry meets up with Robin Baker, a charismatic, flirty pet shop owner with a mysterious past. Scalzi throws these two into an adventure that could have originated in a poverty stricken, paranoid rented house in northern California in the mid sixties.

And like the very best of PKD, Scalzi casts as his protagonists the ordinary folks who display their greatness behind the scenes, while quietly saving us all in understated Ghostbusters fashion. Dick’s greatest heroes are rarely the power elite, more often the small-time, unnoticed everyman whose character provides the framework and foundation of a greater society.

If you like Scalzi’s work, if you are a fan of Philip K. Dick, if you like a quirky but fun modern science fiction work that does not take itself too seriously, The Android’s Dream is a good read.

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The Android's Dream

john scalzi

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