**A little over three stars.**

“Dirk Moeller didn’t know if he could fart his way into a major diplomatic incident. But he was ready to find out.“

My introduction to Scalzi was Agent to the Stars. The curious pairing of a slick Hollywood agent with a gelatinous alien life form made for fascinating, funny reading. It also made me hate the man. You see, Agent to the Stars was written as a "practice book." Scalzi decided to try his hand at writing a novel simply to discover if he could create something of that length and depth of plot. The resultant book had a great premise, enjoyable characters and fluid pacing.

The Android’s Dream bears certain similarities. Filled with quirky characters and loopy twists, it displays Scalzi’s aptitude for weird situations and strange modes of thought. Beginning with an interplanetary diplomatic disaster, the book incorporates government conspiracies, artificial intelligence, animal husbandry, prophetic poems, sex scandals…most anything you can think of has its place in the snafu that occurs between Earth and the representatives from Nidu.

Caught up in all this is Harry Creek. He’s the government’s go-to guy when it comes to issuing bad news. He also happens to be a brilliant, resourceful war veteran who knows how to fly under the radar. Tapped to find a lost sheep, Creek’s existence quickly devolves to life on the run as he attempts to stay one step ahead of assassins and fanatics.

The dialogue is snarky and utterly droll--which I love. The action sequences are exciting with an edge of the ludicrous. The overall plot focuses on both big political machinations and personal trials, with well-placed, well-crafted info dumps--just enough information to understand the world, but not so much that passages become bogged down with details.

With all of these positives, why on earth did it take me a month to finish?

I’m not quite sure. There was something indefinably off about the pacing, plus I couldn’t get fully invested in the maneuverings of the government officials. Also, this edition was riddled with typos: misplaced/repeated words and transposed letters irked me just enough to pull me out of the story for a moment.

Still, Scalzi impresses me with his off-beat humor and imaginative details. My mixed feelings on this book won’t prevent me from picking up his other titles.

Es el claro ejemplo de cómo escribe Scalzi: humor, historia rápida y entretenida, mucho diálogo y bastante infodump.
Es una novela bastante amena de leer a pesar de tener el primer capítulo más absurdo que he leído en mucho tiempo y que puede hacer que cerréis el libro pensando que todo va a ser así. (El día que hagan libros con olores intentar acordaros de no leer este libro).

La historia tiene muchas referencias a la cultura actual, a las religiones y a las posibilidades de la inteligencia artificial. Pero el problema es que antepone el humor y el chiste fácil a profundizar en el tema por lo que termina quedándose en la superficie de lo que podría haber sido.

I wasn’t going to write a review of this book because I couldn’t really think of anything to say. It was great, funny, wrapped up with pretty much all eventualities covered. A typical John Scalzi book.

The recap: There’s been a diplomatic disaster. Two people are dead - human Dirk Moeller and Nidu trade negotiator Lars-win-Getag. The Nidu are an alien race inhabiting the worlds surrounding Earth. Known for their tempers and disregard for races and species other than their own, the Nidu make unwelcome, wicked neighbors that, for the safety of Earth’s population, must be handled with great care and sensitivity.

So when a mysterious object is found lodged inside of the dead Dirk Moeller’s ass, Secretary of State Jim Heffer becomes suspicious. The Nidu use a mixture of subtle scents to communicate to each other on a physiological level available only to Nidu, and high caste Nidu at that. Could Moeller have provoked Lars-win-Getag on purpose and antagonized him flatulently into a rage potent enough to give him a heart attack?

Of course, the Nidu need little in the way of provocation to find an excuse to be angry with humanity. Incensed, they propose a deal: find the electric blue Android’s Dream sheep needed for the Nidu’s upcoming coronation ceremony and the entire matter will be forgiven.

Unfortunately for Earth, this particular breed is mysteriously and rapidly disappearing. Anti-Nidu sentiment is high and it seems someone has a head start on defeating the already tenuous peace negotiations.

Determined to salvage the situation, Heffer recruits army veteran Harry Creek, known for his technological prowess and intellectual capacity despite an easy State Department desk job. Now he’s on the hunt for both the sheep and the manufacturer of Moeller’s device in a journey that will include saving an Unmodified Pet store owner, destroying the inside of a shopping mall, a cult, and an interstellar space cruise.

Android’s Dream is a satirical blend of culture and technology. There are no dates to ground ourselves on the Scalzi timeline. On this Earth, psuedo-vegetarians (meat-lovers with a guilty conscience) rule the market with genetically vatted meats grown entirely independent of any animal intervention. There’s even hybrid meats, like the Bison Boar Burger coexisting on a world where Spam is still consumed with relish and delight.

Scalzi is a writer who knows how to pace his stride and deliver a punch line and snappy, witty dialogue. He’s not a world builder, he’s a character builder, constructing his novel from an utterly human perspective with a keen eye for alien psychology. Scalzi has a firm grasp on what motivates each of his characters and their reactions are some of the most realistic I’ve ever read. I love the dynamics of the unlikely friendships and relationships that develop. It’s too bad most of them happen at the end of things: life, the novel. But the depth of each connection is so strong and wholly believable, a few pages of touching openness, honesty, and complete vulnerability is enough to convince me two kindred souls finally found each other. Which is amazing considering the fast-paced action and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”-esque back-stabbing and one-up-manship that made for one hilariously entertaining read.

At times, the solutions seemed a bit too clever, if you know what I mean: Scalzi sitting at his computer cackling maliciously at his own genius. But, I supposed what bothered me the most was the lack of loose ends that make for effervescent speculation once I close a book. My imagination was being told what to and not to expect from this universe and none of that silly “what if” nonsense! There’s worse things I could find to complain about, though.

Android’s Dream is a must-read for everyone, including fans of his Old Man’s War trilogy. Some of the tropes are re-used: alien negotiations, alien politics, military adventure, and God-trigger military weaponry, but Android’s Dream is more than just a few Science Fiction conventions. I love this book and I hope you will, too!

"Dirk Moeller didn't know if he could fart his way into a major diplomatic incident. But he was ready to find out."

Perhaps not as good of a first line as "Call me Ishmael", or "It was a pleasure to burn", or "I am a sick man, I am a spiteful man", or even "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a giant insect", but it was good enough to catch me.

I first read this book about a year ago, and I must say, the only things I remembered about it was the first chapter and that the title was some reference to Philip K. Dick's masterpiece "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". Having that poor of a memory for a plot, doesn't bode well. Having recently had the book returned to me, partially read (also not boding well); I decided to read it again.

As you can guess from its first sentence, there is some humor in the book. It isn't as good (because it is insightful) as Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett. In fact, I would put it somewhere near Neil Stephenson. What? Not known for his humor, you say? Well, this book, like many of Neil's are packed with self-referential and insider humor from geek culture. Luckily, unlike Stephenson, John Scalzi can keep his stories short and sweet. For those of you that are Mormons, imagine Mormon cinema without the crappy actors, crappy writers, or crappy plot. Okay, maybe the right comparison.

Science fiction tends to explore the boundary cases of science, religion, society, and humanity to better understand the behavior on the inside. Put another way, Science fiction is to mainstream fiction as PDEs are to Taylor polynomials. Too geeky again, I can tell. Anyway, the book more pokes a stick at the dead body rather than performs CSI miracles. Hmm, let me put it this way.

The Android's Dream could very easily be made into a sequel for "The Fifth Element". Same tone, same irksome morality/theology thoughts, same level of action and explosions (you would want Bruce Willis back if you could get him at his Die Hard age). I like that. The Android's Dream is the Fifth Element of the book world.

Or, The Android's Dream is to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep as The Fifth Element is to Blade Runner.

I've been trolling reading John Scalzi's blog Whatever for a while, and I figured I should get around to reading some of his fiction. I found The Android's Dream at a bookstore, and decided to pick it up.

The tone of the first half of the novel is erratic. There are elements of humor, a political thriller, one section that almost made me sick, and some shoot-em-up violence that goes into great detail. There is very little use of science fiction that is critical to the plot. At one point I thought to myself that one could do a search and replace with "Robert Langdon" for "Harry Creek" and "Opus Dei" with "Nidu" and get a large part of The Di Vinci Code back.

The story takes off when the protagonists are launched into space. The tone of the novel settles down, and there is some character development for a few of the characters. (Some development for Robin Baker would have helped.) Creek's back story had plenty of ethos, and but it could have been set up better in the first half. The description of the action has a good balance between detail and forward motion. The buildup to the climax was well paced, even if the twist for the climax of the book is telegraphed seven pages ahead. (I counted)

For future reference, when designing a database to hold livestock information, a 100 character text field named "Breed" would be a big help. Also, when cleaning out an area of asteroids in space, a sphere would be a better shape than a cube.

I listened to The Android’s Dream as an audiobook and I loved Will Wheaton as the narrator!

My (general) problem with audiobooks is that I have a hard time focusing on it. If I do something else, I tend to zone out and if I only listen and do nothing else, I’ll fall asleep eventually. And then I don’t know anymore what’s going on half way through the book. While I probably missed various parts, I was able to follow the main storyline easily. And I loved it!

The political intrigue, the dry humor, the conversation about culture, etc were all so well put together that I definitely want to pick it up again as a physical book, so I can follow up on some of the details I might have missed. I loved Robin as a character and enjoyed her journey from pet store owner to… (no spoilers ;) ). I really enjoyed the writing style of the author and how he described certain situations in a rather straightforward (some might say dry) way. The only thing that bugged me (due to listening to it) is the constant “xyz said”. It gets a bit annoying.

Yes!!! Can’t wait to read more books from the author.

This book is like a big-budget sci-fi action flick, but in a good way. Let's imagine a Paul Verhoeven spectrum; this novel's a lot closer to Robocop than Total Recall. Or, if you must have a literary parallel: Ross Thomas. Action, humor, biting social commentary... Scalzi's got it all. Can't wait for the sequel!

Any book where the only significant female character is the damsel in distress, who is snarky enough to be readable but not self-sufficient enough to get past her role in the princess who needs to be saved trope, is going to be a hard sell to me. In fact, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have finished this book if I hadn't been on a 5 hour road-trip with no other un-listened to books on my audible account. It really did take 5 hours (half the book) for me to care enough to want to finish.

Listening to this nearly directly after Lock-In, it's pretty impossible to not compare these two books: government agents running around the DC metro area solving a medical mystery while the bad people/aliens chase them around town trying to kill them. Both read by Wil Wheaton (enhancing some of the inner voice similarities between Agent Shane and Agent Creek). Both using the technique of: each time we meet a new character lets stop in the middle of whatever we were doing to have a long and humorous aside that explains each character's background and motivation for their place in the story!

I didn't actually pay much attention to that last thing when I was listening to Lock-In, but now that it's driven me crazy in this novel, I do remember it being a thing. While there is some chance I've just become Scalzi-style weary after an overindulgence, I suspect the more likely answer is that (big surprise!) Scalzi is a better writer now than eight years ago and no longer overdoes this to the point the reader just has to start laughing at it. I also can't imagine current Scalzi would forget to put any women in a book except for the damsel in distress.

So overall a fun read for a Scalzi completist who likes his sense of humor (which I do), but not as polished as his more recent work. And whatever you do: if you really want to enjoy this read it before Lock-In, or give yourself a nice long break in between, because afterwards this is just a pale shadow.

Warning: this story is not what you think it is!

IF you think it is about an android dreaming about sheep, you are wrong! Ignore the summary and just start reading. I especially recommend the audio book version narrated by Wil Wheaton.

After re-starting twice because of the gross opening, the humor finally kicked in and I was able to enjoy this book. Everything "works out" in the end.

I would really like to thank Wil Wheaton for his entertaining narration! A 10 star performance. I was amazed at how he was able to say those alien names over and over and over again, exactly the same way.

I enjoy sheep literature but idk what the hell was going on here most of the time

This audiobook combines the wonderful writing of John Scalzi with the exceptional narration prowess of Wil Wheaton. The result is a story that drags the listener in from the opening line.

The story is set in the far future when earth is socially and economically involved with many alien races. As the reader would expect Scalzi's world building is first class. He draws us into the complex politics that exist within and between the different races, and let's face it, noone does politics better than this author. The chapters are very well drawn and the humour is quick fire.

I enjoyed this more than the Old Man's War because it has more political focus and less action sequences. The action that it does contain is mostly very, very funny.

Highly recommend the audiobook to fans of extra-terrestrial scheming and shenanigans

I dunno, it just wasn't really my thing. Too many fart jokes.