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Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: From New York Times bestseller and Hugo Award-winner John Scalzi, a wild-and-woolly caper novel of interstellar diplomacy A human diplomat creates an interstellar incident when he kills an alien diplomat in a most . . . unusual . . . way. To avoid war, Earth's government must find an equally unusual object: a type of sheep ("The Android's Dream"), used in the alien race's coronation ceremony. To find the sheep, the government turns to Harry Creek, ex-cop, war hero and hacker extraordinare, who, with the help of a childhood friend turned artificial intelligence, scours the earth looking for the rare creature. But there are others with plans for the sheep as well. Mercenaries employed by the military. Adherents of a secret religion based on the writings of a 21st century SF author. And alien races, eager to start a revolution on their home world and a war on Earth. To keep our planet from being enslaved, Harry will have to pull off a grand diplomatic coup, a gambit that will take him from the halls of power to the lava-strewn battlefields of alien worlds. There's only one chance to get it right, to save the life of the sheep�and to protect the future of humanity. Other Tor Books The Android's Dream Agent to the Stars Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded Fuzzy Nation Redshirts 1. Lock In 2. Head On The Interdepency Sequence1. The Collapsing Empire 2. The Consuming Fire Old Man's War Series 1. Old Man's War 2. The Ghost Brigades 3. The Last Colony 4. Zoe's Tale 5. The Human Division 6. The End of All Things At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied..… (more)
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Scalzi's first chapter is a masterpiece of political toilet humor, if such a thing can exist. The rest of the novel follows up with moments of both brilliance and hilarity, and sometimes the two at once, but that first chapter is what sets the reader’s mood for the entire novel. If you cannot appreciate sarcasm or have never found a fart funny, you may not appreciate that first chapter enough to let its tone buoy you all the way to the end of the book, but you might be rescued by the other clever conceit of the novel – that the fate of the world rests on the wooly back of a sheep.
Except that the sheep in question doesn’t turn out to have a wooly back at all, but I’ll stop there so as not to spoil one of the finer moments in the story. Any writer who can take a ridiculous twist and twist it back around on itself the way Scalzi does here is my kind of fella. Essentially, this book is smart fun – Scalzi must have had a great time writing it and anyone with even the least appreciation of science fiction will have a great time reading it.
Postscript: I read Philip Dick’s [Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep?] shortly before reading this one – the title of Scalzi’s novel is an obvious homage and there are several other connections in the book – including one direct allusion that made me laugh out loud – but you don’t have to have read PD’s book to like this one – just know that it exists.
Review: This book, as I expected, was good, solid fun. Scalzi's certainly capable of writing more serious stuff, but I think "zany romp" is what he does best, and this is about as zany as it gets. I didn't go into it expecting too much - I didn't know much about it, other than it was one of his earlier books, that it was stand-alone, that I hadn't read it yet, and that it apparently had something to do with androids. (Which it totally doesn't, by the way. Just sheep. And not that Scalzi's books are usually super tech-heavy to begin with, but this one felt a little lighter on the sci-fi technobabble than usual.)
But I had a lot of fun with this book, probably more than I was expecting. It's one of those books that makes me want to use words like "madcap" (and "zany", apparently; see above). It's a thousand things going on at once, all of them wacky. (There's another of those words.)
While that did make it a little hard to keep track of everything - especially since Scalzi's characterizations are not particularly deep, so some of the supporting characters felt a little interchangeable and thus a little confusing - everything does eventually tie together more neatly and more logically than I was expecting it to, which is quite a feat and which I always appreciate. Actually, in that way, it reminded me quite a bit of Connie Willis's Bellwether... and although the sheep connection probably helped solidify that link in my mind, it's not the only thing they have in common.
On the whole, I enjoyed listening to this book quite a bit. I find Wil Wheaton's voice to be a great match for Scalzi's dry sense of humor, and he was as good here as ever. This book didn't have a lot of deep characters or subtle themes or lovely language, but it did have a fast moving plot, plenty of jokes, and an unexpected yet satisfying ending. Good times. 4 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: I'm having a hard time coming up with read-alikes other than Bellwether, so I'm going to use the same recommendation I made for that one: Fans of Scalzi’s sense of humor will for sure enjoy it, as will most readers of lighter sci-fi, as well as anyone who likes the style of comedy where all sorts of crazy things happen but somehow they all fit together into a bigger picture by the end.
The first chapter was rather boring but once past that, things really took off. His best yet.
This is a fun ride - a blistering pace and laugh-out-loud funny at times (with many nods to geek culture),
Oh and yes it has to do with an electric sheep but it is nothing at all like a PK Dick book. Nothing at all.
Any book that starts off with a character deliberately trying to derail international (stellar) trade negotiations by
The Android's Dream is a reference to Philip K Dick's novel, but not much more than that. Instead we're treated to a lot of dry wit, satire, and a little political intrigue in a story that moves along at a brisk pace. Along the way Scalzi takes a number of digs at Scientology as well.
The plot relies on some surprises and probably won't stand up to careful analysis or multiple readings. It did keep me entertained for a couple of days and make me chuckle.
The premise is that aliens abound, and in fact are part of a galactic empire. Earth is pretty low on the rung, and has made an alliance with another species that is also pretty lowly in status. The Nidu are much more
The Nidu are involved in export quota negotiations with Earth. The human diplomat manages to kill the alien diplomat by use of a specifically mixed chemical fart - don't ask how that works. The aliens communicate among themselves using scent, and very susceptible to odors. There is bad blood between the two diplomats, although only the human diplomat is aware of it. He is avenging a family injury from the past. The human becomes so aroused by his victory that he dies of a stroke. No, really.
The government dealing with the aliens (USA) then has to try to avert disaster, placate their anger, and try to pretend it wasn't premeditated murder. The departments of State, Commerce (Trade), Defense are all trying to find out what the others know, what the aliens want, and what really happened. There are government functionaries, Secretaries, and agents tripping all over each other.
Turns out the aliens will only be placated with a specific gift. It is needed for the upcoming coronation of the new alien king. It must be part of the ceremony. It is a sheep.
And not just any type of sheep but a specific breed called Android's Dream, which has electric blue wool. Humans created it for the aliens and only the Nidu have the right to own it. Problem is that there are other aliens who are Nidu, but a different clan than the present royal family, and they wish to stop the coronation so one of their members can become the king instead. These opposition Nidu have killed all the Android's Dream sheep being held by the Nidu.
So now the official Nidu want the humans to search the world and find a DNA match for this rare breed of sheep.
The POV character, Harry Creek is a low level State Department employee whose job is to be the bearer of bad news to Aliens: your wife's visa was denied, your car was used in a hit and run. The aliens start to see him as the Angel of Death.
He is tapped to run the secret search for the State Department, who are trying to stay ahead of Defense, and the anti-Alien private group who is also sniffing around. On top of that some of the agents are working for more than one agency/group. One group no one knows about is a rational religious group called The Church of the Evolved Lamb. They don't believe in a higher power, just in themselves making their scripture happen.
The book is a satire on many facets of modern life. It is funny, and quite a good adventure read. There are twists and lots of excitement. The characters are cool, and the settings are interesting. Good writing and a fast pace.
A good book, all in all, with some issues here and there that aren't major enough to be worth detailing, but were enough to distract me while reading. Highly recommended.
I was drawn to it, intrigued by the Philip K Dick reference, but
That said, it generally maintains a light tone, and it has its fun bits.
Not only was the story compelling and interesting, but parts of it made me laugh my tail off. Perhaps I'm morbid and horrible, but the assassination scene was way funnier than it should have been.