John Scalzi is an overnight sensation in the SF world. Like most overnight sensations, he spent years and years working at it before becoming known.

The Android's Dream is his third published book. It's full of references to the authors that have come before; the major inspirations seem to be Keith Laumer and L. Ron Hubbard. No, really. There are plenty of other influences, of course; I picked out nods to Orson Scott Card, William Gibson, Robert Heinlein, Harry Harrison, and Phillip K Dick too.

The main character is Harry Creek, a geek genius working for the State Department as a "Xenosapien Facilitator"; his real job is "Bearer of Bad News". He's calm and has combat experience, so when someone's got to talk to an alien and it's unclear if the alien is going to get unhappy and start spraying acidic ichor, Harry gets the job. So he gets to go break the news that, say, an insectoid ambassador's wife has been denied a visa because she's in a family way.

Harry's got friends in high places, and he owes them some favors, so when a diplomatic situation goes first downhill and then asymptotic, Harry gets the call to find a particular sheep. One sheep on the whole planet Earth, needed to head off an interstellar war that Earth will certainly lose.

Except the sheep isn't really a sheep, it's a woman. Robin Baker. She had deactivated sheep genes inserted into her genome before conception. She had no idea she has sheep genetics, and in fact finds the whole idea rather distasteful. She'd really like to continue running her small pet store. But before you know it, there are three species of assassins closing in, and the only help she's got is the capable but overtasked Harry, and a band of Scientologists, err, "Cultists of the Church of the Evolved Lamb".

It's a decent book, although the first two chapters were an unnecessary shaggy dog story, and the ending seemed a little forced. In between, the hero gets credit for an idea so brilliant that no one had ever thought of it, including hundreds of alien species; but that idea has been discussed in (human) science fiction for the last sixty years.

I don't know if it was intended as a sequel hook, or just the author running out of gas, but the nature of Harry and Robin's relationship was also left hanging. Still, it was a decent read. Especially for someone widely read in SF, who will catch the in-jokes. But to start with Scalzi, I'd recommend Old Man's War instead.

Posted by: Boviate at 10:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 423 words, total size 3 kb.