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The Android's Dream

The Android's DreamAuthor: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Category: Book

List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $0.90
as of 3/22/2010 09:19 PDT details
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New (36) Used (29) from $0.90

Seller: ddddehrr

Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3

ISBN: 0765348284
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780765348289
ASIN: 0765348284

Publication Date: October 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Features:
  • ISBN13: 9780765348289
  • Condition: NEW
  • Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
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 extraordinaire, who with the help of Brian Javna, a childhood friend turned artificial intelligence, scours the earth looking for the rare creature. And they find it, in the unknowing form of Robin Baker, pet store owner, whose genes contain traces of the sheep DNA.

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 science fiction 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 the greatest diplomatic coup in history, a grand 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 Robin Baker -- and to protect the future of humanity.


Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 72
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5 out of 5 stars Superbly entertaining SF action comedy mash-up   March 4, 2010
Marko Kloos (Enfield, NH)
John Scalzi's "The Android's Dream" kicks off with a character being killed by way of flatulence. It continues with an intergalactic crisis, political intrigue, hired thugs, a xenophobic race of aliens with social conventions that make imperial Japan look relaxed and informal by comparison, a gentle and philosophically-minded alien hired thug who also has a rather disturbing method for disposing of bodies, a business-minded church that's wholly unapologetic about the fact that its theology was invented from scratch by a con artist, a sidekick who's a sentient computer program, and a substantial number of jokes, puns, and plot twists involving orifices and bodily excretions. It's very much "Men in Black" meets "Spenser for Hire" meets "The Fifth Element", and it's jolly good fun from start to finish.

I've read all of Scalzi's books so far, and as much as I like the "Old Man's War" series, I have to say that Android's Dream is my favorite. Part of that is the lighter tone of it compared to the more traditional (if inventively reshuffled) Heinlein-esque universe and more serious mood of the OMW books. This is not a military action adventure in space, it's a rollicking action comedy in space.

Writing effective comedy requires considerably more skill than writing effective action adventure, and Scalzi proves that he has the skill to not only write both, but to tie them together seamlessly. If you like your SF light-hearted, humorous, intelligent, and snarky, give The Android's Dream a try. It may be heresy to state this, but I had more fun reading this book than I did slogging through Heinlein's last five novels put together.

(Oh, and if there's any movie producer with half a brain left in the country, they'll spring handsomely for the movie rights, because The Android's Dream has "Summer Sci-Fi Action Comedy Blockbuster" written all over it.)





4 out of 5 stars No, it's not "Bladerunner", and that's a good thing!   October 27, 2009
Jamie Beu (Orlando, FL)
This is the first non-Old Man's War book of John Scalzi that I've read, and although I didn't enjoy it as much as the other books, I still found it quite enjoyable. Scalzi, once again, demonstrates that he can do character development as well as he can write action sequences - he doesn't get so wordy that it kills the pace, but he also writes in a way that you can relate to almost every character (even the bad guys).

Scalzi must have a soft spot in his heart for war vets, and this book seems to empathize even more with vets than the "Old Man's War" series did.

Good story, interesting twists, and enough suspense that you'll be reading past your bedtime, just to finish one more chapter - just to find out where that opening segment about flatulence will lead you next. (Yes, you read that correctly - the opening chapter is about a fart that shook up galactic politics.)



5 out of 5 stars A future where people would still rather not have pork sphincters in their hot dogs...   October 27, 2009
Robert Schmidt (Honolulu, HI & Logan, UT USA)
Take one part Piers Anthony and one part Terry Pratchett, add two parts of Christopher Moore, and mix in a sci-fi bowl. What you end up with is The Android's Dream, by John Scalzi.

Oh, did I mention that there were no androids included? However, you will get acquainted with a race called the Nagch, who you never want to invite to dinner. And always check your date for his or her real hair color. Any hint of blue?

In The Android's Dream, ex-soldier Harry Creek is asked to complete a simple mission, to search for a specific breed of livestock for the coronation ceremony of the Nidu, a race that won't eat you, but try to avoid gassy foods. Creek's search turns up a bit of a surprise, and Creek and the surprise spend the rest of the novel just ahead of, well, everyone and everything else.

Although I don't know how far in the future this adventure takes place (although there is a great deal of advanced technology, our culture doesn't seem to have changed very much), it was fun to note all the little hints at how things have either changed or stayed the same:

"Nugentians" run a large captive deer herd for hunting and meat in Michigan (that's a play on hunting poster boy Ted Nugent).

"Dr. Atkinson" warns of the dangers of a fatty meat diet (remember Dr. Atkins' recommendations and eventual demise?).

Quaker Oats seems to have supplanted Google as the largest information source in the world.

Smith College (an all women college) is still around.

USDI was still trying to establish wolves in various locations, and farmers were still making these attempts fail.

Mr. Robbin Dwellin, an "early 21st-century science fiction writer of admittedly modest talents", ended up at least as successful as L. Ron Hubbard in establishing a new religion.

Petsmart is still around, as are shopping malls.

"... the Fru had recently lost their flagship Yannwenn when its navigational crew, used to working in native Fru measurements, inputted incorrect coordinates into the Yannwenn's new navigational computers, which used CC measurements." Remember the lost $125 million Mars orbiter?

The Walton family is still rich, all 200 of them.

And people would still rather not have pork sphincters in their hot dogs.


Don't get me wrong... this tale has some great characters and action. There's a significant AI here, new weapons, weird alien rites, and even a new religion, evolving as I write this, the Church of the Evolved Lamb.

Highly recommended! Be prepared to not take life so seriously, but still require a great story!


2 out of 5 stars An enjoyable Scalzi story, but sabotaged with formatting errors curtsy of the publisher   August 17, 2009
Charles Hundley (Snellville, GA USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book is not deep, but is an entertaining story and would have rated 3 stars from me, except for an issue beyond the control of the author. There are problems with the publisher's formatting of the text. Not enough to called serious, and seemingly trivial, but enough of a problem to destroy any enjoyment I may have derived from reading Scalzi's story. To potential readers of this book, if the two problems I describe below will not bother you, then please enjoy Scalzi's story.

First: The font is forced one size larger than the Kindle's standard sizes. I often switch between a novel and a technical manual on the Kindle - this font sabotage by the publisher creates the unnecessary step adjusting font sizes when switching (ever tried to read a technical manual all in fine print?). This is not the only novel to suffer from this issue. Publishers refuse to learn that ebooks live in an environment very different from physical books. It reminds me of the bad old days when software publishers believed their software was the only important software installed, therefore re-writing the system configuration and/or crashing other software was acceptable to them (thankfully, most of these software publishers are now out of business). Remember publishers, this is my Kindle, not yours - you do not have my permission to mess around with MY Kindle.

Second, and more seriously: Poor proofreading. The Kindle version contains errors not found in the hardcover version. Every error appears trivial, except they occur so often and are so blatant as to throw me out of the story flow. Compounding this, is that these errors are inconsistent, making it impossible to adapt.


5 out of 5 stars So good it is mindblowing.   August 16, 2009
D. Payton (Atlanta, Ga USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I just want to say that this is one of the best SF books I have ever read and I am an acomplished reader of the genre. Please for the love of The Evolved Lamb, buy and read this book. Peace.

Showing reviews 1-5 of 72
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