Books : The Android's Dream

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Author name: John Scalzi

: The Android's Dream
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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780765348289
ISBN number: 0765348284
Label: Tor Science Fiction
Manufacturer: Tor Science Fiction
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: October 30, 2007
Publishing house: Tor Science Fiction
Release Date: October 30, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 36114
Studio: Tor Science Fiction



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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
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - Scalzi does it again
If you have read any of John Scalzi's books, you will not be disappointed with this one. The story kept me up turning pages late into the night.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - I don't mind being a sheep in this case
It starts with a fart joke and just gets better from there. This book is a fun romp and I enjoyed the intricacies of the plot. It's clever and funny while maintaining the sense of urgency that drives the characters. All in all, a good read.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - Hooked from the fart and on the edge of my sheep the whole time.
The Android's Dream had me hooked from the fart (the diplomatic incident that nearly starts a war) and it kept me on the edge of my sheep the whole time. Part satire, part homage (to PKD) and completely filled with Scalzi's signature witty dialog makes this a novel that does not disappoint.


Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - Nice Plot but Not Funny and Full of Errors
Like many who were disappointed in Android's Dream, I am a fan of Scalzi's other work and believe he is capable of much better. Obviously I did not expect this novel to be in the SF militarism vein of Ghost Brigades, etc., and I believe I am judging it on the merits of what it actually attempts to do.

Android's Dream reads very much like an oddball 1960s-era SF novel full of goofy social commentary. Brand names are delivered occasionally with a TM, for example. In this sense the novel is very much an homage to Phillip K. Dick. Everyone remembers the paranoia and reality bending of Dick's work. Few people remember (for some reason) the humour and social commentary. So I believe I see what Scalzi is going for here, but the trouble is, what might have seemed like biting social commentary in 1966 is just trite and lame in 2008. Strange products. Weird advertising. Gee.

So funny this book is not.

However, it does have just a huge amount of very interesting alien culture, a very unique and intricate plot, conspiracies, secret organizations, and horrors galore. On that level the book is certainly worth a read. Scalzi's imagination is as vivid and fun as ever.

The biggest beef I have with this book are what I think of as outright errors. Scalzi begins with an acknowledgment tipping his hat to the famous friends (Cory Doctorow!) who read the MS before publication and gave him guidance. What I read really makes me question the intelligence of those good writers who helped him.

For example, an important plot point hinges on an artificial meat product (grown in vats without the aid of actual living animals) called Boar/Bison. The product is a genetic merging, somehow, of boar meat and bison meat. The logo features a friendly bison-ish boar wearing cowboy boots. At one point the question arises as to whether boar/bison is kosher. The two individuals discussing this issue state clearly that the question of kosher-ness depends on whether the combined boar/bison creature would have cloven hooves. Now, I'm not Jewish, but I happen to know that both pigs and bison have cloven hooves--in fact, all hoofed animals have cloven hooves except for the horse, donkey, zebra, and, I suppose, hippopotamus. Jews are not forbidden from eating cloven-hoofed mammals. They eat beef, sheep, goat, and so on. This discusion was just so profoundly ignorant that I nearly put the book down right there.

A similar bit of ignorance is manifested in a scene where our hero and the "sheep" are fighting some bad guys in a mall. Our hero hits a fire alarm which causes various fire doors to swing shut. Ok. But then the narration makes it clear that none of these doors can be opened until the fire marshal arrives, thereby preventing the bad guys (and everyone else) from escaping. Obviously I don't know what fire safety regulations will be like in the future but it would be a pretty pernicious system that purposefully traps people in burning buildings.

Maybe it's just me, but these two episodes really bothered me. I'm still willing to give the book a weak recommendation. But all these 5-star reviews? Come on, people. Have at least some level of discrimination.


Rated by buyers 2 out of 5 stars - A few good ideas don't make for a good book
Scalzi seems to be trying to keep at least a dozen plots moving along in this book, but really only succeeds with two or three of them. If you are looking for humor, there isn't nearly as much here as the title/cover/blurbs would suggest. It's more of an action novel with some funny bits thrown in. The plot is convoluted beyond reason and - like so many futuristic books/movies/tv shows comes down to the enemy stupidly allowing our heroes to take control of their entire armed forces by accessing a computer network.

I did enjoy one of the aliens, and the AI(s) quite a bit and our leading characters are pretty likable as well. Unfortunately, the piling up of fortunate escapes, cardboard villains, and unlikely plot complications lead me to the final 2* rating. If you like the idea of a comedy/action SF series centered around diplomacy, I highly recommend Keith Laumer's Retief novels and short stories from the 60s-80s. They are much more successful at achieving what The Android's Dream attempts than this novel is.

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