Reading: The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
Music: Gerry O'Connor
TV/Movie: Factory Girl
Link o' the Day: South Park Studios.

Normally I try to wait at least 24 hours before reviewing a book. But what the hell. Dinner is going to take 40 minutes to bake before I get to the next stage of preparation, so let's see where this goes.

I just put down The Android's Dream by John Scalzi. What a fun little book! Scalzi is the author of a series of novels set in his Old Man's War universe, the most recent being Zoe's Tale. As that's still in hardcover and I don't have the scarouche at the moment to justify a hardcover purchase, I picked up the only paperback of his I hadn't read yet. The back of the book sounded a little silly--interstellar war and the most key part in Earth's fate is a sheep--specifically the Android's Dream breed, and it's up to mid-level diplomat Harry Creek to make it all work. Welcome to the plot of The Android's Dream.

Okay...it sounded a bit reminiscent of the Retief stories by Keith Laumer, and I'm a big fan of those. But could Scalzi keep it entertaining for an entire novel? Yeah...I think so.

My first impression after the first hundred pages was thinking...here is a guy who decided to plot a novel by pasting random dictionary pages to a wall then throwing a dart blindfolded. Whatever word he hit would be a plot element. And by gum he was going to stick to it!

So that alone made the book worth reading--to see if he could keep it up. Now that I'm finished with the book, I don't think it was as all random as that. It's quite a well-structured book, actually. It moves fast, and the characters are interesting. He handles aliens well. Not as well as his Old Mans War books, but well enough indeed.

The only negative criticism I could give it is that there are brief flashes of self-indulgence (pop culture references, science fiction in-jokes, a narrative voice that sometimes slips into culture commentary) that hiccup the overall narration, but it's not so often as it distracts from the reading experience. I suspect there were times where he fought with an editor here or there, and took his victories where he could.

But this is only a very minor point.

And in further thinking, I'm going to bring up Keith Laumer's Retief stories again. The more I think of it, the more I believe that fans of those stories will like The Android's Dream. I'm not saying that Harry Creek is a version of Retief, the two-fisted diplomat, but there is a certain spirit of adventurism, problem-solving, and sneakiness they both share. Scalzi's voice is Scalzi's voice. Not anyone else's. It's too easy to say that Scalzi is a "new Heinlein" (or Laumer) but it's also unfair to say--because he's not. I'm as lazy as the next reviewer, but even I won't stoop to that sort of sloppiness. (If I did, I wouldn't have time to put so much sloppiness into my prose and punctuation.)

So what it comes down to is that The Android's Dream is a fun book and a recommended read. It's a little lighter than the Old Mans War series. It's not part of the intellectual SF set, nor is it the "shoot 'em all" stat-heavy set of military SF. It reminds me more of what Mike Resnick always said about why he writes what he writes: "I write the kind of stories I like to read."

So go ahead and shell out for the paperback or e-book version. You'll more than likely have a good time. If you don't, then you won't have a hard time finding someone who will that you can give it to.

And that's that.

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Holiday weekends always screw up my schedule. This is particularly funny as I'm self-employed. But I like having weekends just like the next person. I catch up on my napping. My cat Nemo has taken it upon himself to be my "napping coach" and lately he's been having me work on my sleep-sprints.

That's not to say I haven't been doing any work at all. I did some edits for this month's medical journal, and finished edits to the Baby Peggy book. After I get some missing pieces from the publisher, I should be able to send that to the printer this week. And I'm waiting on one little piece before the Hank Moonjean book goes out.

So things move forward. And I've been doing a little more writing--which is always good. Just because I had a bunch of writing come out earlier this year doesn't mean I can rest.

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Okay, the oven is about ready to ding and I have to go heat up the sauce.

Today's link goes to a guilty pleasure of mine...South Park Studios. Like a lot of people, I decried South Park for years--then finally sat down to watch a bunch of episodes...and you know...some of them are pretty damn clever. Oh sure, its methods are sometimes more offensive than they need to be, but there is some very cleverly disguised culture commentary in this show. South Park Studios has the first 12 seasons of complete episodes available for free viewing. (Haters, you'll like the later episodes more than the early ones.) Check 'em out.

Cheers!