The Dispatcher by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Gotta love John Scalzi. He really excels at the “big idea” stories, which practically is its own genre in science fiction. Nearly all of his works (or at least all of the ones I’ve read) feature some interesting concept made possible through imagined technology, then spend the rest of the time impressing you with the reality involved. It’s really remarkable – it’s as though his books are straightforward fiction that simply require you to make one leap of faith at the outset. Works every time…
The premise needs to be really good in order to make the whole thing gel, of course. That leap of faith needs to stick the landing. But I haven’t been disappointed with the “big idea” yet. So then it’s merely a matter of delivering the rest of the story, and Scalzi is best in class in dialogue and interactions.
In this audio-only short story, the execution works perhaps a little better than some of the full-length novels I’ve read. That’s because I really have only one criticism of his books, one that I didn’t really pick up on until I’d read several. Stated simply, the protagonists seem to have it all their own way. While they are always put in difficult and extreme situations, they all seem to roll with the punches with a somewhat unbelievable grace.
Though I haven’t yet reviewed them, I’ve recently read Agent to the Stars and Fuzzy Nation. These followed the pattern I noted in Lock In and Redshirts. I haven’t touched the Old Man’s War yet, having no appetite for starting a huge series, so it may prove entirely different, but thus far the only flaw I’ve found in these novels is lack of suspense. The main characters don’t seem all that fallible. They make assumptions that prove to be right nearly all the time and there’s never any real concern that they won’t end up on top.
Despite the aforementioned inevitability of success, the tale of Dispatcher Tony Valdez is a great one. The “big idea” in The Dispatcher is that for completely unknown reasons, at some point in our near future, humans who are murdered suddenly find themselves safely returned to life back in their homes. Most of the time. And there are rules, but they aren’t readily known. And only murder victims need apply…
What I’ve written here is not a spoiler – I’ve gone into less detail than the publisher’s blurb, even. But I feel wrong saying too much here. True, when Audible announced the novella, they included the set-up and I read it when I placed my pre-order. But that was a few months ago, and I didn’t even refresh my memory as to what the story was about before pressing play. And I’m very glad for that.
It can be so refreshing to just start a book without any preconceived notions about what you’re about to read. You have to learn something about books before deciding to read them, of course, but it seems a shame in many ways. I used to love going to a record store and selecting albums from groups I’d never heard, but solely based on the art or the titles. I had some idea of the style of music, of course, but little else. The main difference here being that with an album I could know within an hour at most whether my choice was wise. I can’t afford to start grabbing books at random, certainly not at the speed I read…
So I’m not going to tell you any more about The Dispatcher, only that it was a fantastic tale. Similar in style to Lock In, it’s a brisk read (listen) and very enjoyable. The narration by Zachary Quinto was perfect for the story. All of the previous audiobooks I’ve heard from the author have been performed by Wil Wheaton, but I like the choice of Quinto here. He has an entirely different style and conveys emotions that match the feel of The Dispatcher. I eagerly look forward to more audio performances from him.
Oh, and The Dispatcher is free until November 2, 2016, so get on that train…
