John Scalzi's "The Android's Dream": A Sci-Fi Adventure.

Copenhagen: I think that the title tells you how much I enjoyed this book. It twists and turns (and sometimes I struggled to keep up). It made me laugh (and not many sci-fi books have done that). And for a real bonus it takes the p!55 out of a certain well known religion invented by a hack sci-if author.
And did I mention how much I enjoyed it? Read it and have fun!

United Kingdom on Oct 12, 2023

Charles L. Alday: I have read a lot of John Scalzi’s books, and have enjoyed them all. They are all great science fiction, and the characters always make me care. Android’s Dream is as good a novel as Scalzi has ever written. Terrific plot and characters. Thought provoking and really funny. Highly recommend this book!

United States on Apr 16, 2023

Amanda R: This book is so many things. Space adventure, mystery, legal war, intergalactic war, spy thriller, snarky comedy. I’m so glad Scalzi didn’t try to throw in romance too, would have ruined things!
I enjoy how all his books keep moving along, no long backstory that takes pages. You learn everything as you read bit by bit.
Fantastic read, highly recommend!

United States on Feb 16, 2023

Malcolm R: In his usual irreverent style Scalzi creates his version of what androids dream about, electric (blue) sheep it appears and their significance in Nidu coronations. After the initial diplomatic skullduggery a well imagined space opera rushes to a big ending when everyone simply goes home or to jail. It is good that it is not just computers that have evolved but society and even medicine, would they really still be using Aspirin?

United Kingdom on Dec 04, 2022

DWS: discodant but funny sf. everyone would like this,,,]

United Kingdom on Apr 01, 2022

T.N: Scalzi is going to be one of those authors who you would like to listen to as an audio book but not to read. Looking through several reviews he does do a lot of he said, she said and now that I know it I can't unsee it. And I get where it can get annoying.
I also enjoy the humour.

Plot: It has been several decades since Earth had first contact and now Earth has become something of a tourist destination. After a diplomatic mess one of Earth's allies demand that the Earth government get a sheep for their sacrifice. This specific sheep species soon goes extinct. Enter Harry Creek who has to find out who is sabotaging Earth relations, and find just one sheep.
Many different factions try to interfere, secretly help, or just add to the world building.

Characters:
Harry Creek is the basic hero archetype. You know the type, feels like he should be wearing a superhero costume and fighting crime, they even gave him a boring government job. John does give him some depth but this guys seems to have it all. Strong, handsome, (I assume), genius levels of intelligence, tragic backstory, military training. Really, you have to try hard to find a flaw.

There are some...

Australia on May 02, 2019

Leather DeBoeuf: Cela fait très longtemps que j'aurais du lire ce livre, mais c'est un des seuls à ne pas avoir été traduit par son éditeur Français. Ce qui a postériori est incompréhensible, car il me semble que ce livre est une sorte de clef de voute de l'oeuvre de l'auteur. Une clef de voute en pâte à modeler qui maintiendrait l'intégrité physique d'un vaisseau spatial, un vaisseau lui même doté d'une propulsion nucléaire alimentée par des flageolets prédigérés.

Certes ce n'est pas un livre parfait. On change un peu trop souvent à mon gout de point de vue, certains passages ou idées sont parfois si farfelus qu'on écarquille les yeux en rigolant (ce qui n'est pas facile à faire et vous donne un air stupide, enfin encore plus stupide que d'habitude. Ce qui n'est pas grave si le seul témoin de la scène est votre chien, qui en a vu d'autres et dont l'opinion qu'il a de vous est faite depuis ne nombreuses années). Ce n'est pas un livre sérieux. Mais Scalzi en a t-il jamais écrit ? Cela reste à prouver.
Ça part dans tous les sens, on a droit à des histoires improbables de sectes, de transhumanisme, d'Aliens racistes ou bougons, d'assassinat au pet, de...

France on Mar 04, 2019

fastreader: John Scalzi has a dark sense of humour and a sarcastic bent that comes out in his wise cracking characters. Inside his characters have grit and poise but the outside version we see in his stories is anything but sarcastic, cocky, irreverent and side splitting funny.

Humanity and the alien Nidu are at peace. At least on the outside. Inside humanity has major problems with the Nidu. Half the world wants to kick them back to their home world while the other half wants to exploit any advantage they have with the Nidu as reluctant partners.

While the Nidu only control a small fleet of war ships, those ships far outclass anything Earth has in its fleet.

Our story starts with a high level meeting between human and Nidu diplomats to hammer out an agreement. Unknown to the Nidu the Earth's head diplomat hates their guts and is just dragging on negotiations to aggravate them. However he does have an ace up his sleeve, or rather in his shorts, as he has had installed a special technology that manipulates farts to send messages to the Nidu who converse with smells.

Moving on from that we then have two opposing groups trying to find a special breed of sheep called...

United States on Mar 16, 2014

Rick O: This book by John Scalzi literally starts off with a lot of gas. During trade negotiations between the planets Earth and Nidu, Dirk Moeller of Earth, fitted with a special device from a man known as the Fixer, farts Lars-Win-Getag of Nidu to death! Dirk Moeller, laughing uncontrollably, collapses with a massive heart attack. It seems that the sentient lizard-like creatures of Nidu are smell sensitive and can interpret the meaning of each fart.

The Nidu Ambassador to Earth, Narf-Win-Getag, arrives at the office of the Secretary of State Jim Heffer. The ambassador threatens war with The United Nations of Earth, believing his trade negotiator was smell insulted on purpose. Of the 617 Nations in the Common Confederation, Nidu was only ranked 488th in military power, but unfortunately Earth was ranked 530th, and the Nidu had the Glar Destroyers and the Planet Cracker bombs! Narf-Win-Getag explains that their leader (The Fehen) has died, and his son will be coronated in two weeks. The Nidu need a special breed of sheep for the Coronation, and the breed has been mysteriously wiped out. The demand is simple: Find the electric blue sheep, known as the Android's Dream, for the...

United States on Jul 01, 2011