Agent to the Stars

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity's first interstellar friendship. There's just one problem: They're hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish. So getting humanity's trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal. Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He's one of Hollywood's hottest young agents. But although Stein may have just concluded the biggest deal of his career, it's quite another thing to negotiate for an entire alien race. To earn his percentage this time, he's going to need all the smarts, skills, and wits he can muster.

©2005 John Scalzi (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Narrator Wil Wheaton animates the slapstick text with a tone that is appropriate for the story of a young Tinsel Town agent whose other clients are either equally deranged or aren't making him much money.” ( AudioFile)

Think "The Player" or "Entourage" with an Alien

This is a wonderfully funny mash up of the Hollywood insider story and a first contact tale. Not only is this imaginative but well executed and oddly genuine.
Wil Wheaton is a phenomenal reader and I hope he does more.
John Scalzi's unique voice in SciFi reminds me of Spider Robinson's intro decades ago, just something totally different. He brings a lot to the table with this fairly short story, but with the intelligence and humor you'd expect from Scalzi. The concept he puts forward is crazy, but you gradually start to come around to the idea that it is not only a worthwhile story, but kind of a good idea that you can't believe you haven't thought of before... Aliens really could use representation.

Too Funny

This was quite funny, campy, and very tongue in cheek. For listening with pre-teens trapped in a car this could be great fun, but for me, the dedication to humor overwhelmed the characters and story. I generally like Scalzi, particularly the Old Man’s War series. I also liked Red Shirts, which had a lot of humor, but also included twists on Star Trek themes and interesting story elements that made Red Shirts a much more satisfying book overall. This is not at all a bad book, just a bit one dimensional for my tastes. Maybe if I had spent more time with Hollywood agents I would appreciate the humor more.

Execution Faded

Scalzi and Wheaton are great, and I appreciated the inventiveness and humor of the novel's premise. Just didn't hold up for me though. Stopped feeling engaged about half way through.

Crazy idea. Very cinematic.

The idea for this book, the characters, the pacing, the conflicts and the humor is spot on. Of course nice aliens would go through Hollywood to win the hearts and minds of the world. It makes perfect sense. And great listening. Wil Wheaton knocks this one out of the park from a narration standpoint.

Fun First Effot

This was the first novel Scalzi wrote, initially putting it up for free on the web. It's got a great premise and presents our hero agent with a conundrum:how to make foul smelling gelatinous aliens "sell" to humanity for first contact. It's such a conundrum, in fact, that I suspect Scalzi realized he didn't have a good answer. The last quarter of the book is preposterous and sells the premise short. But, getting to that part is pretty fun and there's lots of humor going 'round. Not a masterpiece by any means, but well worth a read/listen.

Do aliens really have a sense of humor?

What did you like best about this story?

Original take on the first contact with aliens. Joshua can reallly let loose with the one liners.

Have you listened to any of Wil Wheaton’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Excellent performance. Nails each character perfectly.

Any additional comments?

At first I thought this was going to be a little too off beat for me but as I got into it the story really does move in the right direction. I like the harsh realities of being a Hollywood agent and the whole Hollywood culture as it impacts the whole world.

A truly unique and engrossing book

This is an extremely original and thoroughly entertaining tale of human and alien 1st contact. The angle is takes is very refreshing and portrays a very different, yet eerily similar alien race contacting us not through politicians, but through Hollywood. It is very though provoking, but very funny and engaging as well. Wil Wheaton does his usual fabulous job as narrator. Bravo!

Good funny Sci-fi

Great! Fun and quirky. Good story, well written. The base concept is fun to investigate.

Great Audiobook!

I really enjoyed this audiobook. Will Wheaton does an outstanding job narrating this audiobook, so much so I hope he does more. The book is well written and funny. You won't be disappointed by this one!

absolutely delightful from beginning to end

reading of this book is wonderful. This story is engaging. It is so fun, so interesting, and just so delightful that I was entertaining from beginning to end. You just can't go wrong with this