The Android's Dream

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2006 John Scalzi (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"With plenty of alien gore to satisfy fans of military SF and inventive jabs at pretend patriotism and self-serving civil service, Scalzi delivers an effervescent but intelligent romp." ( Publishers Weekly)

Great listen

I love this book, it was a great listen. Wil Wheaton did a great job as the narrator. I found myself laughing out load. I haven't enjoyed Sci-Fi like this since Heinlein. I will look for other books by this author.

Good story telling

Any additional comments?

This wasn't exactly up my alley, I'll admit. A crazy beginning with farting to communicate - come on now! Needing a certain kind of sheep for a ceremony?? A lot of it was a bit over the top, but I guess that's what a lot of people liked about it too. Once I willed myself to just go-with-it, it did keep my interest and was well told. Although to be 100% honest, I thought it was going to be about androids, given the name and the android on the cover. It is not - silly me!

Sometimes the author would mention something about a character (and then take 5 - 10 minutes filling in a silly back story that wasn't always necessary - imho.) To me that was just a bunch of unnecessary detail.

But overall, wow, it ended up being an elaborate and clever story as long as you aren't looking for realistic. The ending is mind blowing (in all the detailed events that fall into place) and Kudos to Scalzi for keeping it all straight. While it wasn't exactly "up my alley" I have to admit it was some good story telling and thus give it 4 stars.

Will Wheaten did a great job narrating - 5 stars!!

Clever and funny, sort of Pratchett meets Banks.

This is an immediately engaging story and it gets more interesting as it goes along. Some of the tech is already dated, but that almost seems to have been a choice instead of an accident and it did not reduce my pleasure in the story. He avoids the major mistake of attempting to explain technologies, which is very easy for SF authors to fall in to. The characters are engaging and distinct, as usual. There's a lot of imagination shown in various aspects of the story. I don't want to spoil it so I will leave it at that.

My other half and her friends are writers, we listened to this as we drove around Scotland together. If there had been significant mistakes it would have been torn to pieces, but the writers kept quiet and enjoyed the story.

In some ways the story line is a common one, but this is a good example of the type.

Worth a listen.

Scalzi has imagination, plus! Story is solid and enjoyable. I listen to two to three audiobooks a week as I travel for my work and this was worth the coin. Wil Wheaton is a good storyteller, even though he mispronounces some words (actually worth a chuckle)...so if you like sci fi, you will like android's dream.

Not the best, but pretty entertaining.

This book was a light read and very humorous. Really nice change of pace if you are reading a bunch of very serious books. Not saying this book is not serious at all, but it is a fun read.

Humor and sci-fi make a great combo!

Sharp-witted and funny with outstanding narration. Never thought I could laugh so hard when listening to sci-fi!

Great! More stories very much needed!!!

Superb book. Innovative, serious, but still with Scalzi's trademark tongue-in-cheek humor. Also superbly narrated. Need more with Harry Creek and Robin Baker! Well done!

Surprising and very good!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Android's Dream to be better than the print version?

I enjoyed the pace of the audible version - and I had to think sometimes during the story because of some unexpected twists.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I liked the hero, of course. He was always the underdog, smarter than most, and more deadly but only when necessary.

What does Wil Wheaton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I've been enjoying his cameos on The Big Bang - and his voices fit each character.

An fun tale with a twist

This is a complex and fun tale with a series of strange twists. Scalzi is quickly becoming one of the rising stars of SciFi and there is a reason. Well worth a listen.

Just a great Sci Fi Adventure

I've been listening to a bunch of Wheaton/Scalzi books lately. They never seem to disappoint. This one too.

The story is absurd and odd, but somehow everything makes sense and fits together. The author is talented at creating unusual characters, particularly alien characters, who don't operate based on our logic, but somehow their decisions still make sense based on their own motivations in the story universe.

Scalzi manages to give us enough made up backstory and "history" and cultural background to ground his characters in a "real" fictional world without bogging down the story with heavy info dumps.

Also, Will Wheaton is excellent.