Book Review: The Android's Dream

This weekend I read one of the early novels by John Scalzi, The Android's Dream, which is both a political satire, and an Adventure/Thriller story, wherein galactic war may be averted, but only if a specific breed of sheep, "The Android's Dream" (and yes, it is Electric Blue in colour).

The story follows a man called Harry Creek, who has the unique job of effectively delivering bad news to various alien cultures.  It's not a great job (and definitely makes me think of the film Up in the Air), but like George Clooney's character in that film, Harry is pretty darn good at what he does.

Then an old friend asks Harry for a favour, it seems that an alien species, The Nidu, are looking for a specific type of genetically modified sheep, and Harry needs to find it first.

The story bounces around through war story, political intrigue, slapstick comedy and even into artificial intelligence, and in my mind, has more in common with Douglas Adams than with Philip K. Dick (from whom the author clearly borrowed the title - which he states in the acknowledgements), and although it is not nearly as accomplished as Old Man's War - I definitely preferred it to Agent to the Stars - and to be honest, I quite liked Agent to the Stars.