Book Review: Agent to the Stars
Earlier this year I reviewed John Scalzi's first novel, the Starship Troopers-inspired Old Man's War. Today I read another of his works, which like his first book featured aliens. However, there is almost no other point of commonality between the two.
Agent to the Stars is a very funny book built around a simple premise: alien visitors want to be friends with humanity, but many years of watching our television and movies has made them realize that their grotesque, blob-like appearance will make this difficult. So naturally they hire an agent to stage manage their first appearance before humanity. Tom Stein, the agent in question, is a nice Jewish boy midway up the ladder at a prestigious LA Agency. His top client is a young blond actress who is known more for her physical assets than her brain. Naturally she wants to be cast in an upcoming art film as a fifty-something Holocaust survivor. Can Tom get her the role, get the aliens introduced to humanity without starting an interstellar war and successfully romance his assistant while impressing his boss? I predict that you will enjoy finding out.
The book is a quick entertaining read. The cover art was done by Mike Krahulik, aka Gabe. This doesn't mean that the humor is Penny-Arcadesque, just that they sort of endorse the humor. Somewhat bizarrely, the copy I got from the library is a signed limited edition copy (#677 of 1500) with a list price of $1500. How did it get into a library?
Agent to the Stars is a very funny book built around a simple premise: alien visitors want to be friends with humanity, but many years of watching our television and movies has made them realize that their grotesque, blob-like appearance will make this difficult. So naturally they hire an agent to stage manage their first appearance before humanity. Tom Stein, the agent in question, is a nice Jewish boy midway up the ladder at a prestigious LA Agency. His top client is a young blond actress who is known more for her physical assets than her brain. Naturally she wants to be cast in an upcoming art film as a fifty-something Holocaust survivor. Can Tom get her the role, get the aliens introduced to humanity without starting an interstellar war and successfully romance his assistant while impressing his boss? I predict that you will enjoy finding out.
The book is a quick entertaining read. The cover art was done by Mike Krahulik, aka Gabe. This doesn't mean that the humor is Penny-Arcadesque, just that they sort of endorse the humor. Somewhat bizarrely, the copy I got from the library is a signed limited edition copy (#677 of 1500) with a list price of $1500. How did it get into a library?