Agent to the Stars

In Agent to the Stars, John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton team up again. In this madcap adventure, Mr. Scalzi explores how humans might react if aliens were not humanoid but rather odorous, unpleasant blobs. What follows is zany, difficult to describe with a straight face, yet quite pointed in its depiction of humanity’s obsession with beauty standards. As with all of Mr. Scalzi’s stories, I flew through it, enjoying every second. It helps that Mr. Wheaton is quickly becoming one of my favorite narrators and that he understands Mr. Scalzi’s aims so well. Together, they are audio magic.

Summary: Tom Stein, a young Hollywood agent, thinks he's just closed the biggest deal of his career for one of his starlet clients. And then he meets his new client... a member of the alien race called the Yherajk who goes by the name of Joshua. The Yherajk have been monitoring Earth for a while, and they're ready to make contact, but they've seen enough movies to know that when you look like you're made out of snot and you stink like rotting fish, you're going to have a bit of a PR problem on your hands... or your slime tentacles, in this case. So the Yherajk have hired Tom's firm to represent them, and Tom is tasked with finding a way of introducing the Yherajk to humanity, and with keeping Joshua under wraps until they do -- not the show more easiest thing in an industry where everyone is always looking for the next big thing.

Review: This book was utterly silly, but in the really fun sort of way. It's the first book that Scalzi wrote (although not the first one that he got published), and it is admittedly not quite as polished as some of his later books, although it's quite a bit better than many other first novels I've read. Agent to the Stars is one of Scalzi's "zany farce"-style books, although it's not as intricate as The Android's Dream (where the idea of aliens who communicate through smell reappears), and doesn't have the more serious ethical underpinnings of Fuzzy Nation. That's not to say that there isn't *anything* serious about this book; one of the things the Yherajk can do is take over the bodies and share the minds of other organisms, although they will only do so under strict conditions of consent; Scalzi dabbles with this idea as it applies to things like bodily autonomy and life support / the right to die. But mostly this book is full of a lot of zany alien adventures and fast-talking Hollywood agents. Scalzi's characteristic rapid-fire snarky dialogue is certainly already present in this book, and Wil Wheaton again is the perfect match to read the audiobook - his voice just fits so well with Scalzi's sensibilities. There's not a ton of character development (although there is some, mostly in conjunction with the times this novel brushes up against more serious subjects), but deep multidimensional characters aren't really the point of this novel. The point is: Gross aliens need an agent, wacky misadventures ensue. And sometimes, some wacky misadventures and some good laughs are all you really need. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Fans of Scalzi's later works will find the same fun sensibility and some germs of his later ideas here. Although it's not quite as good as his later novels, it's still a solid pick when you need something fast and fun to read. show less

"We have seen The Blob, and it is us."

A race of friendly aliens want to introduce themselves to Earth. They're wary of our political figures, and besides, political figures only represent countries; American movies go out to the world. So, they decide to get an agent.

Agent to the Stars is a hilarious book with great characters (including, or maybe especially, the aliens) and a fun story. It's also unexpectedly moving at times.

This was Scalzi's first novel, written to see if he could do it, and he posted it on his website for people to read for free (where it's still available).

Humanity has made first contact with an alien race. Unfortunately, they don't yet know that the Yherajk have been sitting in orbit watching TV for decades. If they had, they might not have put on quite so many reruns.

The Yherajk, on the other hand, have got it all figured out. They don't need to land their spaceship on the White House lawn and say, "Take me to your leader." For one thing, they're grey and gelatinous and they smell like rotting fish. What they need is an agent.

Enter Tom Stein, a twentysomething newly minted agent in Hollywood, his hard-as-nails assistant Miranda, his boss, Carl (who alone of the human race has had first contact happen in his pool) and Joshua. An alien. Called Joshua. The great thing about this novel is show more that all of the characters are archetypes - except Scalzi is no good at archetypes, and they all swiftly develop complexities and motivation. And there's snappy dialogue. And plot twists. And people who smell like rotting fish. A lovely, ridiculous, light-as-air book, that lives up handsomely to the delight of the initial premise. I recommend it. show less

Agent to the Stars was absolutely fabulous! Scalzi has been on my to-read list for ages, but I just never got around to it. So, when the audio of this book popped up on my Audible recommendations, I snagged it without a second thought. It wasn't until I sat to listen to it that I realized that Wil Wheaton was the narrator. WIL WHEATON! Let me tell you, he's the perfect choice for this story. Sarcastic, and brilliant. More on that in a second.

I think this was the perfect entry point to the world of Scalzi for me. This book is on the shorter side, but (at least according to my Scalzi addicted friends) still has his trademark sense of humor. I was wholly impressed at how easily he managed to mesh together more serious topics with a dry show more wit that just made me want to laugh out loud. The concept of aliens coming to Earth isn't anything new. However, the way that it's handled here is definitely outside of what we're used to. It was extremely well done, and hilarious to boot! I fell in love.

Now, as a narrator I truly think Wil Wheaton was an excellent choice. He mastered our main character, Tom Stein, immediately. Tom's trademarked dry wit, and no nonsense attitude, came to life in Wheaton's voice. While I admit that Wheaton isn't the best at female voices, he still managed to do justice to all the other supporting characters as well. By the time I reached the middle of this story, Tom WAS Wheaton. Wheaton was Tom. I enjoyed every minute of it.

This just makes me want to go hunt down more Scalzi! If you have some free time, give this audio a shot. It's worth your time. show less

This book just as well start with, "Hi, I'm Joshua. I'll be your alien for the night. And by the way, here's a pair of nose plugs, our race communicates by smell-o-vision." That's the set up for a funny story about an alien race who has decided they want to make contact with humans but know that not being cute and fuzzy makes it difficult to be perceived as good aliens. What the Yherajk decide to do instead, is make contact with the CEO of a talent agency and ask for representation.

This is Scalzi's first published novel, and while not as strong as some of his later work, it's got all the hallmarks of what makes his books so fun and interesting to read. Lots of snark and sarcasm, and lots of creative problem solving. Lots of creative show more problem solving.

Go ahead, you try to think of a way to introduce a race of gelatinous, transparent blobs to the world which won't start a parade of burning torches and pitchforks down Hollywood Boulevard. That's why John Scalzi wrote this book and I didn't.

I do worry about his predilection for aliens who communicate by smell (see The Android's Dream). Is Mr. Scalzi working through some childhood trauma caused by farts? Or is he just a 12-year-old boy still? show less

I'm a big fan of John Scalzi, and I've been wanting to read his first novel, AGENT TO THE STARS, for a while and I finally got the opportunity to when Tor sent me a review copy. (I was going to buy it eventually anyway, but as soon as it arrived, I had to read it!)

The Yherjak are an alien race that want to make contact with humanity, but they are transparent gelatinous blobs who smell like rotten fish. From careful analysis of human movies and TV, they conclude that they're not likely to inspire an accepting reaction. So they do the most natural thing in the world - hire an up-and-coming Hollywood agent, Tom Stein, to handle their introduction. Of course, hilarity ensues.

AGENT TO THE STARS is a rather silly book. Like all of Scalzi's show more work, it's very entertaining and an easy read, but it doesn't examine as many fun ideas as his later work (Old Man's War builds a compelling version of human space exploration, Fuzzy Nation explores sentience and greed). Scalzi started off as a film critic, and this book exposes the breadth of his knowledge of Hollywood, and even though I wished there was more sci-fi, I really enjoyed these aspects.

The characterisation was somewhat one note - everyone is very nice and rational, or can be easily made to see sense and become so. I'm not really complaining, it was similar to an Aaron Sorkin show where everyone is witty and has a similar sense of humour, and that kind of story has its place. The aliens are really polite, and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and their real plan to be revealed. They're actually just genuinely nice aliens, though, which was was a refreshing change of pace.

The biggest problem I had with the book was the ending. I don't want to spoil it, but I found the resolution of the PR problem exceedingly creepy, and it certainly would not make me look kindly upon the aliens. However, if you choose to not think too much about it and read AGENT TO THE STARS as a straight comedy novel, it works really well. It was a bit hard for me to decide how seriously to take the book, since it was ridiculous most of the time, but was occasionally really earnest.

In the introduction, John Scalzi mentions that this book was his "trial" novel, to prove to himself that he could write a full length book. For that, it succeeds tremendously - it's funny, smart and a really entertaining read. It's not his best work, though. show less