Reviews and Etc

While I wasn’t paying attention, some nice things have happened, review-wise, for some of my books:

* The Android’s Dream got a good review from the good graces of Paul Di Filippo over at SciFi Weekly, who writes:

[T]he SF ancestors of Scalzi’s newest book are masters like Keith Laumer, Christopher Anvil, Eric Frank Russell and Gordon Dickson—humorists who contemplated mankind’s role as underdog or newcomer among self-serving alien races who were often goofy, nasty, aesthetically repellent or some combination of all three traits. Think of Harris Creek as Jame Retief updated for 2006, and you won’t be far astray. And I have to affirm most heartily that Scalzi has the craft and chops to pull off his homage, upgrading and reimagining what might have seemed a tired subgenre to full-strength comedic relevance and un-put-downability.

Filippo also namechecks Donald Westlake, Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Moore in describing the book. And he gave the book an “A”. As the kids say: w00t! The review is here, but be warned that there are a couple of fairly meaty spoilers.

* Over at The Agony Column, Rick Kleffel has nice things to say about both The Android’s Dream (“[The book], which should have long ago been on your auto-buy list, is another combination of intelligent humor, clever world-building and sparkling prose”) and my upcoming book on writing, You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop Into a Coffeeshop: Scalzi on Writing, of which he says, ” Scalzi’s advice on writing is filled with the same humor and intelligence that makes his fiction so entertaining. And it’s not just about writing fiction, but about all the kinds of writing you might end up doing.” Indeed. Lord knows I’m still writing other things besides fiction. His column on both is here. Coffee Shop is still on track for a February 2007 release, incidentally.

* I’m especially delighted to note the presence of The Ghost Brigades on the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Best Of” list for science fiction this year, sharing the list with work by Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Ian McDonald, Jeff VanderMeer and others. Hey, that’s nice company to be in.

There, we’re all up to date with that stuff.

28 Comments on “Reviews and Etc”

  1. That’s a pretty good crowd you’re running with there, Scalzi. Congrats on the great reviews, and that they keep coming with each book, mighty darn impressivo.

  2. That’s a pretty good crowd you’re running with there, Scalzi. Congrats on the great reviews, and that they keep coming with each book, mighty darn impressivo.

  3. Finally got started on The Android’s Dream. I have only one question so far: What were you smoking when you wrote that? It really isn’t like any other book I have ever read.

  4. Finally got started on The Android’s Dream. I have only one question so far: What were you smoking when you wrote that? It really isn’t like any other book I have ever read.

  5. Any day you are compared favorably with Carl Hiassen is a good day.

    Skin Tight and Striptease are two of the funniest books ever written.

  6. I have it on my Amazon wishlist and will probably order it and some of your other titles next week. I’ve been dying for a new and original Sci-Fi book.

  7. OK, my ability to post with any sense is officialy defined as defective. Not only did I post the same link as John but I managed to post the correction to it in the wrong section. Maybe it’s just been a really, really long Monday. Either that or the snow is gettng into my brain…

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