The Android’s Dream on AbeBook’s Best of the Decade List
Posted on December 2, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 26 Comments
This is nice: The Android’s Dream pops up on bookseller AbeBook’s best books of the decade list, in the company of books like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, White Teeth, Never Let Me Go, The Road and other such tomes. I can’t complain about the company.
It also pleases me to see The Android’s Dream get singled out in this way, because in many ways it’s the underdog of my novels, so I’m always happy to see it get some extra attention. Thanks, AbeBooks.
Update: Also, a bit oddly, there’s a new review of TAD at SF Site today, which calls it “a tense political thriller written by a futurist with ADHD.” Heh.
To me, it’s never been the underdog. In a body of work consisting of nines and tens, it’s always been an eleven, my absolute favorite of your books, and the one with the copy getting very battered from nigh-perpetual re-reading. To be put on the list of best of the decade is utterly right and proper.
slainte
Yeah, The Android’s Dream is some of my favorite Scalzi too. It has the sense of fun that Old Man’s War had (and that I missed in its sequels, not that I didn’t like them on their own merits).
I’m with Macanaz and chaos, John. I’ll go so far as to say that you’re being disingenuous. For my money (and it’s money that has gone to buy Subterranean Press copies of some of your books), THE ANDROID’S DREAM may well be the best of your work to date.
How about a sequel?
Old Man’s War series/universe is great but Android’s Dream is my favorite…
Thus far.
No pressure
“How about a sequel?”
I started writing it, but it wasn’t up to my standards, so I stopped. I’ll get back to it. That said, there is a short story in the universe, which is up to my standards, which Subterranean has made into a chapbook.
This is a bit of a ‘me too’ post – but A’s D is my favorite too. And like the others, that is saying something when taking into account how much I enjoyed everything else I’ve read that you have written.
I know the economics probably aren’t in it, but I’d love to see it done anime style. Maybe a Cowboy Bebop look/feel/and sound. Ah well, I can just make my own private version in my head whenever I read the book.
Wow. And to think I knew The Android’s Dream when it was just a young autographed ARC on my bookshelf.
Oh wait, it’s still there! Hello, my pretty!
It’s absolutely my favorite of your books, too. It’s the one I recommend to people when I say “You should read John Scalzi, oh and his blog is great, too.”
I’d love to see a sequel, but I love seeing my favorite authors building new and fresh worlds all the time, too.
I’ve been waiting for that chapbook since about two hours after SP sent out the email advertising it. Soon… real soon now…
Android’s dream is certainly in my top 5 for books with best opening sentences.
I have to join the “me too” wagon here. As much as I enjoyed OMW and it’s siblings, Android’s Dream had something else that made it really fun to read and has stuck with me. Hmmmm, I feel a re-read coming on.
ben@10: Best opening sentence? Hell, best opening chapter. It is indeed, as advertised, a “chapter-long fart joke,” and yet it’s more than that.
I remain hopeful that we’ll see The High Castle eventually. One of these days.
Have to concur with the rest of the chaps – AD was what introduced me to your writing and your blog. Although I enjoyed what I read subsequently, AD is still my favorite.
“a futurist with ADHD.”
That’s a great quote right there. Do you feel like you’re an adult with ADHD that’s found a way to channel it into something positive? Or is it just funny.
Let’s face it, TAD’s main attraction to me is how each individual move doesn’t seem that bad, it’s just when you add them up as you get through a scene, it goes totally insane. The Arlington mall is a perfect example…
When The High Castle comes up, I’ll get it.
No rush John, I’m a patient kinda guy.
Having just reread TAD over the weekend, I’ve got to agree with Abebooks and the folks who make that wonderful site devoted to…gasp…BOOKS, of all things, work. Hey, hurry up on the sequel or I’ll have to resort to something desperate, like rereading the OMW series (again).
I agree with some of the above comments. Of all of your books I’ve read I like it the best. I think it strikes the right balance between the alien weirdness of Agent to the Stars and the more serious and deep stuff in the Old Man’s War books.
@14 about ADHD
I have adult ADHD, and John, if you actually have this problem, how the hell are you finishing books? I’d really like to know.
The best review I ever heard of TAD came from a friend I bullied into reading it, despite her dismissal of SF as bullshit for poorly-socialised man-children.
“This is really really funny.”
“Ha-ha, or weird and creepy?”
“Ha-ha.”
Word — anyone who can make a chapter long fart joke not only pants-pissingly funny, but stuff in a lot of world-building and make it an essential part of the plot at the same time is a big bag of win.
I think I’ll read The Android’s Dream sometime next year. I read all of Old Man’s War this year and really enjoyed it. Looking back I’ve read a ton of books about war this year, so I’m setting next year’s reading agenda for lighter subject matter and a little bit of nonfiction.
Androids is one of my favorite books of all time. It is incredible.
Always been my favorite work of yours, John.
I remember picking it up early in 2008. I think it may have been the first book I read by you. And oh if it didn’t open up a wonderland of fantastical stories to my feeble little mind!
I bought TAD for my birthday this year and when I was mid-read my other half asked me what it was.
“This has got to be the weirdest fucking thing I have ever read. But it’s good.”
“Who is it by?”
“Scalzi. The bacon cat guy.”
“Oh, right. He’s pretty good.”
I loaned it to him later and mid-way through asked him what he thought.
“This is the weirdest fucking thing I’ve ever read in my life. But it’s good. Does he have any more in this universe?”
“Not yet. I’ll put them on my Christmas list if he ever does.”
I’m chiming in on the side of Android’s Dream as well. An excellent book, which is why I reviewed it early in my podcast – the first regular review, in fact, after calibrating High (“Good Omens”) and Low (“Series of Unfortunate Events”). It definitely deserves all the praise it gets.
I do need to get the Old Man’s War books in there at some point. I think I’m missing a couple, though….
One of the funniest things I’ve done was watching my son-in-law’s face as he read the first chapter, Priceless! Since then, every fart joke reminds me of A’s D.
Nice company, indeed! And well-deserved. Bravo.
Bravo, that’s a fun book :D
By a nice coincidence, I started re-reading Android’s Dream just last night. Good to see my judgment vindicated. :)