The Dispatcher Hits #1, The Front Room is Finished, Hanging Out at NYCC With Adam and Norm
Posted on October 11, 2016 Posted by John Scalzi 39 Comments
Three things! One post! Let’s get to them!
1. The Dispatcher was released one week ago today and during the week apparently a ton of people, hungering for my excellent words and Zachary Quinto’s thrilling narration (and also possibly because it was distributed for free) downloaded it — enough to make it the #1 title on Audible for the last week. Which is pretty awesome I have to say. I will take my #1 titles however they come about, and as it happens I’m really happy this one did well, since I like it so much.
If you haven’t gotten it yet then you can take part in my quest to stay in the Audible top ten for a second week by downloading it this week — it’s still available for free (and will be through November 2nd). Give it a try. It’s good. And if you like it, let other people know about it.
2. The front room is officially finished, with the shelves officially populated with books and things and the cable box for the television set up and so on and so forth, so I thought I’d show you all its final form. I have to say I’m very pleased with how everything looks and functions. I’m especially happy with the TV, which is a 4k job. Yeah, I splurged. Sue me. Oddly enough, however, when I show people pictures of the front room, the thing that they really comment on is the carpet. Yes, it’s purple. And yes, actually in real life it looks pretty great. So there.
3. While I was at New York Comic Con, I got to hang out with Adam Savage and Norm Chan from Tested (you might also recognize Adam from his Mythbusters days) and sat in on their “Still Untitled” podcast, in which we chatted about conventions, fans and the whole nerd life. Here’s the link to their site, but if you’re the super-impatient “ugh do I have to click through” sort, I’m embedding the YouTube version of the conversation below. Enjoy!
Is that Speed Racer?
In the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, Books section, “The Dispatcher” was recommended, Quinto was interviewed, and you were name-checked.
Go, Speed Racer, go!
It certainly is! Better movie than the critics claimed.
I want to add to the chorus of people hoping for more in the same universe!
Yeah, I felt it hit the points that I remembered from my childhood watching the cartoon. And I loved the style. Not sure why it got so much hate.
I enjoyed the conversation on Still Untitled. Watched this this morning on Tested. I feel there is a significantly overlapped Venn diagram between Tested and Scalzi readers.
Finished listening to the book on Sunday, great writing and performance by you and Zachary Quinto, and it was a shame the Tested podcast couldn’t be longer, you, Adam and Norm were great fun.
I’m kind of coveting your carpet, but only a little. I have warm winter gloves in that color, so I’ll make do with them and simply admire your taste in carpeting. Also, I’m renting and that carpet would give the landlord a stroke. :-)
Anyone else get a Harry Dresden vibe from Valdez? It gave the story a comfortable blanket to wrap around the weird and disconcerting.
Room looks good, but lacks cats.
Yeah, when we built our house, when I was in high school (long story) I insisted on white walls and forest green carpet in my room. Everybody thought I was crazy. And then they saw it. The room’s big as it is, but the color scheme makes it look HUGE.
I was going to comment on the (holy crap! that carpet is purple!) carpet but it sounds like others have taken care of the issue.
Otherwise, groovy.
Finished it today. Outstanding. Feels like enough material for a number of stories.
Noblehunter: Funny you should mention Harry Dresden. When Valdez was dragged in to see Tunney I expected Gentleman Johnny Marcone to walk in. This was, after all, Chicago.
Purple. Well, it’s a choice.
I would argue, however, that the room is NOT finished. It lacks the mandatory cat.
The cat is actually in the room, just not in the frame.
I see 25 Years of Tomorrow on that shelf!
Actually, I like the carpet. I think it works well with the room – adds a bit of reflected glow to the walls and makes the whole room work. Also counterbalances all the wood at the end of the room. My only concerns would be that it’s going to be something of a right whatsit to keep clean and looking good, and I’d wonder what shade it fades to under hard sunlight.
I was going to express my delight at seeing Speed Racer on the screen (it was the first Bluray I got when I got an HDTV and Bluray player), but now my delight has morphed in that I am so very amused that I was not the only person excited by seeing it.
This is a belated thank you for “The Dispatcher” which was the first present I received on my birthday. I recommended it to a patient who was getting ready for a road trip (John Scalzi? I loved “Old Man’s War” was his reaction) and I’ll get his review when he gets back.
“The Dispatcher” just happened to be my first audio book – and I *loved* it. Zachary Quinto did a fabulous job, and I will keep my fingers crossed that maybe there will be more Dispatcher books. While I did get this one for free, I would happily pay for the next one :)
Am I the only person who was slightly disappointed that “The Front Room” wasn’t the title of a new story that John was stealthily working on?
The room is lovely, anyway.
But who would narrate “The Front Room”?
(Andrew, we did some business regarding LoneStarCon — could you email me at my name here, with an added 81, at soundalike for big number mail? Thanks.)
Also, I’m liking threaded replies here, John.
Also also. Yeah. That IS purple. I had a purple bedroom in kindergarten and so I know whereof I speak. Yeaaah.
I’ve just finished The Dispatcher. Loved it! Zachary’s audio was also great.
Me thinks that world has more stories in it.
But who would narrate “The Front Room”?
Lurkertype, I’d favor Betsy Brandt, who played Marie Schrader in Breaking Bad. Now there was a girl who loved her purples.
Oh and also, that fella who called out Mr Scalzi for being a different guy in person than he is online? He (I assume it’s a he) did the dramatic flounce; Mr Scalzi’s reaction was the civilized response; and my apologies for not being more clear on that in my phrasing.
Lurkertype:
I don’t have threaded responses on. How are you seeing them as such?
The Speed Racer movie is great on its own…but Jay of ‘Jay and Miles Xplain the X-Men’ makes a very compelling argument about how the film is also a very personal reflection/metaphor on transgenderism and families which made me consider the film (which I already loved) in a very different light.
One thing to consider about Speed Racer in the theater was that it opened a week after a little film called Iron Man opened…a film that INCREASED its viewership by 150% from its opening weekend on the way to becoming the first Marvel juggernaut. Basically, the movie was going to fight an uphill battle regardless. I saw in the theater myself and my family and I loved it. I assume also there’s an element of it being too retro for some audiences or not hitting the right nostalgia level for others. I like it a lot, though.
Thanks for the heads-up for Audible.com. Snagged a copy :) And Adam Savage. How cool is that ?!
Purple carpet – okay – with green coach – Daring!!! I want to redo my woodburning fireplace like yours too (but with different colors). FYI: your pictures are hung too high. Bring them down so the eye-level of a short person is at about 75% of the height of the picture. It grounds the room.
Also (too) I lerv the Dispatcher – I never was into audio books but I can play it on my Amazon Echo – Audible was smart – I’ll get more.
I have no problems with the purple. I do have a problem with the lack of audio equipment. Oh, and congrats on The Dispatcher!
Hey man, ignore the haters who can’t dig the 70’s retro vibe. But, um…no velvet paintings? :-D
1 – I LOVED The Dispatcher (and tweeted about it, it’s the only tweet in my Twitter account right now). I recommended it to a handful of people already.
2 – The room looks great. That “splurge” on 4K was mostly wasted, unless you normally spend your TV watching time with your butt perched right at the very end of that couch on the right. The human eye just doesn’t have the ability to resolve resolutions that high from normal viewing distances (more reading here: https://carltonbale.com/does-4k-resolution-matter/). Having said that, I say “mostly” wasted because (some) TV makers are indeed putting higher end panels in their 4K TVs than their 1080p TVs… But you probably would have been better off spending the same amount of money on a high end 1080p, for overall picture quality improvement.
WearySky:
Trust me, I notice the difference between 1080p and the 4k from where I watch (although the panel also makes regular HD look spectacular as well).
Well, as long as your brain perceives it as better (whether or not it objectively is), that’s all that matters :)
Daisy’s presence tied the living room together. Congratulations to the Scalzis on their completed room upgrade.
Damn if I know; they were threaded yesterday and aren’t today, save for my response to Andrew being indented on my screen. Everyone else is just in one long string as per usual.
Note that I have my WP display set to some extremely aged, kludged Frankensteinian (<– yes spell check, that is TOO a word!) look, so… it's probably just me.
Anyway, I pre-ordered "The Dispatcher" and it arrived the first day as promised; the husband and I are going to listen to it this weekend.
maureen: The “pictures too high” is a guy thing (or at least a non-decorator guy thing). I agree with you, BTW. It’s not a problem in my house b/c a) I told the husband where to put the pictures and b) between furniture, electronics, and bookshelves, we really don’t have a lot of wall space anyway.
AHA! (Sorry for the multiple posts, John)
My comments come out threaded if I go to the post from my WordPress “Reader” list. And John’s comments aren’t green. If I go right to the post, they’re as before.
So a couple of different pieces of WP don’t mesh together perfectly — not a surprise for those of us who’ve been using the free version through all the changes and “improvements” over the years.