John Scalzi’s newest sci-fi novel, The Android’s Dream, isn’t about androids or dreams, but it is about sheep.  And aliens.  And a little about politics. 

Scalzi has been recognized as an up-and-coming sci-fi author for a while now, and I think The Andoid’s Dream is his best effort yet.  Scalzi combines a Robert Heinlein-like (Star Troopers) future with a penchant for the brilliantly irrelevant tangents of Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon).  Fast, fun, action-packed.  I just have two complaints:

1.     Sometimes when I’m watching a movie or reading a book, I think to myself, “That sounds like something I would write.”  And I never mean it as a compliment.  I occasionally have that thought when I read Scalzi.  But just occasionally.

2.     In the hardcover edition of The Android’s Dream that I read (Tor Books, 2006), there were at least 10 typos–misspellings, wrong words.  That’s just unacceptable from a major sci-fi author and publisher.