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Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
Synopsis:
“The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity’s first interstellar friendship. There’s just one problem: They’re hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish. So getting humanity’s trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal. Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He’s one of Hollywood’s hottest young agents. But although Stein may have just concluded the biggest deal of his career, it’s quite another thing to negotiate for an entire alien race. To earn his percentage this time, he’s going to need all the smarts, skills, and wits he can muster.” -Audible
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Opening thoughts:
I think this year is the year of John Scalzi. I’ve read so many of his books, I think he’s definitely one of my favorite fiction/sci-fi/fantasy authors by now. I’ve enjoyed his books, writing style, and stories.
Key notes:
Chapter 1
- He was an agent for movie stars and was good at what he did, making money for himself and clients and closing deals
Chapter 2
- Tom’s boss Carl asked him a series of weird questions before asking him to pick up possibly their firm’s most important client
Chapter 3
- He met the alien named Joshua, and Carl told Tom that his job was to make the world ready to accept their species despite them looking and smelling strange
Chapter 4
- He was able to offload some of his clients to another up-and-coming agent named Amanda
Chapter 5
- Joshua and Tom asked each other questions and learned more about each other
Chapter 6
- His client Michelle wanted to do a serious role that took part during the Holocaust, but he wanted to make sure she was serious about it because it could ruin her career
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
- Some of Tom’s clients started dropping him, and he even ended up punching Ben in the face for poaching one of them
Chapter 9
- Carl chatted with Tom and told him how he took care of the press and took some of the publicity heat off of him, and to not worry about Joshua missing
Chapter 10
- The aliens took Joshua up to their spaceship
- Carl explained how their reproductive process involved a sort of soul melding and transfer of information and personalities
- Joshua was named by Carl and was effectively his child
Chapter 11
- He managed to get Michelle a reading for the dramatic role she wanted. Ralph also came back and then surprisingly started to speak
Chapter 12
- Joshua explained how Ralph was dying and to save him, he melded with Ralph. Now they have a meshed soul and Ralph is okay with it
- Carl and Tom managed to get Joshua into a dog commercial
Chapter 13
- Michelle failed the reading and asked Miranda to help take her to the face-molding appointment
- Joshua did amazing on set and was in high demand
- Michelle also ended up in the hospital
Chapter 14
- The face molding had gone wrong and Michelle was in the hospital
- Tom discovered he was listed as the authorized person to make medical decisions for Michelle, and they needed to decide to leave her there or move her
Chapter 15
- He negotiated with the movie producer to let Michelle keep her salary to make him look good because the alternative was worse
Chapter 16
- Joshua broke the news that Michelle was essentially dead and he couldn’t help her in any way, not even combine with her
- He also let them know that she had committed suicide and did it to herself
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
- They made it up to the ship to get the alien’s opinion on Michelle’s situation, whether or not to try and revive/combine with her
- Tom proposed that Gweneth send Michelle’s memories to an impartial human, Jim, to figure out her state of mind before she died to figure out what really happened
- Jim expresses how Michelle took the straws out but then regretted it and tried to find the straws but accidentally fell and knocked herself out
- She really wanted to live after all but couldn’t save herself
Chapter 19
- Miranda agreed to the procedure to copy her brain so that Joshua could see if he could combine and save as much of Michelle as possible. Though there was some risk to it
- The process was completed and Joshua now became “Michelle”, with most of her qualities, some of Miranda’s, and all of Joshua’s knowledge, which made her a perfect combination
Chapter 20
- Michelle had another reading for the dramatic role and she stunned everyone with how well she did that we got the part
Chapter 21
- There was a lot of headline and media buzz around Michelle landing the role, positive and negative
- Michelle won the Oscar for Best Actress
- Michelle used her acceptance speech to reveal herself and her alien race to the world
Chapter 22
- Overall, things went well for everyone involved, and Tom and the aliens took a slow and patient approach to exposing the humans to them
Closing thoughts:
This was a fun book and other good John Scalzi work. I really liked the unique premise as well as the quirky characters, and how they dealt with the strange situation they found themselves in.
Overall, I think anyone who is a fan of this genre would enjoy this book, especially if you’re an avid John Scalzi reader like myself.
Nutshell:
Hollywood agent Tom gets assigned to an alien to eventually introduce their species to the human race.
Similar books:
- Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
- Lock In by John Scalzi
- Armada by Ernest Cline
- Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
Rating:
3.5/5
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