The Dispatcher

Interesting Premise, Dark, and Delivers

Review by: The Audiobook ReviewI've not read much of Scalzi, never really followed his work. I've read Lock In and I think that's the sum total... until this came along. I was poking my way through Audible lists when I found this one trending, and it's premise sounded too interesting to pass by.

A world where murder is effectively impossible. If you're killed, deliberately then you have a 99.9% chance of disappearing, then reappearing safe and sound in bed with nothing of the murder but the memory.

Our protagonist Tony Valdez is a "dispatcher", someone bonded and licenced by the city and insurance companies to kill people if it'll give them a better shot a living. Confused? The scenario the book opens with hashes this out pretty well, where Valdez is waiting patiently as doctors perform open-heart surgery on an elderly man. When it goes wrong, and the man is moments from death, then the dispatch steps in for the "kill". Since the man was killed and didn't die naturally, he had a 99.9% chance of being resurrected.

What follows on from there is a plot that follows this premise that Phillip K Dick could have imagined.

Narrated by the enormously talented Zachary Quinto (Heros, Star Trek, etc) the plot is intriguing all the way to the end. As I was nearing the end of this rather short tale, I stumbled upon the reason it was trending. Scalzi had released a book 2, so this made my night! I was itching to hear more of this world and got it right away.

I listened to one after another, only not quite finishing book 2 because it was too late at night. I've since finished it, so I'll be reviewing that one next!