Review | Book review: Zachary ‘Spock’ Quinto reads John Scalzi’s thriller
Humane assassins bring victims back to life in The Dispatcher, a book of impossible possibles, where the direction of death’s arrow is somehow reversed
by John Scalzi (read by Zachary Quinto)
Audible (audiobook)
One of the enjoyable quirks of the audiobook is the occasional disparity in status between author and narrator. Sebastian Fitzek, for instance, has hardly set the world of thriller fiction alight, yet his novels attract A-list readers such as Andy “Gollum” Serkis. Similarly, John Scalzi’s name may not ring bells, but that hasn’t stopped The Dispatcherattracting a reader as positively stellar as actor Zachary Quinto. “Dispatcher” is a euphemistic job description for a humane assassin. Scalzi’s McGuffin is that his victims don’t die, but come back to life. Dispatchers such as Valdez are paid to intervene in tragic, natural deaths to allow poor unfortunates a second coming. Anyone who has seen the movie Looper might hear echoes. Scalzi, too, is interested in impossible possibilities, albeit with less time travel. The book is free on Audible until November 2.
