Review | Book review: Zachary ‘Spock’ Quinto reads John Scalzi’s thriller

The Dispatcher
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.