I always enjoy a Dispatcher book and Travel by Bullet is no exception. Thinking through how the pandemic and dispatching would intersect really appealed to the healthcare worker in me, and jeez if [spoiler] doesn't sound like exactly the kind of thing that [spoilers] would do.

An excellent book as always.

John Scalzi is one of my to-go author. When I don't know what to read, or when I'm tired of reading, he is one of those I will choose without hesitation.
This book is intended for young readers, but I spent a real good moment with these adventures. I like the fact to take young people in this near future where life after death is a reality. That's always good to have an adventure story which also include deeper subjects to think about.

Stars: 4 out of 5.

I liked this novella - it's perfect for a lazy afternoon when you don't particularly want to commit to a longer book. It's fast-paced and engaging, and still manages to deliver a decent portion of worldbuilding.

And what a fascinating world it is. Imagine a world where murder doesn't exist anymore. And by that I mean that a murder victim will reappear in a place they consider safe and will be unharmed, though will retain the memory of the murder. Oh, that doesn't eliminate death in its entirety. Accidents still happen, and illness, but murder? in 99.99% of the cases, the victim will be alive again.

It's interesting to see the changes that this brings to society. And to see the good and bad that this brings in humanity. On one hand we have government sanctioned dispatchers whose sole job is to murder people who would otherwise die a permanent death so that they have a second chance. For example, someone is in a bad car accident and is moments from dying. The doctors can't save them fast enough. If the dispatcher murders that person, they have a 99.99% chance to reappear at their home safe and healthy, like the accident never happened. Sure, there is that little 0.01% chance that they will fail to reappear, but that's better than certain death, don't you think?

On the other hand, we have people who use their power and influence to make others compete to the death to gain their favors, be it a lucrative construction contract, a job position or a refence that the other person needs. It is immoral and frankly horrifying. So what if the murder victim will technically survive? Both the murderer and the victim will still keep the memories and the trauma of the event.

This is my second foray into this series, since I read the first book, and I must admit that I'm loving it. The concept is original and I enjoy watching where the author will take it. I will definitely also check out the second book that I somehow missed.

My only complaint about this particular book is that the main characters is a bit bland. We really don't get to see what makes him tick. I still don't know what his motivation is in doing what he is doing.  But since I love the concept so much, I am willing to forgive a blah protagonist.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

John Scalzi's Dispatcher series is a fun, fast-paced, pulp-style scifi adventure series. The basic premise is that sometime, not too long ago, something happened (no one knows what or why - that's not important) so that 99.9% of the people who are murdered come back to life, naked, in the place they feel most comfortable (typically a bedroom at home, but certainly not always).

This has given rise to the legitimate profession of 'dispatching' wherein someone facing an untimely death (such as a medical procedure or an accident) can be dispatched (ie: murdered) and their life is reset. Our series protagonist is Tony Valdez, a 'dispatcher' who works closely with the police.

Now, with the pandemic in full swing, Tony is working quite regularly at a local hospital, dispatching patients who are likely to succumb to the COVID virus (only after carefully explaining the potential downsides to the individual and their families) with the hopes that they would be reset without the virus. His work is extremely busy.

He gets called away by one of the only people for whom he would leave his work - a fellow Dispatcher who's asked for his help. Not surprisingly, some have found a way to use the dispatching concept to scheme, steal, and smuggle everything from cash to cryptocurrency and now Tony's caught up in it.

Aside from the concept, which I really like, I greatly appreciate the pulp scifi/noir feel to this series. Tony Valdez is really a different kind of protagonist. He's a killer ... a legally sanctioned killer. But killing people, even if they should come back to life (and whether they do or don't is not obvious to Tony), can take an emotional toll, which is why a request for help from a fellow Dispatcher is taken seriously.

Don't look for a lot of character development. Valdez is the most fleshed-out character here and even with that we're getting a character who is pretty much the embodiment of all of Scalzi's leading men. The rest of the people appearing in this book...? They aren't going to stand out - they're there to help bring home the story and not much else.

Considering the killing and mob-like actions, this is actually some pretty light reading. It is pulp fiction, after all - fast-paced, wise-talking protagonist who gets the upper hand over some not-so-bright bad guys. Sometimes that's just the kind of book you need, and Scalzi delivers it well.

Looking for a good book? The Dispatcher: Travel by Bullet is a short, fast scifi pulp mystery by John Scalzi. Great for a weekend get-away read (but get-away by car, bus, train, or plane and not by bullet, please).

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I accidentally started this work not realizing it wasn't the first of its series but rather the third. That said, I picked up on the premise and character quickly enough in the opening pages that I didn't realize I was missing the prior works until I looked it up to review. As such, while I did not feel I was missing any breadcrumbs/pieces to the plot, there may have been more found in the previous books that I'm unaware of.

Travel by Bullet is a fast-short short work that attempts to balance elements of thriller/noir with sci-fi in an ambiguously comtemporary/future/parallel setting where death is rarely permanent. While I was initially intrigued by the premise, I felt the work dragged and was unable to hold my attention for long.. I think the problem was twofold. First, in a world where death is rarely permanent, the stakes felt flimsy despite Scalzi's best attempt to inject some fear and emotion into our characters' plights. The second, more problematic issue is that it feels like Scalzi stumbled right into one of the bigger paradoxes in sci-fi: the more contemporaneous/ 'current'/'real' a setting, the more dated and immersion-breaking the setting feels. While I can understand Scalzi's desire to integrate recent events and topics like the pandemic and cryptocurrency, I felt these items bogged down the narrative and distracted from the core of the book. There's a reason why books that have starships being controlled by vacuum tubes and magnetic tape have survived the test of time and remain in high regard despite their dated tech.

The climax of the book was fine, but here just a few weeks later I can barely remember most of the reveals or twists. Overall, it was a decent, short read, though I'd recommend the audiobook if one chooses to pick it up as I'm sure Tennant would add an enjoyable element. Thanks to the publisher and Goodreads for providing me access to the written ARC!

In a Chicago where those who are murdered come back to life, Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher, someone who kills those severely injured or dying of other causes in order to give them back a full life. Tony wants to be an investigator, but his job keeps him locked in place. When a former friend shows up with a USB full of crypto and killers on his trail, Tony lands in a standard noir flick with some cyberpunk elements. Read it for the crypto put downs and the imaginative ways to die. Seriously, the highlight of this book was all of the inventive insults for the funny money of variable value that only exists for fraud.

I'd never heard of this novella by Scalzi before, and it displays all of the usual charm and banter of his other works. I assume this has been updated post-Covid, and I like how the experiences of the past few years are discussed in the book. I don't know if the library will purchase this but if they do, I'll recommend it to fans of his and those who like light sci-fi and/or humor.

This is a fun way to spend a couple of hours; it is by no means among Scalzi's best, but it's pretty good. It's more or less Scalzi's take of the noir genre - our hero is a righteous man with a shaky relationship with both the cops and the mob, our villains are corrupt billionaires, and the dialogue is snappy. The plot zips along, with a good share of twists and turns, and the characters are well-drawn if based on familiar noir archetypes.

3.5 out of 5
a good addition to the dispatcher series. first time for me reader vs to listening to audio version. i enjoyed this as much as the other two books.

that said nothing spectacular here. good ole' scalzi on display with all his strengths expanding on the world built here. if you are not a fan of the series or scalzi you can pass but still a fun quick read. i'd have liked more action on the screen in the later stages but good 'nuff.

Thank you to Netgalley and Subterranean Press for providing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

7 / 10 ✪

https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/04/23/travel-by-bullet-by-john-scalzi-review/

Sometime in the near future, the world will change. When someone is murdered, they come back; returning to a place of personal safety, naked as the day they were born. Nowadays, society has created a new role to exploit this quirk of creation—a killer for hire, but in order to save lives, rather than steal them.

Tony Valdez is a dispatcher, and life has never been busier. The pandemic has ravaged the world, and people are dying. Most of the time dispatching those that are near death does nothing—sometimes even helping quicken their demise. But the public is scared, and the scared often do stupid things.

When Tony is summoned to a Chicago ER, he is confronted by a familiar face: a fellow dispatcher. But Mason isn’t looking too hot. He’s been cut and bled, hit by a car and is suffering internal bleeding, hemorrhaging, and organ failure. In short—without dispatching, he’ll die.

But Mason is resisting being dispatched, saying he’d die first. And it’s up to Tony to convince him otherwise.

All Tony wants to do is keep his friend safe, but to do that he’s forced into a conspiracy involving billions of dollars in cryptocurrency, murder, betrayal, and a new and innovative form of travel—by bullet.

—

"How much money?"
It occurred to me that I hadn't actually thought about how much money to ask for. I went for the first number I could think of. "I want three point one four million dollars."
Williamson thought about this for a second. "You want pi million dollars."
"Yes," I said.
"Why pi?"
"It's a nice round number."
"It's literally not."

—

For a series set in the “near future”, I certainly didn’t expect the Dispatcher to return us to the not-so-distant past. But that’s the problem with a book set in the near future—when something like the pandemic happens, you can’t just write it into all your books without at least one of them reducing the timeline to nonsense. Now, the bad news is that I was pretty annoyed by this obvious mistake that’s completely central to the plot. The good news is that that’s really my main complaint.

All in all, I actually quite enjoyed this one.

That said… I mean, yeah, most of the plot revolves around issues that are topical to the near PAST, but that doesn’t mean that they ruin the story itself. Pandemic and cryptocurrencies aside, the conspiracy of corruption and greed reads about how one would suspect. It’s generally straightforward—something I’d expect from Scalzi, to be honest—but with some nice twists thrown in, particularly those from the world of the Dispatcher itself, particularly the concept of “travel by bullet”. But, to be fair, this installment neither pioneers the concept nor leans into it nearly as much as I’d’ve suspected. There’s really only one instance, and it’s pretty close to the beginning.

As for the rest of it, well, there’s not a whole lot of the dispatcher world involved in the conspiracy. There’s some (as I’ve previously noted), but I’d’ve liked to see more science fiction in this supposed science fiction novella. Don’t get me wrong—I actually quite enjoyed the story, especially at the time, but looking back on it… there were a decent amount of world-building points that annoyed me. In the end these all kind of evened-out. I’d definitely recommend Travel by Bullet—it progresses the Dispatcher story, and indicates that Scalzi likely will return to the world again (both things that I’d be a fan of)—but not without a few caveats. The “near-future” set in the recent past is a big one, but so is the lack of a wholly Dispatcher world. Overall… it’s a good read, just try not to read too much into it.

Fans of John Scalzi won't be disappointed with the third installment of the Dispatcher series.

Once again, readers follow the main protagonist, Tony Valdez, as he navigates the shadier aspects of his job. Tony's snarky and witty interpersonal communication skills are those everybody wishes they had in situations where a snappy comeback is desperately needed.

This book follows the same pattern as the previous two in the series; people die and rich people doing stupid things because their wealth allows them to get away with it. Tony works with the Chicago PD to solve the mystery of the man who travels by bullet.

Recommended for people looking for a short, easy to read thriller mystery with a sci-fi twist.

I received a copy of this work from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

John Scalzi is one of my favorite authors, He consistently produces works that contain truly innovative and integrated worlds, while also crafting believable characters and story arcs. While The Dispatcher: Travel by Bullet is definitely clever, Scalzi has an atypical miss as far as world-building is concerned. This doesn't mean that this is a bad book, in fact it is a very entertaining read. The problem is that the central premise isn't really ever explained, and the world that we are immersed in doesn't seem like it reflects the impacts that such an ability would manifest.

Still a solid read, and entertaining enough for a lazy Sunday style read. 7 out of 10.

The Dispatcher: Travel by Bullet
by John Scalzi

Pub Date: April 30, 2023
Subterranean Press

My Rating: 3.5 Stars - if you want a short, fun read with sci fi, action, and witty dialogue, a John Scalzi book is what you need.

Publisher synopsis: The world has changed. Now, when someone is murdered, they almost always come back to life—and there are professionals, called “dispatchers,” who kill in order to save lives, to give those near the end a second chance. Tony Valdez is a dispatcher, and he has never been busier. When Tony is called to a Chicago emergency room by an old friend and fellow dispatcher, he is suddenly and unwillingly thrown into a whirlpool of schemes and plots involving billions of dollars, with vast caches of wealth ranging from real estate to cryptocurrency up for grabs.

My review: I love John Scalzi and I can always count on him for an entertaining read. (If you like sci fi and haven’t read The Collapsing Empire please do yourself a favor and go do that rn.) The Dispatcher: Travel by Bullet is fast paced and action-y with a smart main character and interesting, fleshed out side characters. This is the third book in this series but the first one I’ve read and I’m excited to check out the others. I probably would have enjoyed this book more had I read the other two first as the “rules” of dispatching and the world building were left up to the reader to figure out from the context. There wasn’t much explanation in the story but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book overall.

I have read John Scalzi’s The Dispatcher: Travel By Bullet pretty much in one sitting, Scalzi is that good a storyteller. This long novella has his trademark banter, plotting and interesting characters, in his Dispatcher series where murder victims will (almost) always come back to life. Although Scalzi’s books tend to be a fun read, there is always a serious core underneath, giving some weight to the story. I would strongly recommend this book, the sf is well thought out and the mystery is interesting.
I would note this is the third book in the Dispatcher series, and while you could certainly read this book first, some of the characters you meet will resonate a little more if you have read the first two books in the series, also highly recommended.
@SubPress
e-ARC provided by NetGalley for review purposes

I picked up The Nanny Preservation Society on a whim and now I'm on a mission to read through Scalzi's other books. The Dispatcher: Travel By Bullet is the third in the series. I wasn't lost even though I haven't read the first two. I just love the way he writes. Its fun, engaging, and fast paced. Its always a good time.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced digital copy.

John Scalzi has a new mystery set on an Earth where people return alive naked to a safe place after murder or accidental death. Tony Valdez is a dispatcher, hired by Hospitals to murder people dying from surgeries gone bad so they return ready for a new attempt at the surgery. In the latest; The Dispatcher: Travel by Bullet(hard from Subterranean Press ) a corrupt dispatcher from the other books, Mason Schilling has almost died in a car accident. It turns out he’s involved in the maneuvers of a few crypto billionaires, one of whom has committed suicide at a party. Before long the billionaires are sending goons after Tony who may have a missing cyber wallet from the suicide victim. Fun.

This is the third of Scalzi's Dispatcher series. The central idea is that all of a sudden, people who die at the hands of another person reappear alive, at home in their beds. This leads to the creation of a new profession: dispatchers, who are responsible for ensuring that people die in a way that permits them to come back. However, the pandemic and a new law have been putting tremendous stress on the dispatchers.

Dispatcher Tony Valdez is summoned to an Emergency Room. The ER has its own dispatcher, but the patient has demanded to see Tony before being dispatched. Tony gets dragged into a conflict between ruthless billionaires who are searching for something that the patient had. The plot includes cryptocurrency, insatiable greed, and a new way of escaping the law: having a confederate shoot you, enabling you to travel by bullet.

In a world where deliberate killings result in the victim re-appearing at home in a reset state, dispatchers have the job of euthanizing those critically I'll or injured to give them a reset. One such dispatcher, Tony Valdez, becomes involved in a complex mystery when a fellow dispatcher asks for his help.

This is one in a series of novellas featuring dispatcher Tony Valdez. I hadn't read the prior installments, but the concept is so simple and easily explained that it was not difficult to quickly understand this world and the characters in it. While the high concept makes it appealing, it really is just window dressing for what is, ultimately, a well-realized hard-boiled detective story. And I have absolutely no problem with that.

To be honest, the author is why I read this more than anything. I'm greatly enjoying John Scalzi's novels and this novella contains the key elements that keep me reading his work, primarily well-rounded characters and snappy dialogue. The plot, while dealing with 21st century concepts, is essentially right out of a Raymond Chandler novel. While not as swimming in high-concept science fiction ideas as many of his books, this still read well, moved along at a crisp pace and never overstayed its welcome.

[Blurb goes here]

If there's a new John Scalzi book out there, I will read it, no other way about it. Maybe it happened to you as it did to me: Old Man's War is still one of my favorite Sci Fi novels.

In The Dispatcher: Travel by Bullet, we revisit Tony Valdez, he's a dispatcher. What's a dispatcher, you ask? Well, as the job title entails, he's someone who dispatches people. For reasons unknown, something changed in the world: if you murdered someone, 99.9 times out of a hundred, the victim would return to life, not in the same place, though. He would return somewhere he would feel safe. Like in bed, at home.

Dispatchers work with all sorts: sick people who might be saved if someone killed them and brought them back to life. There's a catch, though (with Scalzi, there's always one,) the victim returns as in the same state he was hours, a day even, before his murder. So dispatchers are, in essence, seen as life saviors. To put it another way: you got run over by a car, you're dying. A dispatcher kills you, thus saving your life.

As for the story, it's a simple who-done-it, with some corporate intrigue. I was expecting (hoping) for Scalzi's dark sense of humor to jump out of the pages. Sad to say that it didn't. If I had to guess, just by reading the story, it looks as if his heart wasn't in it.

Still a very enjoyable read for Scalzi fans.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

My first John Scalzi book and it has me very intrigued to read more. The story and setting were captivating and resulted in an easy and enjoyable read.