Scalzi always has a Big Idea behind each one of his books, which he then wraps with action, humor and some world class banter. His characters are always smart asses — the kind I’d like to hang out with, not the adolescent smirking types that I’m utterly sick of. And he always draws me in with the very first line: — in this case “It was 2:48 PM on a Tuesday, and I was about to do the same thing for the third time since I began work at noon: convince some distraught people that I shouldn’t, in fact, kill their loved one.”

The premise of The Dispatcher: for reasons no one understands, if someone intentionally kills someone else, that person will come back to life 999/1000 times — buck naked and in a place they consider safe, with a body in the state it was in about a day earlier. The new Family Compassion Act, gives families the right to request dispatch.

Toss in cryptocurrency, some very rich people with their own twisted philosophy about what makes life worthwhile, and a loner hero with strong ideas about friendship and you have a very entertaining, Scalzi, ride.

John Scalzi understands that many people read fiction largely for its entertainment value. He gets me. This latest novella featuring Tony Valdez, The Dispatcher, is yet another entertaining story that I dispatched in just a few days (see what I did there?). Tony lives in an odd, parallel universe where almost everyone that is killed comes back to life, restored to some previous level of health and in a safe place. Tony is also our first-person narrator and he's just likable enough (despite being essentially a paid assassin, a dispatcher) and snarky enough to keep us engaged as he works his way through the latest mystery that came his way.

This one begins with the arrival of another dispatcher at the emergency room of the hospital where Tony works. Mason's in bad shape and dying, having jumped out of a moving car and gotten run over, and would seem to be a good candidate for a dispatch. But he refuses the services of the on-duty dispatcher and asks for Tony. He just wants Tony to be with him, as the closest thing to a friend he believes he has. After Tony hears Mason's story, he whispers a suggestion to Mason and suddenly dispatches (kills) him. Mason disappears and we're off to the races to discover what secrets they shared and why Mason is on the run.

Scalzi keeps the story lively, deftly introducing a wide variety of characters from all manner of social strata and brings the story to a quick and amazingly satisfying resolution. Even though this is the third entry in the series, reading the previous stories in unnecessary. Recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Basically, I enjoy everything Scalzi writes, and I've enjoyed all 3 books in the Dispatcher series. The intriguing premise is that almost everyone who is murdered then comes back to life in their own beds. This has led to a profession of Dispatcher - who kills people who are about to die, to give them a second chance. Generally, they work with seriously ill or injured people - by shooting them, they give them a chance to come back to life and get medical treatment.

Of course, this leads to all sorts of criminal possibilities, and this series tends to revolve around them. The title of this book leads to one of the more intriguing possibilities - if a criminal with a home in another country is shot, he then wakes up there, allowing him to elude the police.

Overall, it's short and a good read. While the main character is somewhat depressed by his job, and it is a weird sort of profession, it's interesting to read about, and I enjoyed it.

This novella was good, but it didn’t meet the high expectations I had after reading the first book in this series. Now that the premise is well established, that should theoretically leave more room for the narrator’s humor and for additional unique twists. Instead, I found myself not terribly invested in the plot. Apart from the narrator and his police officer “partner,” I didn’t particularly care what happened to anyone. Also, I thought the emphasis on cryptocurrency was tedious and sometimes a bit confusing (especially toward the end).

A well-paced, exciting thriller from John Scalzi. Prior to this book, I've read a fair number of Scalzi's books including Old Man's War, the Interdependency trilogy, Redshirts, and Kaiju Preservation Society. This book felt, well, exactly what I'd expect out of a Scalzi book: action, excitement, humor, and excellent pacing. It definitely delivered, and I would say that if you haven't read any of The Dispatcher series of books, there's no reason not to pick up this one and start here because Scalzi does a great job of introducing the premise early.

Another Dispatcher book? Yes, please! This third entry in the exciting noir science fiction series is one of Scalzi's best. An entertaining, well-written book, suspenseful and engaging. The characters are so well-written I felt like I knew them, and the dialog is sharp (this is where the author truly excels). Big thanks to NetGalley and the Sub Press for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

John Scalzi tends to make me quite happy. His books might not be life-changing or anything of that sort, but in my experience they are pretty much guaranteed to give me a few hours of engaging fun entertainment. And this short novella was not an exception to “Scalzi is awesome” rule.

Scalzi’s Dispatcher SF noir-lite mystery series is set in the alternative present world that differs from ours in one thing: for unknown reasons starting a few years prior 99.9% of murder victims come back to life, respawned to a few hours earlier, materializing somewhere (usually their home) where they feel safe. And that led to the emergence of a new profession — those who are legally allowed to “dispatch” those dying to a state few hour prior when they are still alive, if they are among 99.9% lucky ones. Miraculous quickly becomes routine, even to the point when some may start viewing murder with only 0.1% chance of staying dead as entertainment or even a fast way of intercontinental travel.

Tony Valdez, whom we met in two previous Dispatcher novellas, is a dispatcher closely working with the police and has a knack of landing himself smack in the middle of high-profile crime. This time it revolves around shady cryptocurrency and a few ethically questinalble billionaires, with post-pandemic world thrown into the mix.

It helps having read the first couple of novellas, but Scalzi easily integrates enough backstory to make it accessible even if you use this one as a starting point. And just like the other two, it relies on fast pace, snappy dialogue and well-used humor. There is a bit of handwaving, certainly, and a bit of crime boss-ex-machina, and some decisions that made me facepalm — and yet I still enjoyed it a lot, enough to round those 3.5 stars up to 4. After all, I had a great time reading it.

——————

Thanks to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this book by John Scalzi. The characters are great, and the plot/pacing also. Didn't realize this was a series until about half way through, and I'm tracking down the previous two volumes right away. Can't wait. #TheDispatcherTravelbyBullet #NetGalley

THE DISPATCHER: TRAVEL BY BULLET
By John Scalzi
Published; 3/31/2023 by Subterranean Press
Hardcover: 224 pages


What a hoot ! This is the third installment of Scalzi’s hard-boiled noir sci-fi mystery series. Although it’s best to start from the beginning, the reader can enjoy and devour this as a standalone, Scalzi provides enough backstory that the reader can jump aboard immediately.
The timeline is the near future. Inexplicably, murder is now a “dying” art …. When you kill people these days, nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they come back, reappearing at a safe place (usually home in their bed), naked and confused, no matter where in the world they were killed. But, that one time I a thousand is a real bummer. This small percentage death rate gives rise to a new profession called dispatchers, who are licensed, bonded, and insured. The dispatchers give people who where about to die of natural causes - or die accidentally - a chance to come back and live. How? They save people by killing them. (Usually a bullet to the brain.). Once in a while, they stretch the rules …. like pushing “thrill-seekers” off a water tower. And, if they landed on the ground and didn’t disappear? A bullet to the head .. will solve that problem. The most acceptable job is “dispatching” someone near the edge of a natural death, since a dispatcher can lose his license through nefarious acts.
Reluctantly, Tony Valdez, a professional dispatcher, finds himself confined to the Critical Care Unit of the hospital, dispatching terminal patients for pleading families. He tries to convince them it’s a futile act … because they disappear from the hospital, only to find themselves back in their homes, without medical aid, and still with the terminal process turned back for only several hours. Suddenly Tony in summoned to the ER, where his friend, and fellow dispatcher, Mason is near death and requesting only his presence .. and refusing the regular ER dispatcher. He had thrown himself out of a speeding vehicle on the Dan Ryan Expressway. Mason is known to specialize in the nefarious usage of dispatching. Tony realizes right away that something morally reprehensible has happened. At his bedside he reluctantly accepts a secret handoff of a cryptocurrency wallet before he dispatches Mason. Mason tells him he can’t go home, because there certainly will be unforgiving people waiting for him. Somehow Tony has a suggestion and a method to obviate this disastrous situation. A noted cryptocurrency entrepreneur has just committed suicide at a party, attended by only the one-percenters … totally unexpected and without apparent reason. Soon, Tony and Mason are chased and pursued by the law as well as multiple criminal elements.
Scalzi proves to be a marvelous storyteller as he weaves multiple byzantine plot lines, with unexpected twists and turns into an explosive denouement. His pacing and dialogue is propulsive, leading to a page-turner. He infuses humor effortlessly into his multi-layered characters. This tale, like the other two are endearing and demand further tales … hopefully we haven’t seen the last of Tony Valdez.
Thanks to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.
Addendum: A person can be shot in the head in Chicago, IL and awake almost instantaneously in his bed, in Lyon, France …. Hence: “Travel by Bullet”

Dispatcher:Travel by Bullet by John Scalzi


Ive said it before, and I’ll say it again: I really like John Scalzi’s books, and I enjoy the Dispatcher series, but if you asked me what my one problem with them are, I’d have to answer “core concept”. His worldbuilding is virtually nonexistent- he wanted to write mystery stories, gave them a fantastical bent, and never bothered to explain the how or why of resurrection (but only from murder). It allows him to tell the stories he wants to tell (I assume) but it leaves me unsatisfied, like eating only candy for dinner. That being said, his newest Dispatcher novella, Travel by Bullet, is fun, fast, and entertaining. The book tries to exist in a post pandemic world of occasional masking, which just feels jarring, since the world building in this novella is so thin as to be nearly nonexistent. In spite of all that, I enjoyed it, and will happily read the next volume when it comes out. Thanks to Subterranean Press and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tony Valdez once again finds himself embroiled in a case that will test his friendships and loyalties to death and beyond. A billionaire cryptocurrency exchange owner has died and now everyone is scrambling to best position themselves before a complete collapse of several cryptocurrencies. Those involved will do whatever it takes to remain profitable. The wealthier they are, the more badly they behave. In a world where people don't die when they're killed, murder comes easy, and torture is routine. If you're looking for a relatively short and simple noir-like story with a neat gimmick takes place in Chicagoland of Current Year, then you could do worse than this.

This book brings in contemporary events and their effects, such as the pandemic, and pop culture. I don't know if it's me, but when I see brands used like how they are here I can't help but wonder if they were intended to be casual mentions or native advertising. If it's the latter, it doesn't detract from my experience other than being distracting in that it makes me pause to consider advertising in books in general. I don't mind pop culture if it's contextually appropriate, which it is here.

I continue to think that the premise of the series, that 99.9% of the time people respawn when they're killed could be used in so many more ways than it is. I keep hoping that the next installment will do something more with it, and I keep being disappointed. As it is, this is a mediocre series with a gimmick that doesn't fulfill its potential in almost any way. It's annoying because Scalzi has better explored speculative ideas in his other near future works. For those who aren't hung up on this idea like I am, it's probably a better read.

I've tried both listening to and reading a few audiobook originals now. My current belief is that they are more suited to be listened to rather than read because of how they were written. It's somewhat like how podcast scripts are meant to be listened to rather than read, as reading them would almost surely be a lesser experience. It can be done, but it doesn't seem to be what was intended. The audiobook is already out, so you're interested in this, I recommend getting that rather than waiting for a physical copy, but maybe you want both for whatever reason. That's something people do apparently.

Rating: 2.5/5

I received this advance reading/review copy (ARC) from Subterranean Press through NetGalley. I appreciate being allowed to read it and have provided my thoughts on the book as anyone ought to do for having received early access for free.

The following won't be posted outside of NetGalley
A NOTE FOR NETGALLEY USERS AND WHOMEVER ELSE IT CONCERNS:
I don't know if it was just something particular to my set up, since I don't see anyone else writing about this, but when I read this on my Kindle the formatting was all sorts of messed up. It wasn't enough to stop me from reading, but it probably did detract from my experience. It looked like someone had copypasted a transcription of the audiobook into a text file without any concern for formatting. There were many times where the text would look like the following example, which I've reproduced below:

The lobby security apparently recognized Gomez
and
waved him through to the elevators. Gomez took
out a
card and swiped it against a panel on the wall; a
light
above one of the the elevator doors lit up, signaling it
was
the one we were to use.

This third and newest book in Scalzi's Dispatcher series is another fun, quick read. Incorporating the pandemic and cryptocurrency into his narrative and told from the perspective of his main character, Tony Valdez,Travel by Bullet is a light hearted mystery adventure. Tony has shifted to working in a hospital due to the pandemic and new laws that resulted from the health crisis. He becomes entangled in complicated cryptocurrency manipulated by billionaires, a suicide and the mysterious involvement of a friend in the plots. Scalzi writes this short novel with his usual tongue in cheek snark and wit. Overall this is a very enjoyable read.

Scalzi grew to fame with the Old Man’s War series but had some mostly unnoticed but superb books, such as The Android’s Dream and Agent to the Stars prior to that blockbuster. Since he found fame, he’s been a remarkably uneven author with hits such as Redshirts and fizzles such as Fuzzy Nation.

This one is a fizzle. To be fair, I’m coming into this series with this, volume 3 of the Dispatcher series so may be missing some important structural elements to it. I got a galley copy for review so the published version may have a recap to explain certain aspects of this world that made little sense to me. As far as I can make out, this short book takes place on a planet identical to ours including a Chicago and surrounds, a declared pandemic complete with people wearing face diapers and all else including car models the same but people can’t prematurely die or maybe they can.

Two people important to the plot get shot in a way that would be fatal in our reality. One dies and one doesn’t with no explanation of why the discrepancy. I accepted the die/don’t die business at face and moved on.

The story itself is a shaggy dog one that goes nowhere while remaining remarkably uninvolving. I never developed any interest in the characters or their plight. The protagonist pulls one after another rabbit out of his hat and in the end, the whole soggy mess wraps up with half a dozen more along with a long exposition. I’m all right accepting a world where people can’t die but sometimes do but I can’t enjoy a pointless uninvolving meander which this is.

I’m going 2.5 out of 5 stars rounding up to 3 giving this the benefit of the doubt since I didn’t have volumes 1 or 2 under my reading belt. Uninteresting, uninvolving and unrecommended.

This is the third book in John Scalzi’s noir-themed series.
I listened to this as well as read it. I’ve read or listened to all three of them. I’ll admit, I don’t remember the second one at all.
This one was a pretty decent mystery with a couple of tough turns for our hero, Tony. But quite a few good moments, too.
This book is a good installment to the series and a fun read.
You won’t regret the time spent.

This is the third installment of John Scalzi’s Dispatcher series and it might just be the best. Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher, a job that allows him to legally kill people. In this world if you are killed by someone you come back to life whole and undamaged 99.9 percent of the time. It’s Tony’s job to ‘dispatch’ people who are facing an unintentional or accidental death so that they can come as If it never happened.

In this installment Tony must deal with the Chicago PD, FBI, and a few obscenely rich people. When Tony gets called to the emergency room at the hospital he works at to see his friend who just jumped out of a moving car he has no idea what it will lead to. From there he gets caught up in events that range from cryptocurrency trading, shady real estate deals, and penthouse rooftop gladiator fights. In order to save his friend he must navigate these and other secretive schemes.

John Scalzi has created a series that is both suspenseful, funny, and smart. I hope that somewhere Mr. Scalzi is already working on a fourth installment of Tony Valdez and his dispatching adventures.

"The Dispatcher: Travel by Bullet" is an engaging novella by the bestselling author John Scalzi. The story takes place in a world where under certain circumstances death is not necessarily permanent, with the help of "dispachers". The story follows Tony Valdez, a dispatcher, as he unravels mysteries in a race against the clock to save a colleague and friend of his from a fate possibly worse than death...

Although the premise can be argued to be outlandish, Scalzi does an excellent job of creating a believable and fully-realized world with interesting characters in a cogent fashion. I found this novella to be enjoyable and had a hard time putting it down. I look forward to reading more by Scalzi.

I thank the author and publisher for kindly providing a temporary electronic review copy of this work.

A true what-if story.
What if, when you died, you immediately disappeared and resurrected in your "safe place" in the condition you were an hour or two before. What if it were legal to kill someone to return them to an uninjured state. What if you wanted to commit a crime and immediately escape by killing yourself.

I want to thank NetGalley for an ARC of this book for which I will give an honest review.

Fist off, let me state I am a huge fan of John Scalzi. So I was surprised when I heard about this upcoming book on his blog. This is the third installment in the series. I haven't read the first two but we'll be rectifying that shortly.

I enjoyed this. I don't think that Scalzi writes mystery as well as he writes Sci-Fi, but he certainly can tell a story. His dialog is excellent and he writes good characters. He's a real pro and I almost always read his work as soon as it comes out. This is a good mystery set in an interesting universe. Feel free to stop reading here, everything below is just complaining.

Scalzi can write excellent dialog but this is a story where there were really no likable characters. Witty repartee is just the author gratifying himself if you don't care what the characters are saying. That might be a little too harsh. I really did like the book, but no one in the book was really a redeemable human. But then, based on the subject matter, maybe that's the point.

The third book in the series is just as good as the previous one. Tony is working in a hospital thanks to Covid and a new law allowing for dispatching of people suffering from Covid to let them reset and hopefully recover from the virus. But when an old acquaintance shows up in the ER after being hit by a car and asking for him, Tony is dragged into Mason’s shady dealings. Tony is quickly contacted by his friend from the police dept that he had worked with in the past and asked about what he discussed with Mason. Tony quickly gets dragged into Mason’s dealings with hedge funds and cryptocurrencies. The plot hangs together quite believably and comes to a satisfying conclusion. The story can be read without having read the others, but you do miss on the backstory that Tony has with several characters.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

I like Scalzi. I’m a fan. The guy’s a genuinely fun writer. Like Jeff Strand of science fiction. Series (any series) I’m not such fan of, but Dispatcher tales are kinda sorta worth making the exception for. Not because they are exceptional per se, but because they are fun and really quick reads. At the time of posting this review, there isn’t a paper or digital book listed, only audio, but I’d guesstimate this to easily under 200 pages. About 170 minute of reading or so.
But audio came first, and Dispatcher series might have been meant for audio. It’s how I first found them. Mainly because Zachary Quinto (Mr. Spock 2.0) is a terrific reader. I would love to have listened to this on audio too, but that costs money and Netgalley’s ARC was free, so…
Reading the book was fun too, to an extent. Once you get past (or get refreshed in) the premise of the world where people no longer die properly and instead get dispatched for a 999 out of a 1000 second chance at the go-around, what you have is a fast-paced mystery with a likeable protagonist and some rather convoluted plot including powers that be manipulating each other for more money, because, of course, those types can never have enough.
So nothing special and far from Scalzi’s best, but plenty entertaining all the same. Thanks Netgalley.