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Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
Jun. 22nd, 2021 07:23 pmAgent to the Stars
1/5. Hollywood talent agent ends up representing aliens who want to be introduced to humanity.
Bad. I did not realize this was his first novel until the endnote, and, um, it really is. Somewhere in the subsequent twenty years he found his way to that quick, irreverent, pop song about serious stuff style that works for him. This book has some very very early DNA of that, but (1) he is not good at it; (2) there's a lot of weird gender shit in this book; and (3) it makes use of a fictionalized holocaust survivor turned civil rights lawyer that gave me a headache from how hard I was raising my eyebrows. Also, this book presents an argument against ownvoices casting – it's supposed to be some sort of triumph that a blonde non-Jewish white woman plays a Jewish woman, you see – that I would like to think Scalzi would not now endorse, but who knows.
Content notes: References to suicide, holocaust.
1/5. Hollywood talent agent ends up representing aliens who want to be introduced to humanity.
Bad. I did not realize this was his first novel until the endnote, and, um, it really is. Somewhere in the subsequent twenty years he found his way to that quick, irreverent, pop song about serious stuff style that works for him. This book has some very very early DNA of that, but (1) he is not good at it; (2) there's a lot of weird gender shit in this book; and (3) it makes use of a fictionalized holocaust survivor turned civil rights lawyer that gave me a headache from how hard I was raising my eyebrows. Also, this book presents an argument against ownvoices casting – it's supposed to be some sort of triumph that a blonde non-Jewish white woman plays a Jewish woman, you see – that I would like to think Scalzi would not now endorse, but who knows.
Content notes: References to suicide, holocaust.