Agent to the Stars (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: high speech, breathing straws, hard memories, Van Doren, Michelle Beck, The Biz (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“With a plot that starts out as the rough life of a young agent in Hollywood and rapidly metamorphoses into B-movie territory as a remarkably intelligent first-contact yarn, this book is absurd, funny, and satirically perceptive.”
--Booklist on Agent to the Stars

“If Stephen King were to try his hand at science fiction, he’d be lucky to be half as entertaining as John Scalzi.”
--Dallas Morning News on The Ghost Brigades

Product Description

The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity’s first interstellar friendship. There’s just one problem: They’re hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish.

So getting humanity’s trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal.

Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He’s one of Hollywood’s hottest young agents. But although Stein may have just concluded the biggest deal of his career, it’s quite another thing to negotiate for an entire alien race. To earn his percentage this time, he’s going to need all the smarts, skills, and wits he can muster.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (October 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765317710
• ISBN-13: 978-0765317711
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #99,003 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!, February 15, 2009

By	Kurt G. Helm (Helmsburg, Indiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kurt Helm's review: "Agent to the Stars" by John Scalzi

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK unless you have eight uninterrupted hours to devote to having an incredibly good time with characters you'd like to hang out with and a plot that provides one delightful surprise after another!

"Agent to the Stars" is a break from Scalzi's highly acclaimed "Old Man's War" series with a seamless move from military sci-fi to humorous sci-fi. The plot involves a benevolent alien species, the Yherajk, that comes to help mankind. The only problem is that the Yheraji are not likely to be well received by humankind. They are frighteningly repulsive looking blobs of "space phlegm" and their main form of communication is by a variety of smells; very, very bad smells.

Our hero, Thomas Stein, is an up and coming Hollywood talent agent, still a bit low in the pecking order of his agency, who gets picked by his legendary boss to be the one to take on this alien species as their agent. His job is to "sell" these frighteningly alien blobs to the world as benefactors, not as scary invaders. Along the way the author gets to explore Hollywood hype; holocaust issues; friendship and love; family relationships; the high pressure, superficial life of a Hollywood agent; and how to deal with five gallons of rotten-smelling Jell-O slime with a 180 IQ. All of this with the snappiest dialogue since the West Wing TV show went off the air (Aaron Sorkin, eat your heart out!)

The only flaw I could find (and believe me I feel like I am picking fly-specks out of the salt by bringing this up) is that for the first chapter or two I had a little trouble keeping two of the main characters apart because of the similarity of their names (i.e., Miranda and Michelle.)

Overall, Anyone, regardless of his or her interests, who is fascinated by an author's ability to take the same old words we all use and put them together in such a way that we can see time-worn subjects with a fresh new perspective, will enjoy this book. Come to think of it, I don't think of "Agent to the Stars" as a sci-fi book after all. It is first and foremost a can't-put-it-down, funny as heck, read. The sci-fi part is just background, the skeleton upon which all the enchanting flesh of ideas, images and associations is hung.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a stay up all night reading book, February 9, 2009

By	Monkey "Monkey Moniker" (Seattle) - See all my reviews

John Scalzi just keeps on going from Strength to Strength with his books, and Agent to the Stars is no exception in his October 2008 release. What do you do when you are an agent, who is trying to sell the public on an otherwise fine species who just happens to smell really bad and we would find them very ugly.

Scalzi takes on Hollywood and Spin Doctors in this book, as he explores the idea that the public can be sold on anything, if it is done right. This time the Yherajk have come to earth to start off a new friendship with the planet, only rather than being god like or beautiful (or even looking like angels or Satan) the alien race is just not appealing to the human sense of beauty at all. Bring on Thomas Stein who is given the task of spinning humanity and its view point to appreciate and sell the world on the Yherajk. This is not going to be easy.

This is another must read five of five stars book, entertaining, funny, and in line with the Androids Dream, this is another densely packed and vivid story that is easy to follow, laugh at, and understand/feel the people's issues. This is a stay up all night book reading, and well worth spending time with it, totally "sold".

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, December 5, 2008

By	Scott P. Weiner - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is his first book which he wrote about 10 years ago. It does read like a first book from a sci-fi writer - but when that writer is as good as this one it's a great first book!

I'm very glad I ordered it and read it in no time. I wish he'd write more stuff like this - it was fun to read!