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The Dispatcher

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The Dispatcher

Written by: John Scalzi
Narrated by: Zachary Quinto
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About this listen

Winner, 2017 APA Audie Awards - Original Work

Zachary Quinto - best known for his role as the Nimoy-approved Spock in the recent Star Trek reboot and the menacing, power-stealing serial killer, Sylar, in Heroes - brings his well-earned sci-fi credentials and simmering intensity to this audio-exclusive novella from master storyteller John Scalzi.

One day, not long from now, it becomes almost impossible to murder anyone - 999 times out of a thousand, anyone who is intentionally killed comes back. How? We don't know. But it changes everything: war, crime, daily life.

Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher - a licensed, bonded professional whose job is to humanely dispatch those whose circumstances put them in death's crosshairs, so they can have a second chance to avoid the reaper. But when a fellow Dispatcher and former friend is apparently kidnapped, Tony learns that there are some things that are worse than death and that some people are ready to do almost anything to avenge a supposed wrong.

It's a race against time for Valdez to find his friend before it's too late...before not even a Dispatcher can save him.

©2016 John Scalzi (P)2016 Audible, Inc. Adventure Fantasy Science Fiction

Critic Reviews

"Quinto has a perfect hardboiled noir manner, which is exactly what you’d want for Valdez." ( Locus Magazine)
All stars
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I loved the story and performance. Little lagging in between but finished well. Thank you. I like Zachary Quinto's naration.

Great story and performance

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Story was Imaginative. I love the audile narration by zachary Quinto. I want to listen to others books narration by him

Excellent audi narration

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Good narration without a doubt. And the story is engaging enough to pibk up the next 2 books i. the series.

Interesting concept

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a feature we must have in real life , good short story, not too much of character build up, very relatable characters.

instant respawn

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Alright, let's polish up that review of The Dispatcher. Here's a revised version keeping your original style and tone:

The Dispatcher is a clear-cut science fiction story that's easy to follow and a very quick listen. The story centers on the life of Tony Valdez, a 'dispatcher' who gets tangled up in the disappearance of his friend.

What I liked about this production is definitely the storyline. It's linear, straightforward, and thankfully avoids any random twists and turns that could have completely confused things in a short production like this. There aren't too many characters to keep track of, and the entire plot is told from Tony Valdez's point of view.

What didn't quite work for me was that the main plot isn't really driven by the main protagonist himself, but rather by the inspector who is pushing the protagonist to move the story forward. That feels like a bit of dull writing, in my opinion. You want your protagonist to be active, not passive, just waiting for others to tell them what to do.

The science fiction element here is very simple and easy to grasp. Since I haven't listened to a ton of these productions, I can't really say how difficult many science fiction stories are to follow, but the author does a commendable job of explaining what's happening and why. It's an interesting thought experiment, which I appreciated.

Overall, you probably won't be disappointed with this production, and spending a few hours listening to it certainly won't hurt.

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