The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi is Scalzi’s first non Old Man’s War universe book. The setting and characters are different, but you can still tell it’s a Scalzi book by the writing and the tone. It’s a fun science fiction, political thriller that starts off with a fart and ends with a sheep.

There are aliens out there and Earth has joined their Common Confederation. We’ve had some issues with a race, the Nidu, who is stronger than us militarily. At a conference to iron out the issues, a rouge Earth diplomat intentionally insults the Nidu. He does this by speaking in the language of the Nidu, smells. The insulting smells are created by a customized fart device implanted in him. Yes. He farts an insult to the Nidu which leaves the Earth and Nidu diplomats both dead.

The Nidu decide not to make Earth into a wasteland if Earth will help them locate a special breed of sheep which is needed for a coronation ceremony. Harry Creek is brought in to help find the sheep. Harry soon finds out that finding the sheep isn’t as easy as he thought and that the sheep isn’t quite what he thought it was either. He’s then faced with a decision that will affect no only Earth, but Nidu’s future as well.

Scalzi writes in a breezy fun style that’s easy to read and moves the plot along nicely. The plot itself has a couple of nice twists and turns that are handled nicely and don’t cause too much confusion for the reader. Scalzi has said that he wants to write another Harry Creek book, so another fun science-fiction political thriller might be on it’s way. Recommended.