First things first: Zachary Quinto, he of Heroes and Star Trek fame, does a PHENOMENAL job with the narration. Not only does he perform the role of Tony Valdez, our main character, with spectacular precision, but he has the talent to perform the other roles in the story to a T. He definitely brought my rating of the book up a notch and Audible studios is perfect, once again, with the quality.
Alright, time to talk about the story. In a world, not much different from ours and set in the not too distant future, there is a group simply known as Dispatchers. There role in society is to humanely "dispatch" humans that are near death and give them a second chance. One day they are pushed down an elevator shaft or pushed in front of a bus and, the next thing they know, they are awake in their bed. This obviously cuts down on war and crime in society, but at what cost?
Tony Valdez, our main character, is a Dispatcher. After what seems like a normal day in the field, he is told that a colleague and former friend of his is kidnapped. This leads to a race against the clock to get to the bottom of the investigation, save his friend and avoid being killed himself.
After listening to The Dispatcher, I'll have to move some of Scalzi's works up on my list. He shows off great character development and originality in this story and I can't wait to see what else he has in store. Thanks again, John, for the Audible freebie!
