John Scalzi ... He's More Than Just An Author

The publicist at Roc sent me an e-mail asking me: “Won’t you please let us know if you write something about Flood, Stephen Baxter’s terrifyingly apocalyptic novel about the last days of dry land here on Earth?” And I said “Hey, why are you writing to me in blurb form?” And they said “I can’t help myself, because Flood’s gripping narrative of global warming taken to its natural and compelling conclusion has robbed me of my ability to speak genuine narrative and instead I must speak only in flap-copy-ready bites!” And I said, “That kinda sucks,” and they said, “Yes, but Flood, Stephen Baxter’s all-too-plausible vision of the ecological near future, does not!” And that’s pretty much where we left it. All I know is that I’ve been a fan of Baxter ever since he had the last creature descended of human stock attached to a super-tree by an umbilicus in Evolution, because, dude, we all knew we were going to end up as tree monkeys anyway, right? In any event, Flood, Stephen Baxter’s deeply moist tale of heavy-duty civilizational inundation, is out today. Also, it is not Stephen Baxter’s birthday. I feel I need to throw that out there.

He's a darned funny blogger as well.

Not only can he write a great book mention but his sad tale of just why Obama's first 100 days are an abysmal failure brings a tear to the eye ... or a smile to the face. At least it isn't the same ol', same ol' and it entertained.

I knew that John Scalzi had a rep as a writer of funny sci-fi but never could get my hands on his books. Then StarShipSofa featured one of his stories and I loved it. So I finally was able to query the library computer system in such a way that forced it to admit that the Dallas Public Library did indeed have a few of those books and that they would indeed send a couple to my nearest branch. And I see that Agent to the Stars is waiting for me to swing by and get it today. Can't wait for quittin' time ...