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Book Review of The Dispatcher

The Dispatcher
The Dispatcher
Author: John Scalzi
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Book Type: Audio CD
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This was an odd one, but not in a bad way. Zachary Quinto narrated this (almost) chilling tale about death by murder not being permanent. Somehow someone stumbled upon this fact. Death by suicide, accident, natural causes are normal deaths. If a person is murdered, 99% of the time their murdered body disintegrates and they materialize in the place they are safest/happiest, e.g. home.

So of course with this new twist on death there comes a revenue stream and a new occupation. Dispatchers are basically licensed murderers. They work with the government and insurance companies. Dispatching a person who is in a surgery gone wrong saves the hospital and insurance company tons of money because the person is "dispatched" by a appointed dispatcher and they materialize back at home (in most cases) in the state they were in some hours prior to surgery. They still need the surgery, but now they have the added bonus of knowing what went wrong the first time and not making the same mistake twice.

So of course there is a private sector for rich people. And of course there always the chance of something going wrong, which happens in this tale. A dispatch goes wrong and then the dispatcher mysteriously goes missing. Now it's up to a fellow dispatcher and police officer to find out what happened and save the missing person before they die for real.

This was hella creepy and Quinto did a good job telling Scalzi's story.