It Came to Hollywood

By Theresa Gauthier

Book Review: Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

Ever wondered what First Contact would be like? I mean that in the “meeting beings from another world” sense. Most Star Trek fans have entertained the notion. Trekkies and Trekkers celebrate First Contact Day every year on April 5^th to mark the occasion when Vulcans first contact Earth  humans on April 5, 2063 in Bozeman, Montana. (See the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact.) This is, of course, great fun, but what would first contact be like if the aliens we were meeting were not humanoid? What if they were far more dissimilar to humans?

John Scalzi examines the concept in his book Agent to the Stars. The aliens in question are a PR nightmare—shapeless blobs who communicate through odors—but they are bright enough to realize they have to make an effort to present themselves in a better light or risk, well, alienating the human race. With their unique issues, they realize they need someone who would be able to help them negotiate the pitfalls of public scrutiny. Who better than a Hollywood agent? 

The agent in question had a lot to deal with already, and his new interstellar clients can’t be dealt with in the same way as actors looking for their next big project. Puzzling out the best way to present them to a world that would be more inclined to run away screaming than to stick around and get to know just what each of those odors mean presents a conundrum for him. He’s not accustomed to thinking in intergalactic terms.

The aliens in question may be a form humans wouldn’t have anticipated, but there seem to be benefits to it, and the eventual solution isn’t something I would have anticipated.

Scalzi deals with the entire plot in as unique a turn of events as I’ve ever seen a writer employ. Clever, amusing, with characters who don’t quite do what you think they’ll do, but who do muddle through these bizarre events in   believable, if not entirely reasonable, ways, the story shows characters who aren’t always right, aren’t always noble, and are sometimes selfish and opinionated. Deliciously realistic even in the bizarre circumstances—you can imagine things turning out just as they do and you can imagine characters responding just as they do. 

Whether given these identical circumstances in real life, things would turn out as they did, I have my doubts. I tend to be a bit more cynical about the way real people respond in a crisis.  Regardless, the story is better than I would have imagined, and well worth reading.