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The New Coffee Room

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  3. "The Dispatcher"

"The Dispatcher"

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  • George KG Offline
    George KG Offline
    George K
    wrote on last edited by George K
    #1

    Hay @Aqua-Letifer !

    Oh.

    My.

    https://deadline.com/2021/12/zachary-quinto-audiobook-the-dispatcher-series-uri-singer-1234899749/?fbclid=IwAR0Z5rUpMGZB-yD3pUsTx_IO-mmH3DYIJZ-U4E1H-sNQAKinEfSfE9kvkek

    The Dispatcher, created by author John Scalzi, started life as an Audible audiobook narrated by Zachary Quinto.

    It is now being adapted for the small-screen after producer Uri Singer, the producer behind Netflix’s feature film adaptation of Don DeLillo’s Underworld, acquired the rights.

    The Dispatcher takes place in Chicago in a distant future in which it becomes almost impossible to murder anyone – 999 times out of a thousand, anyone who is intentionally killed comes back. The ongoing series follows Tony Valdez, a Dispatcher – a licensed, bonded professional whose job is to humanely dispatch those about to die, so they can have a second chance to avoid the reaper. He teams up with Chicago PD detective, Nona Langdon, to help save those at death’s crosshairs and solve the crimes that put them there.

    It is written by Scalzi, the former president of the Science and Fiction Fantasy Writers of America, who has written novels including Redshirts and the Old Man’s War series, and who has had three of his short stories adapted as part of Netflix’s Love, Death, & Robots. The streamer is also developing Old Man’s War.

    Hay @jolly !

    Read this again:

    The streamer is also developing Old Man’s War.

    I loved "Old Man's War."

    "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

    The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

    1 Reply Last reply
    • Aqua LetiferA Offline
      Aqua LetiferA Offline
      Aqua Letifer
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      I. AM. MOST. DOWN.

      Please love yourself.

      George KG 1 Reply Last reply
      • Aqua LetiferA Aqua Letifer

        I. AM. MOST. DOWN.

        George KG Offline
        George KG Offline
        George K
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        @aqua-letifer said in "The Dispatcher":

        I. AM. MOST. DOWN.

        The thing that's great about Scalzi is that he takes common ideas, and weaves a great tale about the concept.

        "Lock-In" is a good example.

        "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

        The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

        Aqua LetiferA 1 Reply Last reply
        • George KG Offline
          George KG Offline
          George K
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Well....

          https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/john-scalzi-redshirts-optioned-tv-series/

          "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

          The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

          1 Reply Last reply
          • George KG George K

            @aqua-letifer said in "The Dispatcher":

            I. AM. MOST. DOWN.

            The thing that's great about Scalzi is that he takes common ideas, and weaves a great tale about the concept.

            "Lock-In" is a good example.

            Aqua LetiferA Offline
            Aqua LetiferA Offline
            Aqua Letifer
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            @george-k said in "The Dispatcher":

            @aqua-letifer said in "The Dispatcher":

            I. AM. MOST. DOWN.

            The thing that's great about Scalzi is that he takes common ideas, and weaves a great tale about the concept.

            "Lock-In" is a good example.

            Definitely his strongest skill is character development. Means he could write about a trip to Wal-Mart and I'd read it.

            Please love yourself.

            George KG 1 Reply Last reply
            • Aqua LetiferA Aqua Letifer

              @george-k said in "The Dispatcher":

              @aqua-letifer said in "The Dispatcher":

              I. AM. MOST. DOWN.

              The thing that's great about Scalzi is that he takes common ideas, and weaves a great tale about the concept.

              "Lock-In" is a good example.

              Definitely his strongest skill is character development. Means he could write about a trip to Wal-Mart and I'd read it.

              George KG Offline
              George KG Offline
              George K
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              @aqua-letifer said in "The Dispatcher":

              he could write about a trip to Wal-Mart and I'd read it.

              LOL.

              He has a very "conversational" style of writing, making it totally accessible.

              Another sci-fi series in the same vein is the "Bobiverse" books.

              Amirite @LuFins-Dad ?

              "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

              The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

              Aqua LetiferA 1 Reply Last reply
              • George KG George K

                @aqua-letifer said in "The Dispatcher":

                he could write about a trip to Wal-Mart and I'd read it.

                LOL.

                He has a very "conversational" style of writing, making it totally accessible.

                Another sci-fi series in the same vein is the "Bobiverse" books.

                Amirite @LuFins-Dad ?

                Aqua LetiferA Offline
                Aqua LetiferA Offline
                Aqua Letifer
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                @george-k said in "The Dispatcher":

                @aqua-letifer said in "The Dispatcher":

                he could write about a trip to Wal-Mart and I'd read it.

                LOL.

                He has a very "conversational" style of writing, making it totally accessible.

                Another sci-fi series in the same vein is the "Bobiverse" books.

                Amirite @LuFins-Dad ?

                [Inside baseball]
                When writing character dialogue, you need to throw out everything you ever learned about creative writing. Park your brain at the door and let your ear do the driving.

                Any of your kids, nephews, nieces, etc. really good at impressions or mimicry? They'd make very good dialogue writers with some practice.

                A lot of writers can't do this, though. They haven't trained their ear. They don't know how to listen in that particular way. A great many writers have beautiful prose but their dialogue sounds like... well, beautiful prose. Not at all like a person. They don't know how to sound like a character instead of themselves.

                Scalzi is one of the best.
                [/Inside baseball]

                Please love yourself.

                1 Reply Last reply
                • JollyJ Offline
                  JollyJ Offline
                  Jolly
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  Above all, a good writer is a good storyteller.

                  Scalzi is a good storyteller.

                  “Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”

                  Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton

                  George KG 1 Reply Last reply
                  • JollyJ Jolly

                    Above all, a good writer is a good storyteller.

                    Scalzi is a good storyteller.

                    George KG Offline
                    George KG Offline
                    George K
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    @jolly to this day, I'm grateful to you for turning me on to "Old Man's War." A remarkable, and epic series.

                    Scalzi's style led me to explore his other works (I think "Fuzzy Nation" is my favorite). He has a sense of humor, irony and he can be really sensitive ("Fuzzy Nation" and "Lock-In").

                    "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                    The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    • George KG Offline
                      George KG Offline
                      George K
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      Started "Murder by Other Means" today.

                      So Scalzi.

                      Only about ¼ of the way through, and it makes me sad that there's not more.

                      Looking forward to the Amazon's series.

                      "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                      The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                      Aqua LetiferA 1 Reply Last reply
                      • George KG George K

                        Started "Murder by Other Means" today.

                        So Scalzi.

                        Only about ¼ of the way through, and it makes me sad that there's not more.

                        Looking forward to the Amazon's series.

                        Aqua LetiferA Offline
                        Aqua LetiferA Offline
                        Aqua Letifer
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        @George-K said in "The Dispatcher":

                        Started "Murder by Other Means" today.

                        So Scalzi.

                        Only about ¼ of the way through, and it makes me sad that there's not more.

                        Looking forward to the Amazon's series.

                        Let's be honest, Scalzi's good fun, but he's not who I think about when I think of versatile writers. He's got a handful of tricks in his bag that he always pulls out. Always uses them very well, but it's the same bag of tricks.

                        The Dispatcher series is a little different, though. It reminds me a lot of Glengarry Glen Ross (the play and to a lesser extent the movie): The plot is revealed through a series of extended dialogues that take place in distinct settings. It's also kind of like radioplays, or lower production theater. I really like that. It's different, he doesn't shove it down your throat and it just works as a way to tell these particular stories.

                        Please love yourself.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        • George KG Offline
                          George KG Offline
                          George K
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          Finished it this morning. It was...okay.

                          Not Scalzi's best, and certainly without the snark and humor that I've enjoyed in his previous works. It's almost as though he was trying to be the Scalzi I've enjoyed in the past, and failing at it.

                          Too many twisty-hoops to get the story told. Too many irrelevant characters introduces, just for the sake of making the novella "just long enough."

                          It was a nice enough story, and would probably be a good fit for a Netflix/Amazon series.

                          As a sequel to the first novella, it was a "Meh plus a half."

                          "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                          The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          • LuFins DadL Offline
                            LuFins DadL Offline
                            LuFins Dad
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            I liked it well enough… I just started a reread of Old Man’s War. I never read the sequels so I want to refresh my memory then dig into the sequels.

                            The Brad

                            George KG 1 Reply Last reply
                            • LuFins DadL LuFins Dad

                              I liked it well enough… I just started a reread of Old Man’s War. I never read the sequels so I want to refresh my memory then dig into the sequels.

                              George KG Offline
                              George KG Offline
                              George K
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              @LuFins-Dad I loved "Old Man's War."

                              The sequels, IMO, are better than the original story. I particularly loved "Zoe's Tale," which tells the same story as another book - I forget which one - but from a different perspective.

                              "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                              The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              • LuFins DadL Offline
                                LuFins DadL Offline
                                LuFins Dad
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                I just re-listened to these on Audible. Fun stories… And Zachary Quinta was on point for the narrator. I don’t think Will Wheaton would have done as well…

                                Any word on the Amazon series?

                                The Brad

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                • LuFins DadL Offline
                                  LuFins DadL Offline
                                  LuFins Dad
                                  wrote on last edited by LuFins Dad
                                  #16

                                  Oh…

                                  Were @George-K and @Aqua-Letifer aware of https://www.audible.com/pd/B0B8387XQX?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=pdp

                                  540FDB15-1979-41C6-8284-8DD07A451008.jpeg

                                  The Brad

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  • Aqua LetiferA Offline
                                    Aqua LetiferA Offline
                                    Aqua Letifer
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    Yup, already listened.

                                    Please love yourself.

                                    LuFins DadL 1 Reply Last reply
                                    • Aqua LetiferA Aqua Letifer

                                      Yup, already listened.

                                      LuFins DadL Offline
                                      LuFins DadL Offline
                                      LuFins Dad
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      @Aqua-Letifer Damnit.. I had a murder idea coming out of the 2nd book that I thought would be an interesting idea to explore and was going to post it… I’m midway through the first chapter and it looks like Scalzi beat me to it!

                                      The Brad

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