THE DISPATCHER by John Scalzi

Narrated by Zachary Quinto

Unexpected Impact of One Change to Reality

John Scalzi will forever be for me a purveyor of comedic Science Fiction but here he submits a thought-provoking short story. This is an idea story, a piece exploring the societal impact of a new development—murdered people come back to life. If I had not seen Scalzi's name on the credits I would have guessed that Robert J. Sawyer had written this tale. It took me back to the stories that got me hooked on Science Fiction in the first place; stories that played with ideas. Scalzi comes up with an unusual new reality and then invents some unexpected applications of this new situation that give rise to a very interesting way of life for the title character. This is an excellent entertainment.

Zachary Quinto delivers a subtle, but nuanced performance. His character voices are not markedly distinct like some of my favorites but he is so consistent that the characters are always easily distinguishable. I grew to really like his narrative choice to avoid injecting too much emotion into his voice. He allows the story to deliver the impact.