Agent to the Stars

This starts out great, with all the sly wit I've come to expect from Scalzi. But I feel like the pacing is poor, and the story bogs down terribly when it gets to extended reflections on bioethics. Not only does this meditation last too long and clash with the tone of the first part of the book, but it feels rather contrived to deliver the outcome Scalzi wants so the plot can wrap up well, rather than an honest philosophical discussion.

Still, this is well worth reading and is overall very charming and fun.

Tom Stein is a young Hollywood agent who used to think that his clients were hard to handle. That was before Tom???s boss assigned him to represent the most important client any agent has ever had to deal with ??? the first aliens to contact the human race.

These aliens ??? the Yherajk ??? have been watching our TV broadcasts for years, so they know a lot about humans. They are peaceful and want to make a good impression, but they know it???ll be a hard sell. That???s because they look like The Blob, smell like sweaty sneakers, and have some powers that humans are going to find very disturbing. In other words, they seem more like fodder for our horror movies than friends. That???s why they???ve asked Tom Stein???s agency to represent them. So Tom gets to dump his difficult clients off on a junior agent so he can concentrate on figuring out how to give the aliens an image makeover before they???re marketed to ... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/agent-to-the-stars/