By All/Other Means...

A couple of years back, I wrote in praise of an audiobook novella that introduced me to writer John Scalzi, The Dispatcher. Now Scalzi is back with a sequel, once again read by actor Zachary Quinto: Murder by Other Means.

The premise of the original was tantalizing enough that a revisit seems worthwhile, even inevitable. Both stories are set in an alternate version of our own world in which murder has become virtually impossible. Whenever a person is deliberately killed by someone else, there's a 999-out-of-1000 chance that they instantly reappear in their own home, physically unharmed. "Dispatchers" are freelancers you can hire to deliberately kill you if you're undertaking a risky surgery, engaging in some dangerous activity, or might otherwise need to be "murdered" to get out of trouble. Where the first story focuses on a situation that arises from an unlikely 1-in-1000 miss, this second tale engages in efforts to find a loophole around the other 999.

All the significant characters from the first story return -- though as before, I found the world and the narrative the bigger draw over the characters. Once again, Scalzi has a knack for exploring all the facets of a core idea, taking a world in which X is true and seeing where that logically leads. I hadn't felt that the first story had left any big stones unturned in that department, but Murder by Other Means trucks in a whole bunch of new and interesting stones.

I could easily repeat all of the things I praised of the first story. The pace is brisk. Quinto's performance is a fun, often-sarcastic twist on film noir. If you liked the first novella, you are absolutely going to like this one. (And you'll be thrilled to hear that Scalzi has already announced his intentions to deliver a third at some point.)

But also, it would be only fair to say that Murder by Other Means isn't really as good as its predecessor. It's a little less clever overall, a little more predictable. It's structured like a mystery, but it isn't really all that mysterious. In several ways, it really gives the game away long before the ending -- though at least not all the thrills and fun are hinged on being surprised.

I'd give Murder by Other Means a B. It gets a recommendation-by-proxy in that I would still very strongly endorse The Dispatcher... and from there, it's only natural to proceed to this decent follow-up.