I wrote in my review of “The Back Channel” that it was roughly the mid-point of Scalzi’s novel and that I felt like he was giving the reader a bit of a breather. After reading “The Dog King” I can clearly see how wrong I was. The Human Division is being released episodically with each of thirteen chapters released individually, one every Tuesday. This being the seventh episode it sits poised with six stories preceding it and six to come after and though this story continues the alternating theme and returns us back to the crew of the Clarke, it is a light, comical story that I suspect is meant to act as a break, that brief moment of peace as the roller coaster crests the hill before it goes screaming back down the other side. Given that John Scalzi is by all appearances a writer who has a specific plan in mind I am curious about the direction the episodes will be taking from here on out.
All that I can say sans spoilers about “The Dog King” is that in this episode the reader is treated to Harry Wilson acting as a dog-sitter while the diplomatic team meets with an alien race willing to allow a negotiator to help them end a two-hundred-year-long civil war.
For those of you who have read the story or don’t care about being spoiled, please follow on.
I’m very torn in my feelings about “The Dog King”. I appreciate John Scalzi’s sense of humor. The Android’s Dream is one of his most entertaining books and the farcical caper opens with what is in reality a long fart joke. I can appreciate silliness. Each of the Old Man’s War books has contained its injection of humor and thus far The Human Division has followed that pattern. So “The Dog King” is not unexpected and taken as a stand-alone short story it is effective in demonstrating that were there an outer space filled with all manner of alien beings it is highly likely that humans would find themselves in some sort of kerfuffle where Murphy’s Law reigned supreme and where truth would be stranger than fiction. In that sense I understand and can enjoy “The Dog King”.
Evaluating it against what has gone before I would say that, at the moment, this is my least favorite episode of the seven that we’ve seen. The B story lines have been interesting and have given glimpses of plot elements that have already been woven into the A story line and it is those episodes, the ones featuring the crew of the Clarke, that I look most forward to every other week. To get an episode with these characters that doesn’t appear to do anything other than be silly was a disappointment to me. I emphasize the work ‘appear’ because I am not foolish enough to assume that anyone, including me, can make a complete judgment call on this episode until the whole of the story is revealed.
Judging it as it is today my own personal opinion is that it is indeed a silly story where you can see the payoff coming from the start. Whether or not it becomes an effective part of the overall whole remains to be seen. Bring on next week’s episode!
I’m so behind with the episodes, having gotten waylaid by Chapterhouse Dune. It sounds like I’m going to like this episode though since I love the silly ones, with Scalzi’s own brand of humor.
Look forward to your thoughts when you catch up. I was just having a conversation with another blogger about Dune the other day, recalling the fun I had reading it for the first time just a few years ago as part of a group read.
Enjoyed this chapter a lot. The humor between the characters is priceless and had me laughing out loud.
My only complaint: what on earth do these aliens loo like? I ended up imagining them about the same size as a human.
I don’t know, when he compared them in part to a tick I was kinda glad I didn’t have an image to pair with it! LOL!
I enjoyed it, but I also saw where it was going fairly early on. What saved it for me was my growing appreciation for Harry Wilson as a character, and the crap Scalzi puts him through. I assume there will be some payoff down the road regarding the negotiations with the Icheloe, otherwise this will be an amusing, but useless side trip, and I don’t think Scalzi does much that is wasted (at least not so large a count of words).
Yes, that appreciation for Harry Wilson does save the story. And I am sure there is something gleefully fun about putting one’s characters through a bit of hell now and then, just to see how they’ll cope.
I noticed after I wrote this that I had an email of John Scalzi’s post regarding this week’s episode where he makes it very clear that this is meant to be a break between halves and that he did just want to do something fun.
I don’t think it is wasted time at all, but I am left wondering once again about my reactions to these episodes as individual pieces of story vs. how I would see them if I were experiencing them one right after the other as chapters of the whole. And personally I find it a fascinating experiment in experiencing story.
Hmmmm… This episode was a big letdown. Week by week I have looked more and more forward to these episodes. It’s starting to feel like a good tv series in a week by week way. This episode this is the one that on each great series you look back upon and think WTF was that? Ultimately you dismiss it as the season goes on and evenuately forget it and never watch it again on DVD.
This episode reminded me a of Little Shop of Horrors. That same type of humor which was totally out of place with the rest of the biok. i think this ” chapter ” will read very oddly when the book comes out. Carl I hope you’re right that we look back later and this chapter will mean more but I have my doubts. Scalzi I think gets a little to cocky sometimes with his humor and I think he wrote this section more for himself than to serve the overall story.
Looking forward to talking to you about this more tonight. I too found it to be a letdown. One that I would have enjoyed in a different context, perhaps. I’m glad we got to spend some time with Harry but wish it would have done more to advance the plot than it feels like it did.
I’m not gonna lie, I was (spoilers?) really hoping the dog would actually have to become the new king because of reasons. Who’s a wittle king puppy? You are! It would have been wonderful.
I just read this this morning and yeah, there’s not really much to say about it, but I came away from it with a smile on my face and so it gets props from me! I imagine that as with Walk the Plank, we’ll end up hearing more from this story later.
Ha, I was hoping the same thing, Allison. I thought it would have been fun in an over-the-top way to go ahead and have something like that happen. Especially given that the one character seemed to really like the dog.