![]() ![]() The only thing that can heal this little rift between the two planets is a sheep. Instead of a nice, tidy trade agreement cementing the relations between the United Nations of Earth and the Nidu, an alien race with an extraordinary sense of smell and hair-trigger tempers, we have what the State Department might just call “a challenge.” When said diplomat may just possibly have been killed by his human counterpart, that’s even more difficult to deal with. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t rate much, except that the death of an alien trade ambassador is never a convenient thing. Not an intentional murder, really, but one that was born of shame and revenge, as so many murders are. The story begins with, as so many stories do, a murder. Nothing too complex, no greater statements about the nature of humanity and the necessity of war that holds together the stories in his Old Man’s War universe, just a good old-fashioned espionage romp. For John Scalzi, however, it’s a fantastic read. What do you get when you combine aliens, diplomacy, artificial intelligences, religion and sheep together? Well, for most people, the answer would be a horrible mess. ![]()
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