John Scalzi has a talent for understated humor, and a gift for putting characters into capital-S Situations. In this case Ashley, Our Protagonist has landed a job as a community liaison for a human-minority district in an unnamed city. (District Three is inhabited mostly by sophonts from other worlds.) Her job is solve minor problems, and pass the ones she can’t handle further up the bureaucratic ladder.
The minor problems in this case are an eccentric lady and her pet chicken, an upcoming parade with stepdancing capable of shattering windows, and a puppy mill selling an extremely illegal species of extraterrestrial life with a cute juvenile stage and an adult stage best described as “large and made of knives.”
And then, there’s Mandatory Karaoke Night for New Employees.
Now, my general preference is for stories where aliens are alien. Different biology, different cultures, different brainwiring, different motives. (I am a huge fan of C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series for example.) Constituent Service seems to go in the opposite direction. Scalzi’s various sophonts aren’t too much different than humans. Some of them are into Shakespearean theater, some of them are into Nickleback. They have the same desires and ambitions, and also the same kind of complaints. At the same time, they are also very different (see; parade that can shatter storefront windows).
This review is based on a copy downloaded from NetGalley.
This story is a fun, futuristic office comedy with a strong dose of comedy horror. This was an enjoyable read that had some pretty funny (and pretty gross) moments. The characters are well written, as was the dialog.
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