Another great Dispatcher mystery. This series is fantastic, and I hope Scalzi keeps it going. I’d like a full length novel, but I definitely enjoy these short stories.

Would people fly anywhere if there was a 1:1000 chance of crashing? Those are the odds when someone travels by bullet in The Dispatcher universe. This makes me wonder what the chances of getting into a car accident each year for the average American. It can’t be good.

With this story, Scalzi does a nice job of adding to the universe. Billionaires travel by bullet to get out of awkward investigations, they force possible contractors to battle to the “death” for a job, and they manipulate the crypto market to get ahead.

The crypto market aspect of this mystery seems like it was ripped from the Bankman-Fried/FTX headlines. If this story hadn’t been published a couple months before the FTX scandal, it would be easy to say Scalzi was inspired by the real life event, and by “inspired,” I mean “copied.” The similarities between this fictional story and the real scandal is remarkable considering the fiction came before the scandal. Scalzi’s muse must see the future.

Tony is a great character with more depth from each story, and Quinto’s voice acting compliments the character. I’d recommend this series to anyone who likes realistic science fiction.