John Scalzi

"Dirk Moeller didn't know if he could fart his way into a major diplomatic incident. But he was ready to find out."

- Opening sentence of The Android's Dream

John Scalzi is best known for taping bacon to his cat, though his science-fiction writing, particularly his Old Man's War trilogy, comes a close second.

He has also published two more comedic sci-fi novels, Agent To The Stars and The Android's Dream. Agent to the Stars is available for free on Scalzi's website. A third novel of this type, Red Shirts, will be published in 2012. He also wrote The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City.

Scalzi was also a creative consultant for the TV show Stargate Universe.

Works by John Scalzi with their own trope pages include:

 * Old Man's War series


 * Aliens Steal Cable - As the main explanation for aliens' choice to make first contact with a film agent in Agent To The Stars.
 * Brain Uploading - Brian in The Android's Dream.
 * Continuity Reboot - Scalzi is rebooting the H. Beam Piper "Fuzzy" series, starting with Fuzzy Nation, a re-imagining of Little Fuzzy.
 * Did Not Do the Research - A minor case in The Android's Dream, where one character pontificates on the potential kosher status, or lack thereof, of a genetically-engineered meat-like product with both swine and bovine DNA (with the kitschy name of Bison-Boar). This pontification goes on to explain (erroneously) that cloven-hoofed animals aren't kosher and that the dispute is over whether the genetically-manipulated result would have cloven hooves or not. Aside from getting a major sticking point backwards, since cloven hooves are one of the requirements for considering a four-footed mammal kosher, this disregards the fact that both pigs and cattle are even-toed ungulants - in other words, both boar and bison have cloven hooves.
 * The Dog Is an Alien: In Agent to the Stars, Joshua eventually takes on the form of a dog in order to come off as more appealing to humans.
 * Evil Plan and Gambit Roulette - In The Android's Dream,
 * This Is My Human - A delightful example in his short story The Other Large Thing.