I read a lot and I'm pretty open-minded about what I read. That means that I often read things that are flawed. There are two flaws that are almost universal. One is that I can perceive the author's overall outline for the book. I can imagine that the current passage was responding to "Build suspense by having hero get trapped." I prefer that the story follow its own logic. The other flaw is verbosity. Whether it's extraneous action or endless site descriptions or deep diving into the character's internal dialog, I'll be reading (or driving along listening) and think, "Good god! Get on with it!"
I explain these ideas to make clear exactly what is NOT wrong with John Scalzi in general and this book, Agent to the Stars, especially. The guy has an exquisitely organic sense of story telling. I've read several of his books (I'm inclined toward science fiction) and I can't really ever think of an occasion where something happened merely to serve the writing. Even better, when he says stuff, it counts. In this book, when I gave a thought to the writing, per se, it was to remark to myself that this prose was wonderfully bright and lucid.
I love absurdity and comedy. I love references that are 'au courant' for the culture. Sadly, authors that have the kind of awareness to write that sort of thing are very, very often glib. The references are gratuitous and superficial. I feel like they are showing off.
Again, Scalzi does NOT have this problem either. This book is written for the moment. It revels in the modern entertainment culture. But, the things that are said, as with the jokes, absurdities and goofy plot twists seem natural and they serve the story. Instead of seeming like decorations added to beef up appeal, with Scalzi these things create a sense of place and make sense in context. If you removed them, the story would fall apart.
Agent to the Stars is also poignant. I was delighted as I realized that, along with really pleasant entertainment, that Scalzi was actually saying something. I'm no english major but, I am confident that this would stand up to a bunch of solid book club discussion of its themes and values. It was interesting and, as it came to a conclusion, I was charmed by the way he brought his idea to fruition.