Paperback
Published May 9, 2013 by Gollancz, imusti.
Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It's a prestige posting, with the chance to serve on "Away Missions" alongside the starship's famous senior officers.
Life couldn't be better...until Andrew begins to realize that 1) every Away Mission involves a lethal confrontation with alien forces, 2) the ship's senior officers always survive these confrontations, and 3) sadly, at least one low-ranking crew member is invariably killed. Unsurprisingly, the savvier crew members below decks avoid Away Missions at all costs.
Then Andrew stumbles on information that transforms his and his colleagues' understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is...and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives. Redshirts by John Scalzi is the winner of the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
I think this book is revered among nerds because it's an introduction to self-referential literature. Sort of a Never Ending Story for Star Trek fanboys. It was fine.
I'd rate this a 4.5 if I could. It was fun, made me laugh, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It got a bit too meta for my taste at a couple points, but hit one of my points I was thinking about throughout the back half.
It's fun, melds hard sci-fi with more pulpy stuff, and like Galaxy Quest, I recommend it for anyone who is familiar with and loves Star Trek.
This book is not what I expected. For some reason I had the idea that it would be a military scifi. Luckily it isn't, at all.
This book is a loving satire of the, sometimes laughably bad, writing of scifi TV shows.
The premise of the book it completely bonkers. And it works really well.
The book goes from crazy, to meta, to very very meta and finally really moving.
pretty fun read and the first one I read exclusively on an e-reader since we're in quarantine and all!
I enjoyed reading this book more than anything I've read in the last year, possibly in the last five, possibly (probably) ten.
Fun read, especially for a 90's Star Trek fan. Skimmed through the internet blog section - found it funny/witty for a couple pages, but then got bored. Read the rest without skimming though, and still enjoyed it.
Worth the read probably only if you're a Star Trek lover.
He said... Because of that one star is lost. But, damn, this was entertaining!
Quick fun read
Quick fun read
Holy cow this was a great book. I laughed out loud several times, and the entire thing kept me entertained.
I listened to the audiobook read by Wil Wheaton. Highly recommend you get it.
Entertaining read. Humorous, but not the laugh-out-loud experience the back cover blurbs indicated it would be. That's not necessarily a bad thing as the story was quite engaging, and the three Codas were very interesting.
So let's get this out of the way: I went into this expecting something hilarious, which is what the blurbs on the back cover promised. Redshirts was not hilarious to me; it was what I would call "highly amusing." I chuckled out loud a few times, and there were lots of clever and amusing bits, but I wouldn't call it comedy by any stretch of the imagination. Most of the grinning was internal.
That being said, Redshirts was actually a really enjoyable read. It works well as a solid, offbeat science fiction story with lots of interestingly meta commentary on how characters are (mis-)used by writers in science fiction. The way characters come to terms with the bizarre rules of their universe and try to work around the nonsense is especially endearing.
There are some touching moments, some dramatically tense moments, some surprises; it's a nice blend overall, and had …
So let's get this out of the way: I went into this expecting something hilarious, which is what the blurbs on the back cover promised. Redshirts was not hilarious to me; it was what I would call "highly amusing." I chuckled out loud a few times, and there were lots of clever and amusing bits, but I wouldn't call it comedy by any stretch of the imagination. Most of the grinning was internal.
That being said, Redshirts was actually a really enjoyable read. It works well as a solid, offbeat science fiction story with lots of interestingly meta commentary on how characters are (mis-)used by writers in science fiction. The way characters come to terms with the bizarre rules of their universe and try to work around the nonsense is especially endearing.
There are some touching moments, some dramatically tense moments, some surprises; it's a nice blend overall, and had I not read the blurbs on the back I would not have been bothered by the lack of hilarity in the first place. It was definitely worth the read, and I would recommend it for anyone who's ever wanted a kind of meta, behind-the-scenes take on the world of an action sci-fi setting.
The most egregious issue I had with the book is that in the core group of 5-6 central characters, the only woman exists primarily in order to 1) provide medical aid and 2) loop an officer she happens to be sleeping with into the gang. In fact, this literally called out in the book near the end, minus any acknowledgement that these are tired and boring stereotypes. I'm left wondering whether this was a too-subtle attempt at poking fun at sci-fi, or just plain laziness. It stuck out like a sore thumb in light of the premise (skewering lazy writing) and all the other characters' archetypes being much less closely tied to their physical characteristics.
Oh, now that I think of it, another woman was fridged in the backstory, too. Even though the book also discusses the fridging of characters and criticizes the use of character deaths just to motivate other characters or the audience. I mean, seriously. These kind of repetitive tropes are really easy to fix.
loved this. starts off very silly but he manages to turn the quirky concept into a compelling story. I skipped the codas at the end as they felt grafted on and the story had a great arc on it's own
Wow. What a wrap up to a book that spent most of its time making me giggle. Three poignant points of view, each manipulated to give the reader the purest emotions and reactions. It was a perfect ending. One that helped ground the bizarre happenings of the rest of the book, and helped breathe life into the "other half". I look forward to reading more from Scalzi.
Loved it up until the codas
I understand why he went there, though. This is the second novel of his I've read and the second where the sentimental emotions come bubbling to the surface in the final third, once the set up and major set pieces are taken care of.
