Softcover, 317 pages
Published Jan. 14, 2013 by Tor Books.
THEY WERE EXPENDABLE . . . UNTIL THEY STARTED COMPARING NOTES
Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the 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 some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces; (2) the ship's captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations; and (3) sadly, at least one low-ranking crew member is invariably killed.
Unsurprisingly, the crew belowdecks avoid Away Missions at all costs. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues' understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is . . . and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their …
THEY WERE EXPENDABLE . . . UNTIL THEY STARTED COMPARING NOTES
Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the 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 some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces; (2) the ship's captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations; and (3) sadly, at least one low-ranking crew member is invariably killed.
Unsurprisingly, the crew belowdecks avoid Away Missions at all costs. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely 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.
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.
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.
Nor what I expected, but a great read none the less. Would recommend if you're into sci fi and enjoy Star Trek.
Great fun! All those Codas stuff, it is just ok, but the main plot, awesome. Great fun, nice homage to Star Trek, amazing plot twists. Yeah!
It is hard to explain the story and then detailing how much I have enjoyed it... but this story is funny and touching. It sometimes feels a little meta and philosophical, which I actually enjoyed a lot, but also mocks a little with Sci-Fi as being a parody to Star Trek and some of the bad Sci-Fi stories. Although the part I liked the most of this book is actually the last three addendum, titled CODA, which are side stories, and could have easily served as the stories Prologue. every last page made me feel involved and care about the characters even more.
чудове розважальне чтиво. правда. щось на кшалт "террі пратчет в гостях у дугласа адамса". читайте.
This was a very fun read with a nice, twisty meta thingy. And it's timey-wimey, too! I am just glad I watched Star Trek TOS before reading this, otherwise I might never have understood why the narrative worked that way. No more can be said without spoilering everything. I wonder though why Jenkins was named Jenkins, it does remind me of a totally different area of pop-culture.
PS: it's a quick read, I finished it in two evenings.
Fun, light; the twist did not do as much for me as I expected - seemed like Scalzi was going through the motions when he wrote that part, once he came up with the idea.
