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.