This is a book that's got some really splendid surprises, so be careful reading reviews of it, because you'll have even more fun if you read it without any spoilers in advance. This is a spoiler-free review. [return][return]As the title indicates, this book is set in a Star-Trekkian world with hapless redshirt crew members. It works as a hilarious send-up of the Star Trek world. There's a point early in the book where I had to put it down and howl with laughter for a bit. It moves on from that satire to another level (and another, and another...) as the redshirt protagonists recognize their fate and take things into their own hands. There are twists within twists, but they are so deftly done that I was never confused as to what was going on, even while the action dashed along at high speed, from one meta-madness to the next. [return][return]The structure of the book is a complete novel, and then three short pieces (the "coda" of the title) set in the same universe, with some of the same characters, taking place after the action of the novel. It's lovely seeing the aftereffects of the dashing action of the novel. The codas are at a more personal level, with characters reacting to what happened in a mad rush of life-and-death action.