Redshirts

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Published by Brilliance Audio.

ISBN:
978-1-4915-1438-2
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4 stars (4 reviews)

Redshirts (originally titled Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas) is a space adventure by science fiction writer John Scalzi that capitalizes on tropes from Star Trek and similar television series. The book was published by Tor Books in June 2012. The audiobook of the novel is narrated by Wil Wheaton. The book won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel and Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

13 editions

Borgovian land worms!

4 stars

John Scalzi's dialog crackles with quick banter that makes his books worth reading:

Corey looked down and furrowed his brow. "Where are my pants?" he said. "We took them from you," Dahl said. "Why?" Corey said. "Because we need to talk to you," Dahl said. "You could do that without taking my pants," Corey said. "In a perfect world, yes," Dahl said.

-- John Scalzi, "Redshirts"

The only other Scalzi book I've read, Kiaju Preservation Society, let me down on plot—even when you remove the expected suspension of disbelief required of all sci-fi.

Fortunately, this book's plot holds up throughout the narrative.

The plot falls right out from the title. Think back to season one of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"—when the show was terrible. Think about all the nameless crew members who died on away missions. All those people had lives and families and worries. And their sad fate …

Review of 'Redshirts' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

This is a love letter to bad television -- it's both hilariously funny and touching, as it jumps between the absurdity of television tropes and how great it would be if the universe really did have narrative and purpose "like in the movies."

The codas take the point of view of the people outside the narrative, trying to understand the people on the inside and how they cope with knowing what they've done, even unwittingly.

If you identify as a geek, you should read this book.