Redshirts

A Novel with Three Codas

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

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, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the facts 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) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. 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.

©2012 John Scalzi (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Ingenious premise!

When I started this novel, I went in thinking it would be a funny take on the standard Sci-Fi TV novelization Tie-ins, of which I am only minimally acquainted. I was blown away by the premise and twists. The Codas were heartfelt and really gave life to the story. Well done!

Satirical comedy at its best!

Thoroughly enjoyable listen if you ever watched Star Trek the series in the past. Poignant and entertaining plot and story, and with Wil Wheaton narrating it can’t get much better for a Trekkie.

Star Trek Reborn

Neat reworking of the Star Trek roles that marked the red shirts for death on the various adventures the main characters always survive. Especially fine and moving visas.

This was a difficult book to get through...

The 'He said She said' dialogue was extremely difficult to ignore. It made it rough to get through. Was a fun story but then it crashed at the end and the codas were interesting but not enough to make a good review.

Hilarious

I really enjoyed this Star Trek inspired romp. Scalzi and Wheaton are in fine form as always. Makes one wonder, did the redshirts in the original Star Trek series realize their days were numbered?

Awesome! Great!! Terrific!!!

This book is one of my favorites! I will definitely re-read it. The main story is very good and laugh out loud funny in a few parts, but the codas... they push it up to great!

As always, Wil Wheaton does an excellent job of narrating. If you are looking for someone who does great characters and different voices, you will be disappointed. That is not the kind of narration Wheaton does.

My one complaint is that when there is very much dialog there gets to be too much "he said" "she said" "so-and-so said." Fortunately that did not detract from an excellent story.

every book!

every one of John scalzis books is enthralling, deep and keeps to the tenets of good sci fi. I've read most of them and redshirts did not disappoint here either!

Great listen

I laughed, I cried and I feel in love with this universe. I will definitely listen again.

Enjoyable Sci-Fi nonsense

Let me start by saying to all those that had issues with this book...WTH people!?! This seems like it was meant to be a fun, farcical, tongue-in-cheek jab at sci-fi in general, and Star Trek to be specific. Take a joke, y'all!

Yes, yes, the 'Dahl said', 'Mya said', 'Hester said', 'Finn said', said, said, said, said, ad infinitum, was rather tedious. No, actually it was EXTREMELY TEDIOUS TO THE POINT OF DISTRACTION!! Mr. Scalzi, with respect, we get it already! You really don't need to differentiate every single line of dialogue. Trust your reader to understand the distinction of which character said what.

That said, I found the whole thing to be funny as hell. The codas didn't bother me in the slightest. In fact, I felt they were very relevant, if not necessary to the story. A little 'what happens after' was warranted. With something like what happened in this story (sorry, no spoilers here), you need a little retrospection to fill in the gaps. And in the sense that it happened where it happened (again no spoilers), well, they're just used to weird stuff happening all the time so no big deal (yeah, that's quite a stretch, but take it for what it is).

"Overall, I think I am satisfied with the results," I said, a bit tongue-in-cheek.

surprisingly awesome

as funny as "Go Go Girls of the Apocalypse" and also startlingly insightful in a unexpected way. Humor and humanity in a delightful Science Fiction package.