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.

A silly but easy read if you're a Star Trek fan

Redshirts is good and a super easy read, but it's also popcorn writing, where 90% is dialogue, almost like a theater play or screenplay. Scalzi also cops out BIG TIME thanks to some obvious - but hard to reproduce - convenient choices:

1. Science: Since all the science in the book is based on the (deliberately) lame pseudo-science of the TV show which was written by a non-scientific writer, he gets away with nonsense.

2. Lack of descriptions: Like seriously, Scalzi barely describes the characters and describes virtually nothing of the ships, interiors, equipment, etc. You can kinda get away with this in the modern world because people can relate, but in sci-fi the author has to transport the reader to a futuristic world of imagination, so you need to describe all this new stuff that doesn't exist yet. It works here in Redshirts because EVERYONE pictures Star Trek, so it's an easy cop out. Even OMW had more descriptions (by Scalzi standards). I wonder how this would read for someone who never watched any Star Trek, but then again I wonder if anyone not into Star Trek would read this or enjoy it.

Then weirdly, I was done with the main story. It felt abrupt since I thought I still had 25% to go (according to my Kindle progress indicator). The rest is a few codas featuring characters from the "real-world" of the past, such as the Anon-writer discussing writer's block on the Internet or the woman who learned that her fictional self was so important to this crew member on a TV show. It just got weird and I was not invested in those people.

The Audible narration by Wil Wheaton, except that Wheaton cannot do voices and doesn't even try. He reads the whole thing like a screenplay. It's done well, but it may not be for everybody.

Fun Book!

Scalzi rarely ever disappoints, and continues to put out fun sci-fi with this one. Fun references to your favorite space opera TV show with lots of funny moments.
Wil Wheaton is perfectly placed as the reader here, for obvious reasons.
The coda…. I could do without, but it’s harmless to the story.

longest denouement ever!

this book has levels i didn't expect. i expected humor, interesting worldbuilding, and some of "this is just a bizarre thing that's going on!"
Got that. And Wil Wheaton's performance was spot.on.
then ...it was over. the characters solved the problem, and went on with their lives.
The surprise is a real treat. it focuses on three 'alternate ' characters, and how their worlds changed from that resolution.

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!