Redshirts

Very clever stuff based around the fact that the red shirted crew member always died on Star Trek away missions. No need to be a Trekkie/Trekker (my splitting of the term might give something away there) either, it's light comedy and some existential musings. It's not perfect, but you get the impression that Scalzi knows that and is happy with it.

All the “redshirt” characters are interchangeable, which is the point, but it's also frustrating. There's a scene at the very end of the book where the main character and another guy are reflecting on what's happened and I spent half the time trying to remember who the other guy was. Wil Wheaton doesn't even attempt to vary his voice between characters. Still a good concept and story but characterization is null.

The audiobook is eight hours except when the story ends you've still got two hours left on the clock. There are three alternate perspective stories in the remaining time.

Much of what I have to say about Redshirts has been already said, and better, by other reviewers: the core of the novel is a fun, scifi-ish, meta-ish romp that is of decent quality, whereas the novel really comes into its own in the three codas, which are each beautiful and existential meditations.
I have only two complaints: Scalzi tags his conversations way too much (“she said”) and it particularly bugs when listening to the audiobook. Wheaton, who is an exceptional narrator – full of verve and hitting exactly the right cynical tone – uses exactly the same cadence for every tag and it almost sounds rhythmic in this way that is very distracting. The second complaint is that the conceit of the books was well known a priori, and yet the majority of the book is spent leading the reader to it and describing it – I would have rather spent more time with the characters – and more fun, satirical romps through SciFiVerse.

This is a review of the audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

I loved this story. This approach to metafiction has been done before, but Scalzi brings so much wit and heart to it, this story stands above the rest. Of course it helps if you are a fan of Star Trek - any series in the franchise will do.

I found the first coda to be tiresome, but even that sour note is not enough for me to deduct a star. This is fresh and fun, and has the best quality of a parody - an obviously affectionate and thorough knowledge of the source material. It's also surprisingly emotionally engaging. I knew I'd laugh when I bought the book, but little did I suspect it would also cause some sobbing along the way.

Wil Wheaton isn't as dynamic as some audiobook readers (he doesn't create distinctive voices for the characters, and his reading does highlight how clunky and repetitive “he said” can become as a frame for dialog), but he clearly had a lot of fun with this, and I found his enjoyment infectious. Also, it's hard not to love him when his voice breaks a bit at a particularly emotional moment.

This could have been just an ordinary book, a 2 star maybe because it was readable, not awful. But then came the ending. The last ~25% of the book (2 out of 8 hours) was a non story. The author was out of ideas on what to write and wrote exactly that, he sort of broke that fourth wall and said that he was out od ideas, and started to pseudo talk to his readers.

The story is as silly as it sounds, and as deep as you would expect. It is a parody with Star Trek's trope of killing of non essential characters, extra actors, in every episode just for drama effect.

The characters are uninteresting and shallow, and so is the story.

For the people giving this a 5 star, I'm sorry, but FU. The best possible scenario this is a 3 star. I wouldn't recommend this book for no one.

Some books are surreal suspensions of disbelief. Some books just make you go “WHAT the FUCK” every couple of chapters when a new twist is revealed, and this is one of the latter. Just - what the FUCK.

Imagine your average sci-fi space opera TV show on cable television with hand-wavey science and half-assed special effects - take those characters and make them realize they're IN A TV SHOW. Let them realize all of their woes are due to shitty writing, and see what they do with that knowledge. THAT is this book, and it is crazy and hilarious and weird and eye-roll-inducing.

Between the time travel, the Box that does magic science behind the scenes so things work out on-screen, the Narrative taking control and making people say and do things they wouldn't otherwise do - this book is wacky and just full of what-the-fuckery. It's fun, though, and if you can keep yourself from groaning out loud every few pages, it's a pretty good read.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

Fast paced read, with a neat hook that goes places I didn't really expect. Some of the characterization is a bit eye-rolley, but the nature of the story kind of makes that necessary I suppose?

I thought the plot was interesting and ambitious, and the dialogue was mostly really sharp, but a lot of the rest of the writing was pretty uninspired. There were pages of conversations where every line would be ‘“blah blah”Dahl said' and then ‘“Yada yada” Duvall said'. I found it very distracting.

A mostly fun science fiction novels that is a play on a SF trope from TV. It gets very meta towards the end, when it gets perilously close to being too clever for its own good. But Scalzi keeps it entertaining and I never considered not finishing it. he's written better books, but this is pretty good, especially if you like the breaking of the “wall” in fiction.

Having seen every Star Trek episode and being a huge fan of Galaxy Quest, this one was amazing. The story revolves around a space ship (like the Enterprise) where a surprising number of crew members are dying on away missions – especially those lower on the totem pole. Once the bit characters begin to realize this trend they divise ways to take advantage of the situation.

Much of what made this great was how meta it was. Almost like a darker version of Glaxy Quest.

I was very curious to read something by John Scalzi. I???ve heard that his books were awesome and had that piece of ironic humor we usually find in the work of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett (and that we all LOVE).

So, I???m a John Scalzi newbie. I started reading ???Redshirts??? without any real high expectations; I just knew what I read in the book description on my Kindle. And by that I mean: I knew it was a science fiction novel probably inspired by Star Trek. And that it involved the so called Star Trek???s ???redshirts???. I didn???t want to spoil my expectation reading other reviews about the book.

It was a very delightful and fast read. Scalzi really knows how to write interesting characters and get us hooked in their story. At first, I was not sure the book was supposed to be a parody of science fiction series. And then I realized it had some clich??s and narrative patterns like: overly dramatic dialogues in action scenes, absurd situations and some inconsistent physical laws.

It is very difficult to talk about the plot of the book without giving away spoilers. However, I will do my best. In short, the protagonist, Dahl, is recruited to work in the Xenobiology lab inside the ship called Intrepid. Dahl notice that weird and curious things happen with the crew of the ship, and that everyone is afraid of the so-called ???away missions???. The death rates of people involved in the away missions are abnormally high, and that triggers Dahl to search for information and statistics. And in some point we start to understand the reference to the “Redshirts”

I will not say more about the story itself because I???ll probably spoil the narrative. But, I can say that the plot is VERY creative and that I was totally surprised when the major ???mystery??? of the story was revealed. Then, when you think the book is over, there are there Codas telling more of the story in different points of view, from different characters and using different voices (first person, second person, third person). Very interesting (and fun)!!

Overall, the book is very amusing! There were various moments I caught myself laughing aloud with some dialogues! And the very first explanation of the mysteries and the plot twist are fantastic!

But at the end of the book I wanted to know more about the story. The explanation given for the ???mysterious??? occurrences with the crew of the Intrepid was not complete, for me. I felt there were many things hanging in the air. I thought the final Codas were going to tie up all the loose ends and I was a little frustrated in not getting a full explanation.

So, I guess that???s why I gave the book 3 out of 5 stars. I was excited with the roll of the story, and in the end, I got a little disappointed. But that must be me, who wants explanations for everything!! I guess I was not in a very generous mood when I rated the book...

Executive Summary: This is one of those books that is likely to be something you either love or hate. If you enjoy [a:John Scalzi 4763 John Scalzi http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1236228326p2/4763.jpg], and/or are a fan of Star Trek, you'll likely enjoy this book. If not, it's probably not for your.Audio book: This is the second audio book I've listened to that is Narrated by [a:Wil Wheaton 37075 Wil Wheaton http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1356706649p2/37075.jpg] (The other being [b:Ready Player One 9969571 Ready Player One Ernest Cline http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333576871s/9969571.jpg 14863741]). I really enjoy him as a narrator, especially for a book like this. I couldn't think of a more perfect reader for a Star Trek Parody book.That said, this book does suffer what I like to call “Unabridgedness”. That's where the author does something that in print would likely be ignored or read differently (like an image, or specially printed text) that is a bit painful to listen to.I won't say the particular issue with this book so as not to plant it in your head (like it had been in mine before listening). Maybe you won't notice :)Despite that, I think this is great to listen to in an audiobook, and I especially enjoy the way Mr. Wheaton reads sarcastic statements (of which this book has many). Oh, and he does a great drunk voice!Full ReviewA [a:John Scalzi 4763 John Scalzi http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1236228326p2/4763.jpg] book making fun of Star Trek? Read by [a:Wil Wheaton 37075 Wil Wheaton http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1356706649p2/37075.jpg]? YES PLEASE!I had heard some mixed things about this book (and the audio in particular coming in). That didn't really deter me, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet.Things sort of converged where I got the chance to review it for SFF Audio and it was the alternate July pick for Sword & Laser.This book really cracked me up. I found myself going between chuckling to myself and bursting out into embarrassing fits of laughter. Thank goodness no one was around to see it. And you won't tell people about it, will you internet?Anyways, Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union. Oh so he's an Ensign in Starfleet on the Enterprise? Got it.The book extrapolates on the ridiculousness of sending Kirk, Spock, Mccoy and Ensign Timmy, in his bright red shirt, down to the dangerous planet on an away mission. One of them dies. Guess which one?The original series was before my time (I'm a Next Gen/DS9 Trekker), and I've only really watched the movies and very few episodes, but the meme of being the Redshirt on an away mission is well known to just about everyone at this point.The book gets pretty Meta, but I found it to be an enjoyable book, even if it loses a bit of steam as it goes along.The main story was very enjoyable and the three Codas were alright. I liked the first one the most. The second two were OK, but I don't think either added too much to the story.That said, it's a quick read (~8 hours for the normal speed audiobook), and the perfect summer/vacation book.

It may have been on purpose to demonstrate how meta John Scalzi can be, but personally, I don't see the point in reading (or writing!) a bad book with the most cardboardy characters imaginable. The codas were okay but the main story was just rubbish. And rubbish on purpose is still rubbish.
Read my full review over at SFF Book Review

Maybe this suffers because I was so excited by the premise; but I didn't enjoy it or laugh very often. Maybe I just don't know enough sci-fi references...After the he said/she said was pointed out to me, it was all I could see!Plan to give this another chance though, because I liked the premise so much and I think it may have suffered from being read between [b:A Feast for Crows 13497 A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4) George R.R. Martin https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358261107s/13497.jpg 1019062] and [b:A Dance With Dragons 10664113 A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5) George R.R. Martin https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327885335s/10664113.jpg 2936175]. I'd just read the first 4 books of A Song of Ice and Fire very quickly and wanted a break for a completely different type of book; but maybe I was too much in the Ice and Fire world and was expecting a book with equal depth which was impossible for this book to deliver as that's not what it's trying for.OK, second reading has been lemmed (T said). I don't know why I ever wanted to give this a second chance (said T). Even Wil Wheaton's narration couldn't save this (T said); in fact, listening to the audiobook may have highlighted the sheer pain of the ‘Dahl said/Duvall said/Hansen said/etc' every few seconds (said T).

Redshirts is a science fiction spoof that pokes fun at the high death count in the original Star Trek television show - at least among the less important crew members. In his novel, Scalzi introduces five new members to the crew of the Intrepid - the flagship United Union's fleet. They are a bit like the Breakfast Club - five people you wouldn't expect to get along somehow become friends. As they spend more time on the ship, they begin to realize that everyone who goes on an away mission seems to die a tragic, horrible, and really bizarre death. They compare notes, search for clues, and try to understand what is happening to them. In the end, they come up with a plan that is so crazy it just might work...

I have to say this book was... Interesting. It won the 2013 Hugo and Locus Awards, so I expected it to be good, and it is by John Scalzi, so I expected it to be funny. I guess what I wasn't expecting was for it to be so meta. It came at me sort of unexpectedly, especially the second half of the book. Which wasn't to say I didn't like it, because I did. It was just a much different reading experience than I thought I was getting when I picked it up. I thought it worked well in the context of this story, and, honestly, really made for a satisfying conclusion to the book. It was just odd having a book that I thought was going to be something to share with my mother (the other sci-fi reader in the family) turn into a book that would be perfect for me to share with my sister (the girl who is proof-reading too many new scripts by “emerging artists”).

As someone who has been indoctrinated to the world of Trekkies since birth, the winks, nudges, and not-so-subtle digs at the source material were much appreciated. On the other hand, I think this book could be fantastically funny to anyone, even people who don't have a lot of love for the science fiction genre (actually, especially those people), because the book points out a lot of the ridiculousness and hand-wavery that happens in the television episodes. The concept of the book is easy to grasp, the humor is on point, and due to the nature of the material, readers get to bypass a lot of technical jargon that can bog down a lot of stories in this genre. All in all, this book was a fun, quick read that was just perfect for the end of summer before school/work starts up again, and I recommend it for anyone looking for a bit of fun.