Redshirts

Ridiculously good - a new favorite. Philip K. Dickian with some paranoid Charlie Kaufman thrown in for good measure. The audiobook is read by Wil Wheaton; effectively elevating its self-awareness from 'Stun' to 'Kill'. In addition to all of this, it's a powerful message about making something of

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your life; being the author of your own story. I'll definitely be reading more Scalzi. 5/5

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On the Intrepid, the space fleet’s flagship, it’s a well-known fact that it’s wise to try and avoid away missions. Especially if these involve the captain, the chief science officer, the lead engineer, the doctor, or the dashing lieutenant Kerensky. Because these missions always involve

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mortal danger, and always lead to the death of at least one low-ranking member of the crew. Everybody knows this, and a whole culture on loopholes and the noble art of being somewhere else has evolved. But what nobody seems to know, or even reflect over, is WHY. Not until Dahl and his fellow rookies stumble onto the hermit Jenkins, the “Yeti in the walls”, and learn of his wild and crazy theory about “The narrative”.

This is a clever piece of meta-fiction with more than one twist. Kept mostly light and humorous, towards the end it still digs a little deeper into what constitutes a life and how we depend on each other. It’s not at all bad. The characters are more than a bit flat though (which is a tad troublesome, since the difference between a badly written cutout and a real person is a major point in the book), occasionally, to use Claire’s words, “hardly making two dimensions”, and I must say I was a little surprised at how weak it felt stylistically. It’s clear Scalzi is a scriptwriter – once he gets to write pure dialogue passages, it flows so much better.

The last three “coda chapters” are probably the best thing about the book for me (despite the second person ploy that just feels unnecessary), adding depth and a sense of realness to the whole thing, and pushing the book up slightly above average. The last part even moves me.

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I'm finding it somewhat hard to explain how much I loved this book. I loved it so much that the ending (at the end of the third coda) totally made me cry (in a good/wonderful kind of way). This is the story of red shirts (you know, the people who always die on Star Trek), they're not important,

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they just keep things interesting by, you know, dying. What Scalzi does is make them real -- he makes us care about them. And what really makes this book brilliant, is what results from that huge twist near the end. There's one in the middle, too (which is hilariously awesome and directly connected to the second twist). A part of the results from that final twist are demonstrated in the three codas at the end of the novel -- all three are wonderful, but the final one is the best and creates the absolute perfect ending for the book. And it's the one that made me cry.

If you love science fiction, if you love Star Trek, if you're not interested in either of them -- you should read Redshirts. I read a blog post where someone talked about how the book is like a love letter to Star Trek and they're right, but really it's a love letter to science fiction tv shows, movies and books. It's a story for all those minor characters no one cares about (except you totally will now). And I absolutely LOVED it.

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First off, I know some reviewers had an issue with the last part of the book, but I didn't.

It isn't the usual way to end a novel, but what about this book gave anyone the idea it was "normal"? Ever.

Have you heard of the Fourth Wall? Well Scalzi does a variation on it and does it amazingly well.

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Could. not. put. this book. down.

Yeah, it was that good. And the "codas" at the end were a way to provide an epilogue that gave closure (I feel) to those readers who cared enough about some of the smaller, seemingly inconsequential characters.

They are not inconsequential though. They may be minor characters, but their lives affected the decisions made in the previous novel's plot lines and so therefore are more substantial than they originally appear. It's nice to see the aftermath of what impact they had on the story, even though at the time it was happening, the reader may be so engrossed with the main characters and plot, they fail to realize the importance of these people until reading the codas.

Some readers/reviewers didn't care for this mechanism - I liked it. A lot.

One of the best and most entertaining reads of the year. This is a book I highly recommend you read, and to consider giving as a gift (considering the season). Unless the person absolutely detests science fiction, I can't think of too many people who would hate this; especially those who love Star Trek.

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Funny, but not as funny as it thinks it is. A spoof on fanfic, it unfortunately picks the wrong target. Out of all the badly written fanfic out there to choose, the USS Intrepid's 6 season long professional level show/films is not the best target. Yes it's STar Trek fanfic, and I'm sure many fo the

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plots were corny (more corny than Star Trek?!) but the amount of effort and time required to produce this, takes it way above the teenage scribblings of most fanfic. You do not need to have watched any of the USS Intrepid, but probably should be aware of at least the format of the Star Trek episodes.

The characters on the USS Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union, begin to notice that there is something odd going on. Some of the more minor characters realise they are statistically highly likely to be killed on 'away team' missions and start to investigate this further, and attempt to prevent themselves dying. They - rather than the more usual captain etc, are the stars of the book. WIll they survive? The Codas tidy up some of the loose ends.

It is cleverly done, and very funny in places, especially as you realise just how twisted Scalzi is making this. However a moment or two's thought reveals several more siginificant problems - Scalzi is making fun on fanfic, by ripping off a fanfic creation. This is not clever, and just because you're an established author doesn't make it right. Even if you've changed some names. He also fails to attribute many of the other concepts that are there before him, for instance pTerry has an active Narrative force in discworld, long before Scalzi "invented" it. If you're making fun of others breaking copyright, it would help if you were beyond reproach in this regard. He does list a few other authors who have characters break free of the fourth wall, which are probably worth reading if you enjoyed this. Scalzi of course also doesn't offer or even suggest any idea for how to avoid the bad writing and killing off of characters that he's so concerned about.

Definetly worth reading, especially if you're a Star Trek fan, but not to be taken too seriously- there are some very mixed messages regarding the validity of fan fiction.

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"Let us violate cakes together"

In "Redshirts" by John Scalzi

(*day dreaming*)

I applied for a job to be a licensed fiction writer of sorts last year - it was working on flavour text and copy for the Star Trek Franchise. The interview was heavily focused on my ability to write within the constraints

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of their authorial voice and existing publications - as stringent as working for any publication with a house style. That's not quite, I admit, the same thing as writing tie-in novels - but the attitude of IP holders to how licensed authors should write I experienced seems very much to be more like writing for a journal or newspaper than writing fiction - the job I applied for would very much have been technical or copy-writing about subjects that were fictional. Definitely a "specific skillset" as this Scalzi’s novel shows once again - but in retrospect I'm quite glad I didn't get the job. Having to write fiction to the same level of editorial constraint as in a job writing non-fiction seems to be sucking the joy out of the imaginative aspects of SF. On a related note, I think as a whole licensed fiction walks a very fine line of absolutely killing the enjoyment you might get from something you like through over-explaining. The more authors try to explain every aspect of their world and remove all the uncertainty, the more everything becomes a dry knot of detail. SF lives, for me anyway, in its unexplained bits - the intimation that there's a big world out there that's quite unlike what you're used to. Explaining every aspect of it, leaving no gaps to fill in with your imagination, risks losing that. But by all means, have fun with your toys in the present moment, the days of size and profit margins! Children and childish adults don't really take the future seriously, despite the fact they enjoy reading about it so much, now do they? ;)

Bottom-line: Scalzi's "Redshirts" is not really a franchise novel; it's more of a parody. Fancy tap dancing on my part to disguise the fact that franchise media tie-ins are quickly written, rigidly formulaic novels (parodies or not). All in all, this is a lovely little paean to shallow entertainment. Lots of influence and big profit margins while the hype lasts, of course. But in the long run things get a little bit different, don't they? Will people read these silly novels in 100 years? Not really I should say.

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In the future (2460s or 2470s?), Andy Dahl and a few other young ensigns are assigned to the Universal Union starship Intrepid. Once they get there they realize some things aren't quite right. The more senior crew members have elaborate systems for avoiding going on away missions with the

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leadership, and ensigns and other low-ranking crew members who do go on away missions seem to die at an alarming rate. At first Andy thinks it's just superstition, until someone presents him with a theory that is just too crazy to be wrong.

Meta-science-fiction at its best. This book is science fiction candy, true, but it's also a poignant look at fate, death, and our purpose in the universe. I enjoyed the premise and the writing a LOT so I will definitly be on the lookout for more by this author.

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If there is any topic writers like to write about more than any other, it's writers. Hemingway wrote about writers; John Irving writes about writers; now, John Scalzi has written about a writer.

("But wait!" you protest, "I thought this story was about a bunch of redshirts?" It is, until...well,

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dammit, read the book!)

It's worth reading, but as I read it, I kept picturing Scalzi sniggering gleefully while he typed the story up on Google Docs. The last chapter overtly confirms this image. I've never been a huge Star Trek fan, and I have a feeling there's a lot of little things I missed — nods to particular episodes, characters, situations, etc. That said, the influence of the redshirt extra has permeated science fiction television, and television in general, enough that I appreciated the scenario. I get the joke, even if it's a bit protracted.

The codas are the best part of the book, and my only complaint is that you have to read the previous pages to get to them. I don't mean this in the "we have to drive 400 miles to grandma's house" sense, but rather in the "the codas would be completely unintelligible without the preceding, smidge-above-mediocre story" sense. I'm not sure if that makes the overall book good or merely passable. Damn you, Scalzi!

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The original series of 'Star Trek', whilst streets ahead of earlier science fiction tv shows in a lot of ways, had certain narrative failings. One of the most glaring, once you had watched a few episodes, was the way in which the captain and senior officers beamed down to an alien planet with a

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detachment of security men. Within a few minutes of landing, these security men would be picked off in a variety of unpleasant ways by whichever alien menace the show's stars were facing that week. The captain, other recurring characters, and any named guest star for that episode would be the only characters to survive to the end of that week's show (though guest stars' survival was not guaranteed beyond the end of the episode if the plot demanded that they perish nobly or tragically). In the well-imagined background to the show, security was considered part of ship operations, and their departmental colour, reflected in their uniforms, was red. Hence "Redshirts" rapidly became fan shorthand for "expendable walk-on characters".

John Scalzi, who has worked on television science fiction, has picked this trope up and run with it. So on a thinly-disguised far future starship, junior members of the crew begin to notice that their life expectancy rapidly shortens the more away missions they do with the captain, his senior officers, or one particular Lieutenant who seems to suffer grievous injuries each time he leaves the ship but somehow makes a miraculous recovery in time to go on the next away mission.

This doesn't seem to happen on other ships of the fleet; and some of the junior crewmembers are beginning to get suspicious, not to mention nervous.

So Scalzi has put the trope into print; and as novels based on jokes go, it's pretty much a one-trick pony. Gene Roddenberry was so pleased with himself for avoiding some of the worst excesses of early tv science fiction that he overlooked some of the compromises you have to make with reality to tell a story in roughly 50 minutes of air time; and much as he wanted to be as scientificially accurate as he could to give the show depth, there were still some plot devices inserted to make some stories work that just do not stand up to scrutiny. That the show kept using them doesn't make them any less silly; and so they became fair game for Scalzi. But again, these are so well-known that the reader is going to feel that the first part of this book is picking off the easy targets, almost by numbers. And there are very few ways of writing this sort of thing that doesn't end up reading like fan fiction. I found the joke wearing pretty thin fairly quickly.

And then one of the characters makes a discovery about the true nature of their predicament. For some never-explained reason, the universe is playing a cosmic joke on the crew of this one starship; and to try to secure their own survival, the crew have to use their situation against itself to try to negotiate their salvation.

For me, the novel picked up considerably from that point; and the last half (roughly) of the book, encompassing the end of the novel and 'three codas', is as much a satire of the modern Hollywood tv industry as it is science fiction. One of the codas concerns the dead wife of one of the characters; it is quite touching. But overall, the novel ends in a rather different place from where it started. Whilst there is much in 'Redshirts' that made me laugh, this was as much the characters' reaction to the increasingly artificial situation they find themselves in as it was the basic premise; which as I said, wore thin rather quickly.

If you just take this as a satire on 'Star Trek', you will probably be in for disappointment. Changing the focus and adding the critique of a major industry rescues the book; but it may unsettle as many readers as it pleases. That it won the 2013 Hugo Award for the best science fiction novel of the year may say more about the Hugo awards and the people who vote for them than this novel, or the state of modern science fiction. Or perhaps modern science fiction has just become too self-referential for its own good. It's a clever novel, for sure; it's amusing; but I wouldn't call it in any way significant. It is a pleasent entertainment, but it doesn't invoke the "sense of wonder" that the originators of the genre were aiming for in their large-scale sagas of space and time. Other reviewers have invoked the term "metafiction" and this is very much the case. And metafictions ultimately only appeal to those who are in on the joke.

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So much fun! This obvious spin on science fiction TV shows, especially Star Trek, had me smiling the entire time. The story focuses on Dahl and his friends, all lower level crewman, who have been assigned to work on the Intrepid. When they start to notice a pattern of lower level crewmen dying at

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regular intervals, Dahl and his friends try to discover what's really happening and how to stop it.

Normally I would be thrown off by a novel told almost entirely in dialog with little or no descriptions in between, but it works here. I knew enough about Star Trek to be able to picture the deck, bridge, uniforms, people without having Scalzi describe a word of it. The dialog was spot on, often funny, especially when you get to see the crew cussing and making crude jokes behind the scenes (so to speak).

The many levels of meta is mindbogglingly awesome and I just about died laughing at the end. The three codas following the conclusion are more than an epilog and create a perfect wrap up to the story.

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You know those unlucky crew members in Star Trek who wear red shirts and join away missions for the sole purpose of dying dramatically? This book is for them!

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, current flagship of the Universal Union. Their

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mission: to boldly go where no one has gone before! Dahl couldn't be happier until he notices that there is something wrong with away missions: they have an abnormally high mortality rate; the captain and his high level officers always survive the mission; and the science doesn't make any sense at all. How is this even possible?

Redshirts is a stand alone science fiction novel by John Scalzi and is a brilliant parody of/homage to Star Trek. The book is subtitled "a novel with three codas" which are three separate but related short stories after the main novel ends that deal with the consequences of the actions in the novel. It's an interesting concept and works nicely to round things out. It also answers those lingering questions of "what happened after?" that sometimes occur after reading a book.

For fear of spoilers, I'm going to be fairly brief. Let's just say that Scalzi takes the concept and runs with it and the result is downright hilarious. This one had me laughing out loud quite often from beginning to end. It also has a surprisingly touching ending.

I listened to the audio book narrated by Wil Wheaton. His delivery nails it! Wheaton's comedic timing fits this book perfectly. He was well cast and a lot of fun to listen to. The fact that Wheaton played an ensign that didn't die dramatically on a popular Star Trek show... draw your own conclusions.

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Growing up, my parents subjected me to every Star Trek movie and episode that existed. My mother was such a fan that she could recognize each episode within the first five minutes. The surprising thing is that except for the second Star Trek movie (I never got over the ear worm thing from The Wrath

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of Khan), I actually enjoyed the series. Star Trek: TNG (The Next Generation in non-Trekkie speak) remains one of my favorite series from childhood, but I never told anyone about it. Thus began my life as a closet Trekkie.

So, when bloggers started raving about Redshirts what was a Trekkie to do but read a story about the infamous Redshirts - those hapless and nameless ensigns who are privileged to go on away missions with the commanding officers but never seem to last more than an episode or two? The opportunity to hear such a story narrated by one of my childhood Star Trek heroes was something I could not ignore.

John Scalzi's Redshirts is every bit as good as promised and then some. The idea of these young officers recognizing that something is not quite right is intriguing but listening to their dawning realizations of the truth is absolutely hilarious - tears streaming down the face hilarious. Mr. Scalzi takes no prisoners as he spoofs the Starship Enterprise with his Intrepid and its crew. There is at least one joke or sly aside on almost every page, enough to keep even the most lukewarm reader interested.

For all its humor, though, Redshirts is a story about making a difference. Rather than maintain the status quo, the characters opt to try to make changes that will impact not only their lives but the lives of future crew members. Their journey to such an end leads to some surprising and poignant revelations, highlighting the importance of never judging anyone based on appearances.

God bless Wil Wheaton and his amazing sense of humor. Mr. Wheaton has always embraced his inner nerd and accepted his place in the Trekkie world, making him a natural narrator for the audiobook. Yet, Mr. Wheaton is an excellent narrator, balancing the incredulity of the narrators with the sly sarcasm of the book. He knows his strengths and does not try to exceed them. He might not be able to change his voice for different characters or attempt to modify his pitch to indicate female characters, but he is still able to distinguish between the cast through his phrasing, pacing, and tonality. The differences are subtle but there all the same. The fact that he narrates Redshirts especially with his background on Star Trek: TNG, only adds to the fun of the entire novel.

Redshirts will delight Trekkies but has immense appeal to readers who may not be as familiar with the series. There is something about the entire premise that all readers can enjoy, and Mr. Scalzi's humor is boundless. The added element of heart that the novel provides is a huge bonus.

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This is the first book I read that made me a long lasting "buy whatever books of his I can find" fan of John Scalzi. If you are a Trekkie, this book is a ridiculously accurate representation of what life would be like behind the "scenes" of any episode of Star Trek. If you are not a fan, it's fun

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and ridiculous Sci-Fi.

A lot of characters Scalzi writes for are very witty and often sarcastic, and this book hits home for sure. Come for the smart humorous situations and stay for the witty dialogue and not so subtle sarcasm.

I personally enjoyed the codas at the end, they wrapped up the book rather well.

If you haven't read Scalzi, this is a great first book to start with.

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Redshirts is fanfiction at its best: take a minor character (or in this case, a genre of character), and (lovingly) send up a familiar narrative.

The hilarious redshirt POV ends at some point, and the story spins into existentialism. Which you may or may not enjoy, but it's pretty different in tone

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from the reason you picked this book to begin with, which is obviously because it's a story about how awesome and also how ridiculous the Star Trek universe is.

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A fun satire on the Star Trek trope (famously (originally?) lampooned by Eddie Murphy) of the high death-rate on away missions for the all-but-anonymous ensigns - the Redshirts. I think I would have preferred a straight satire, but Scalzi decides to find a rationale for why this happens, and,

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whilst I know it is all post-modern and self-referential, actually, to me, it made it feel more like straight, light science fiction. Or at least it does for 75% of the book, then there are three codas (told, for no reason I could discern, other than affectation, in first, second and third person), elaborating on various themes and sections in the book. Apart from the first, which I really didn't like (it's supposed to be a blog, and has a really shrill tone, which I found wearing) they were okay, but they certainly weren't essential.

Additionally, for me, the decisive plot moment stretched credulity a bit beyond self-consistency, but the whole book is pretty much about skating on some thin ice in that regard, so I'm willing to let it slide.

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John Scalzi has an incredible knack for writing novels that read effortlessly, smoothly and all too quickly. While “Redshirts” doesn’t build a world as robust and realistic as the universe in his military-focused “Old Man’s War” series, Scalzi has written another terrifically creative

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and engaging work.

Scalzi’s wit drives a plot centered on the concept that secondary characters in sci fi entertainment tend to die (frequently) so that their senior officers (and show/movie/book stars) will live. The story is propelled by Scalzi’s insights on the human condition as well as the entertainment industry.

The concept is not new to sci fi fans - the title of Scalzi’s book draws from the standard uniform color of expendable characters on “Star Trek” whose deaths, as Scalzi points out, “are a feature, not a bug”. Scalzi uses the foundation of this small premise and builds a credible and interesting world. He avoids the standard and expected clichés and has developed a fully realized, nuanced and captivating novel.

I didn’t find the characters in “Redshirt” as three dimensional as those in Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” series. I acknowledge, though, that he had several books with which to build those up as opposed to the single 300+ pages in “Redshirts”. The strongest character development comes within the three codas Scalzi attaches to the end of the primary narrative to bring to conclusion some of the more poignant, but less central, plot elements of his story.

As usual, Scalzi’s characters are smartly written and imbued with a cynical, insightful, but never over-written, sense of humor. “Redshirts” is strewn with inside jokes on modern entertainment, many at the expense of agents, writers and the business-side of Hollywood business. I often found the tone similar to Scalzi’s approach in his novel, “Agent to the Stars.”

“Redshirts” made me chuckle, and Scalzi’s fluid writing style and strong story development drove me to devour the book in only a couple of days.

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One of my best reads this year, this book starts off as a farce of Star Trek (and other sci-fi shows) and ends with thoughtful questions. It starts off funny as **** and ends with touching poignancy. And if nothing else, at the end, you will want to wrest your own life from its Narrative and take

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control of it. I don't know if it is better, or worse, than other books with this plot idea. I do know that I enjoyed it tremendously.

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Ha.... how can any Trekkie fan not enjoy this fun romp. Having grown up on all generations of the Star Trek franchise - and yes, some of them have been rather cheesy in their story lines - I found listening to this audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton to be highly entertaining, even when the story

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starts to get metaphysical and just plain meta. I giggled and chortled my way through the story and had great fun when the "Narrative" was explained and visions of the original Star Trek shows popped up in my mind. The first coda was just a tad too strange for me and really didn't work all that well in audio format. Not surprising, considering it is supposed to represent blog postings. The second coda was better and provided some interesting insight. The third coda was just darn perfect. Loved it! Made me smile and cry at the same time.

Overall, fantastic fun presentation that appeals to my humorous side by taking a fun, satirical dig at Hollywood and the wonderful TV industry while opening the doors of my mind to memories of old sci-fi TV shows and movies I have watched. Escapism with an interesting meta angle to it.

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The day after I finished this book, I decided not to return it to the library, but instead sat down and read the entire thing, again. I think that's the highest praise I can give it.

Scalzi's narrative parodies and deconstructs Star Trek and science fiction, in general, but the book is ultimately

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also a love letter to the genre and to everyone who cares about it.

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Ensign Andrew Dahl has been assigned to the Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union. He's thrilled, until he starts noticing strange things, like how everyone tries to avoid going on away missions and how on those away missions, someone always dies horribly - but always someone of lower rank.

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Never the Captain or his three top officers.

This book is amazing. Scalzi is lovingly poking fun at classic sci-fi television, making Redshirts a light and funny read. It is full of characters who are easy to care about put in situations that may not be believable but are at least entertaining to read about. The three codas bring the story to an unsurprising but nonetheless wonderful conclusion. Highly recommended.

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One pro I can say is that from the first chapter you can tell exactly what this book is going to be like: unsubtle, nonsensical, and lacking in even basic setting. It basically builds all of its appeal off shallow jabs at a 40 year old show.

Short review: Liked it a lot. I would say that if you're a start trek fan you must read this. Or you will likely die.

If you're a sci fi fan in general, you should probably read this as well. You will still die, we are all mortal. Except for the tattoed ones, and the long dreamers.But we don't talk

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about them.

Even though you'll likely still die (not saying it will be a bear, but it's probably going to be a bear) if you read this book first your life will have more meaning.

If you like good books in general, there is a decent chance you'll enjoy this book.

If you hate sci fi, you aren't reading this review.

Usually I don't do much on plot summary. It's so easy to get to the editors blurb or any one of a dozen summaries that it just seems redundant to put it in a short review.

But in this case there is a good chance that this book is not what you'll be expecting. In lots of ways. Any insight into why that's the case is a spoiler, and this is one of those books where spoilers will absolutely diminish your joy.

I'll just say that if you're picking this up thinking it's a parody, you're right. If you're picking it up thinking it's a sci-fi adventure, you're right. If you're picking it up thinking that there's enough emotional weight that you might be moved to small little girly man tears in the corner of one eye, you're right - as long as you're not implying that I got a little choked up in one of the later passages.

I wear flannel and use a chainsaw (only when the splitting axe fails). Why would you think that there was a passage in this book that caused an upswelling of emotion significant enough that I put the book aside and cuddled my wife for a little while? That's just silly.

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Awesome. That is the only word I can come-up with to describe "Redshirts". I only wish that I could read it for the first time again, so that I could experience the joy of being introduced to the characters and exploring the world for the first time. Author John Scalzi has written yet another book

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for the ages.

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Sadly, I was not in the mood for this clever writing exercise - a plea for better writing in science fiction shows wrapped in layers of meta-fiction. (Though I'm all for better writing in science fiction shows...)