Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas

Second Review:

First Review: Really fantastic and science fiction in its truest sense. This book isn't for everyone, but the more hardcore science fiction you are, the better.

There were parts that were quite odd, but that's what made this experience so great. This book was everything I hoped Cloud Atlas would have been. However, that book sucked and this book rocked.

This was my second Scalzi book and I'm a huge fan already. Can't wait to dig into some of his other words. ( )

I really enjoyed this novel. The problem is that this is not just a novel, but also three codas. (I think the codas would have been better off being published separately as short stories instead of being included with the novel. They're clever and enjoyable as shorts, but I finished with the novel 2 hours or so before the audiobook finished.) The novel section I would probably rate as 5 stars. With the codas, though, I'd rate the entire thing at 4 stars.

Minor spoilers follow (without the spoiler tag, because they are minor).

The novel manages to be a fun, witty romp through a badly written Star Trek rip-off universe without getting cheesy or boring. (The author makes this fun by acknowledging all of that. It is directly referenced several times in the story.) If you've seen the movie Galaxy Quest (one of my personal favorite films) then think about Laliari, the Thermian who came back to Earth and joined the reboot of the show. As far as she was aware, the fictional show was all real. Well, ALL of the characters in Redshirts are in her position at the start of the book. EVERYONE thinks that they are living in the real world, even though they are in a TV show.

If you're a Star Trek fan, you'll probably enjoy this. If you're a Galaxy Quest fan, you'll probably enjoy it more. If you want serious science, though... well, just remember how "real" the science usually is in science-fiction TV and movies, then make it worse than that on purpose, and you've got the science in this book. At least the science is bad on purpose here, and the characters recognize that. ( )

Scalzi has a good time poking fun at science fiction, sci-fi TV, and writing in this enjoyable meta satire. Weirdly, the story ended a hundred pages short of the back cover, and then we are given three pleasant but not entirely necessary codas. Still quite fine, especially for Star Trek fans. ( )

This book is clever, but not nearly as clever as it thinks it is. ( )

people die for the story line, until the characters fight back.