Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas
by John Scalzi
On This Page
Description
Enjoying his assignment with the xenobiology lab on board the prestigious Intrepid, ensign Andrew Dahl worries about casualties suffered by low-ranking officers during away missions before making a shocking discovery about the starship's actual purpose.Tags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
ryvre Fans of pop culture nostalgia will love both of these books!
Also recommended by sturlington
121
norabelle414 Meta-science-fiction at its best
21
g33kgrrl Enjoyable people on space voyages. Drama makes a plot happen, but the characters are pretty great too.
sandstone78 Expendable also follows the lives of space exploration crew members who are considered expendable. The protagonist, Festina Ramos, has a large, port-wine-colored birthmark across her face; as "everyone" knows in the setting, people form less of an emotional attachment to ugly people and therefore care less when they die, making them perfect candidates for almost-certain-death missions.
RobinWebster Tigerman and Redshirts are fun, fast-paced, quirky, high-stakes adventures. Both authors navigate ridiculous scenarios with confidence and zest, avoiding silliness through characters with believable, relatable emotions and motivations.
fulner Which reality is real? Are they all? What will this mean for the fire of humanity and comedy?
11
PitcherBooks Happy Bureaucracy 1 (a stand alone) was among the best SFF dark humor satire that I've read. It's difficult to hit just the right note with that genre but Fitzgerald did so with this novel.
It is rare to find such a fun SFF stand-out. The last book of this specialty genre that I found this enjoyable was Red Shirts by Scalzi.
Member Reviews
Redshirts by John Scalzi is a very highly recommended sci-fi spoof; I heart Redshirts with all the hearty heartness a heart can heart. (Borrowed from Scalzi) Why on earth did I wait so long to read Redshirts? There were several parts that left me laughing so hard I was gasping for breath with tears in my eyes. (The magic box, pants.... okay, let me get it back together again.) Redshirts deserved the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
It should be almost a given fact that anyone who would want to read Redshirts knows that if you wore a redshirt, you were a disposable character in the original Star Trek series.
"Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the show more year 2456. It's a prestige posting, with the chance to serve on 'Away Missions' alongside the starship's famous senior officers." Immediately, Dahl notices that the experienced crew members avoid Captain Abernathy, science officer Q'eeng, and astrogator Kerensky, especially if their appearance has anything to do with finding members for an away mission. It is well known that every away mission involves a lethal confrontation with alien forces and at least one low-ranking crew member is invariably killed. Oddly enough, Captain Abernathy, Q'eeng, and Kerensky always survive. Although Kerensky is often wounded, he always recovers remarkably quickly.
The lower ranking crew members all know that in order to survive, you must not go on an away mission. Even more startling is what Dahl discovers through the ship's hermit, Jenkins. Once he and his trusted colleagues figure out what is really going on they need to devise a plan to stop it and save more redshirts from certain death.
The story of Dahl on the Intrepid is told in the first two-thirds of the novel. This is followed by three codas set in 2012 which finish the story.
I savored every part of this novel. Scalzi's writing is incredible. In Redshirts, he creates a hilarious parody of bad science fiction shows, but more importantly it highlights how bad science, lazy writers, inconsistent plots, and killing off characters just to keep the tension high can detrimentally affect a series and reflect adversely on the shows fans. Good writing, real science, developing characters beyond clichés of a type, and believable plots can make the same show even better. The codas pull it all together and give it depth - questioning what is real and what is fiction?
http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/2016/11/redshirts.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1817964810 show less
It should be almost a given fact that anyone who would want to read Redshirts knows that if you wore a redshirt, you were a disposable character in the original Star Trek series.
"Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the show more year 2456. It's a prestige posting, with the chance to serve on 'Away Missions' alongside the starship's famous senior officers." Immediately, Dahl notices that the experienced crew members avoid Captain Abernathy, science officer Q'eeng, and astrogator Kerensky, especially if their appearance has anything to do with finding members for an away mission. It is well known that every away mission involves a lethal confrontation with alien forces and at least one low-ranking crew member is invariably killed. Oddly enough, Captain Abernathy, Q'eeng, and Kerensky always survive. Although Kerensky is often wounded, he always recovers remarkably quickly.
The lower ranking crew members all know that in order to survive, you must not go on an away mission. Even more startling is what Dahl discovers through the ship's hermit, Jenkins. Once he and his trusted colleagues figure out what is really going on they need to devise a plan to stop it and save more redshirts from certain death.
The story of Dahl on the Intrepid is told in the first two-thirds of the novel. This is followed by three codas set in 2012 which finish the story.
I savored every part of this novel. Scalzi's writing is incredible. In Redshirts, he creates a hilarious parody of bad science fiction shows, but more importantly it highlights how bad science, lazy writers, inconsistent plots, and killing off characters just to keep the tension high can detrimentally affect a series and reflect adversely on the shows fans. Good writing, real science, developing characters beyond clichés of a type, and believable plots can make the same show even better. The codas pull it all together and give it depth - questioning what is real and what is fiction?
http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/2016/11/redshirts.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1817964810 show less
Ahhh! This book was a refreshing, cooling bidet blast after a night of an Olympic-session eating competition comprised of taco bell food topped with Indian curry and spicy Thai seasoning!
First, I read like 5 or 6 real stinkers in a row. I mean books that were a disgrace to their publishers. Like I considered for half a second to inform the publishers via a sternly worded email how shiteous the books were... I'd be all "WTF were you drinking when you approved that book for mass consumption?!"
Then I picked up John Scalzi's RedShirts book from my to-read shelf. It was there too long, and it collected audiobook dust. I'm not even a Star Trek fan... Even though I have found an occasional super-kitschy episode entertaining, but enjoyed it show more only in a so-bad-it's-good kinda way. So, the sole premise that I knew, going into this book, was that it had something to do with the extra actors in the old Star Trek series that wore red shirts, but died before the end of the episode or before a commercial break as a cliff-hanger before we really even learned their names.
What I didn't expect was how skillfully Scalzi wrote these red-shirt characters, the surrounding plot, and the 'main protagonists' that weren't main protagonists at all. He intertwined genuinely funny comedy, geeky time-travel paradoxiness, an unexpected (but enjoyably predictable at the same time!) plot line, and a shitload of quirky geek pop culture references... especially from sci-fi book genre! Loved it. What a thoroughly fun story that didn't borrow from Star Trek nearly as much as I dreaded.
This. book. was. awesome. Would read again in a femtosecond. show less
First, I read like 5 or 6 real stinkers in a row. I mean books that were a disgrace to their publishers. Like I considered for half a second to inform the publishers via a sternly worded email how shiteous the books were... I'd be all "WTF were you drinking when you approved that book for mass consumption?!"
Then I picked up John Scalzi's RedShirts book from my to-read shelf. It was there too long, and it collected audiobook dust. I'm not even a Star Trek fan... Even though I have found an occasional super-kitschy episode entertaining, but enjoyed it show more only in a so-bad-it's-good kinda way. So, the sole premise that I knew, going into this book, was that it had something to do with the extra actors in the old Star Trek series that wore red shirts, but died before the end of the episode or before a commercial break as a cliff-hanger before we really even learned their names.
What I didn't expect was how skillfully Scalzi wrote these red-shirt characters, the surrounding plot, and the 'main protagonists' that weren't main protagonists at all. He intertwined genuinely funny comedy, geeky time-travel paradoxiness, an unexpected (but enjoyably predictable at the same time!) plot line, and a shitload of quirky geek pop culture references... especially from sci-fi book genre! Loved it. What a thoroughly fun story that didn't borrow from Star Trek nearly as much as I dreaded.
This. book. was. awesome. Would read again in a femtosecond. show less
It's difficult being a low-ranking crewman on the Universal Union ship Intrepid. They keep getting killed off in horrible, and often utterly ridiculous, ways, while the bridge officers -- who you'd think shouldn't even be on these dangerous missions -- survive against all odds. There are lots of other things about their lives that don't make any logical sense, either. It's almost as if they were characters on some kind of badly written TV show...
This is a very silly story, but it's a lot of fun, and the premise, even if not 100% original, is clever. It also made me laugh out loud surprisingly often. Whether it deserves the Hugo win it just picked up, I don't really know -- it seems awfully slight for that -- but it was certainly well show more worth reading, especially for an old school Star Trek fan like yours truly. show less
This is a very silly story, but it's a lot of fun, and the premise, even if not 100% original, is clever. It also made me laugh out loud surprisingly often. Whether it deserves the Hugo win it just picked up, I don't really know -- it seems awfully slight for that -- but it was certainly well show more worth reading, especially for an old school Star Trek fan like yours truly. show less
I could summarize the plot of this novel in a short paragraph, but I won’t because if I did, you won’t have the “Oh, that’s different” experiences I had reading it, and I quite enjoyed them. I wouldn’t want to ruin those for you.
At one level, this is obviously a parody of Star Trek, The Original Series, told from the perspective of the poor unfortunate crewmembers sent on away missions for the sole purpose of dying in interesting and dramatic ways to advance the plot. As such, it’s a hoot. It has aliens, space travel, split realities, and inexplicable tech stuff. It also has additional layers that make it more than a comic ride through the galaxy aboard the Universal Union Spaceship Intrepid. These layers provide depth and show more make this a solid, thought provoking read. But even with all the philosophical and existential brain-bending, it is still a lighthearted and charming book.
When I started reading this, it reminded me of the movie Galaxy Quest. Then it became more like Star Trek IV. Then it turned a corner and seemed a bit like the Thursday Next books (by Jasper Fforde) with maybe a touch of The Never Ending Story. (Yes, I confess to being something of a geek, but who else would be reading stuff like this?) My point is that there is more than one story being told here. It’s rather like a thought experiment in novel form. I loved it.
The story has interesting, likeable characters, witty dialogue, and a very Star Trek-like setting. But if you’re looking for a mindless action adventure with a few jokes, this isn’t for you. If you’re looking for a simple slapstick parody of Star Trek, this isn’t it. It is also nothing like Scalzi’s Old Man Goes to War books (which are also very good) or even Fuzzy Nation (also a winner for me). Scalzi continues to grow as a writer, and this book proves it. I won’t say it’s better than his other books, but it is definitely different. What I will say is that I thought it was so good I wish I wrote it. show less
At one level, this is obviously a parody of Star Trek, The Original Series, told from the perspective of the poor unfortunate crewmembers sent on away missions for the sole purpose of dying in interesting and dramatic ways to advance the plot. As such, it’s a hoot. It has aliens, space travel, split realities, and inexplicable tech stuff. It also has additional layers that make it more than a comic ride through the galaxy aboard the Universal Union Spaceship Intrepid. These layers provide depth and show more make this a solid, thought provoking read. But even with all the philosophical and existential brain-bending, it is still a lighthearted and charming book.
When I started reading this, it reminded me of the movie Galaxy Quest. Then it became more like Star Trek IV. Then it turned a corner and seemed a bit like the Thursday Next books (by Jasper Fforde) with maybe a touch of The Never Ending Story. (Yes, I confess to being something of a geek, but who else would be reading stuff like this?) My point is that there is more than one story being told here. It’s rather like a thought experiment in novel form. I loved it.
The story has interesting, likeable characters, witty dialogue, and a very Star Trek-like setting. But if you’re looking for a mindless action adventure with a few jokes, this isn’t for you. If you’re looking for a simple slapstick parody of Star Trek, this isn’t it. It is also nothing like Scalzi’s Old Man Goes to War books (which are also very good) or even Fuzzy Nation (also a winner for me). Scalzi continues to grow as a writer, and this book proves it. I won’t say it’s better than his other books, but it is definitely different. What I will say is that I thought it was so good I wish I wrote it. show less
The crew of an obviously Trek-knockoff starship start to notice the high attrition rate of anyone around certain bridge officers, and develop theories (and superstitions) to explain it. Why is their world this way? Is it chance, or was it perhaps... designed? Some even say... written that way? What starts as a tongue-in-cheek romp takes a surprisingly deep and intelligent turn into very meta territory, with smart thoughts on writing, identity, destiny, autonomy, and free will. Also, John Scalzi is one of the coolest, smartest people on the internet. http://whatever.scalzi.com/
It's pretty rare (in my experience) for a book to be both laugh-out-loud funny and thought-provoking. But this book is. I've been thinking about some of the issues explored here for years. What if, for every work of fiction created in our world, there was a parallel world where that fiction was real? But I've never traced all of the ramifacations of the idea. Scalzi looks at what would happen if the fiction isn't very well written. Would the characters start to question why their world is so strange, or even ridiculous, and perhaps come to the conclusion that they were characters in a work of fiction? As Scalzi himself points out, Jasper Fforde has explored some of these same questions.
The structure of this book is original. About the show more first two-thirds is the novel, the final third is...different. And unpredictable. I was very pleasantly surprised at the number of times I said "Oh, I wasn't expecting that" while reading it. (Of course, in the very nature of it there were many things that were predictable. Oh, well.)
This is simultaneously an enjoyable satirical romp, a plea for better (read: less lazy) writing from our science fiction (and other) writers, and a meditation on the nature of "The Narrative" and its relation to reality. show less
The structure of this book is original. About the show more first two-thirds is the novel, the final third is...different. And unpredictable. I was very pleasantly surprised at the number of times I said "Oh, I wasn't expecting that" while reading it. (Of course, in the very nature of it there were many things that were predictable. Oh, well.)
This is simultaneously an enjoyable satirical romp, a plea for better (read: less lazy) writing from our science fiction (and other) writers, and a meditation on the nature of "The Narrative" and its relation to reality. show less
John Scalzi has an affinity for the absurd, and this book takes absurdity to high levels. Scalzi has admitted that Redshirts was meant to be absurd and is based on the absurd pattern of an extra or smaller character wearing a red shirt in a Star Trek episode dying, while the main characters never die.
Having established that as the premise, Scalzi gives it an existential twist by having the characters realize they are, indeed characters, in a rather bad science fiction television show eerily similar to Star Trek. In the best tradition of science fiction television, the characters figure out a way to combat their impending doom by traveling to another dimension and confronting .... well, that would be telling.
The three codas add a more show more serious and sensitive layer to this tale of the redshirts who just wanted to live their own lives. show less
Having established that as the premise, Scalzi gives it an existential twist by having the characters realize they are, indeed characters, in a rather bad science fiction television show eerily similar to Star Trek. In the best tradition of science fiction television, the characters figure out a way to combat their impending doom by traveling to another dimension and confronting .... well, that would be telling.
The three codas add a more show more serious and sensitive layer to this tale of the redshirts who just wanted to live their own lives. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Best Science Fiction Novels
816 works; 430 members
Hugo Award Winning Novels
63 works; 23 members
Hugo Awards - Best Novel
69 works; 10 members
Locus Award for Best Novel/SF Novel
53 works; 6 members
Well-written Fluff
20 works; 10 members
Best 21st Century Books (So Far)
670 works; 85 members
Recommend the 20 best books you've read in the last five years
2,168 works; 601 members
Top Five Books of 2013
1,562 works; 721 members
Metafiction
86 works; 23 members
Top Five Books of 2020
982 works; 350 members
Unbound Worlds 100 Best SF Books
100 works; 8 members
Most-anticipated future releases
40 works; 25 members
Speculative Fiction to Read
706 works; 32 members
Best First Lines
133 works; 8 members
Genre Benders: Comic Science Fiction
37 works; 5 members
Speculative Fiction: The Award Winners
27 works; 6 members
Acclaimed Fanfiction
23 works; 2 members
Books Read in 2017
4,249 works; 129 members
Books Read in 2025
4,128 works; 98 members
Books We Discovered On LibraryThing
530 works; 130 members
Top Five Books of 2025
954 works; 303 members
Books Read in 2021
5,361 works; 114 members
To Read 2026
10 works; 1 member
Books Read in 2026
2,042 works; 68 members
Tagged Parallel Worlds
43 works; 11 members
Books Read in 2018
4,360 works; 110 members
Books with Colourful Titles
171 works; 8 members
Books That Will Take You Out of This World
19 works; 5 members
KayStJ's to-read list
1,616 works; 11 members
Books Read in 2015
3,299 works; 126 members
Writers as Characters in Fiction
120 works; 19 members
Books Read in 2014
2,343 works; 89 members
A Rainbow of Books: Colors in the Title
570 works; 24 members
Favorite Books Published in 2012
57 works; 17 members
io9 Book Club
70 works; 4 members
Books Read in 2013
1,630 works; 51 members
Favorite Science Fiction
456 works; 218 members
Talk Discussions
Past Discussions
Chat about... Redshirts by John Scalzi in The SF&F Book Chat (February 2013)
Author Information
135+ Works 67,864 Members
John Michael Scalzi was born May 10, 1969 in California. He attended the University of Chicago. During his 1989 -1990 school year he was the editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon. After graduating in 1991, Scalzi took a job as the film critic for the Fresno Bee newspaper, eventually also becoming a humor columnist. In 1996 he was hired as the show more in-house writer and editor at America Online. When he was laid off in 1998, he decided to become a full-time freelance writer and author. His first published novel was Old Man's War. His other works include Agent to the Stars, The Ghosts Brigades, The Androids Team, The Sagan Diary, The Last Colony, and Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas. In 2014 his title, Locked In, made The New York Times Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Notable Lists
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Contains
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- 星艦求生日誌
- Original title
- Redshirts
- Original publication date
- 2012-06-05
- People/Characters
- Andrew Dahl; Maia Duvall; Finn; Jasper Allen Hester; Anatoly Kerensky; James Albert Hanson IV (show all 32); Adam Jenkins; Captain Lucius Abernathy; Chief Science Officer Q'eeng; Chief Engineer Paul West; Medical Chief Hartnell; Ensign Tom Davis; Fiona Mbeke; Jake Cassaway; Ben Trin; Lieutenant Collins; Lieutenant Fischer; Crewman McGregor; Casey Zane; Ensign Jacobs; Jer Weston; Ensign Grover; Marc Corey; Brian Abnett; Charles Paulson; Michael Paulson; Nick Weinstein; Samantha Martinez; Margaret Elizabeth Jenkins; Denise Hogan; Father Neil; Sandra Bullington
- Important places
- Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid; Universal Union Capital Ship Nantes; Burbank, California, USA; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Malibu, California, USA
- Dedication
- Redshirts is dedicated to the following:
To Wil Wheaton, whom I heart with all the hearty heartiness a heart can heart;
To Mykal Burns, my friend since the TRS-80 days at the Glendora Public Library;
A... (show all)nd to Joe Mallozzi and Brad Wright, who took me to space with them. - First words
- From the top of the large boulder he sat on, Ensign Tom Davis looked across the expanse of the cave toward Captain Lucius Abernathy, Science Officer Q'eeng and Chief Engineer Paul West perched on a second, larger boulder, and... (show all) thought, Well, this sucks.
- Quotations
- "Someone who knows that no matter what, you don't deal upward on the chain of command," Dahl said. The crewman grinned.
"I don't think luck had much to do with it."
"That's it? 'The Box'?" Dahl said.
"If it makes you feel better to think it's an experimental quantum-based computer with advanced inductive artificial intelligence capacity, whose design origins comes to us from an ad... (show all)vanced but extinct race of warrior-engineers, then you can think about it that way," Collins said.
"Is that actually what it is?" Dahl asked.
"Sure," Collins said . . .
“In other words, crew deaths are a feature, not a bug,” Cassaway said, dryly. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Samantha smiles again and puts her arm around Nick as they walk.
- Publisher's editor
- Nielsen Hayden, Patrick
- Blurbers
- Hill, Joe; Rothfuss, Patrick; Snodgrass, Melinda; Grossman, Lev
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 5,837
- Popularity
- 2,234
- Reviews
- 477
- Rating
- (3.77)
- Languages
- 12 — Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Portuguese (Portugal), Chinese, traditional
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 31
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 20