Redshirts
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Description
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 even more delighted when he's assigned to the ship's Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn't be better ... although there are a few strange things going on:
(1) every Away Mission involves a lethal confrontation with alien forces
(2) the ship's captain, the chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these encounters
(3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.
Suddenly it's less surprising how much energy is expended below decks on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned an Away Mission. Andrew's fate may have been sealed ... until he stumbles on a piece of information that changes everything ... and offers him and his fellow redshirts a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives ...
Readers are crying with laughter at Redshirts:
'One of the best Star Trek novels without really being about Star Trek . . . a fine masterpiece of crafty reading' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'It's never a good thing to wear a red shirt in sci-fi . . . I am very impressed with how creative, funny and moving it is all at the same time. It pokes fun at cheesy sci-fi television while honouring it at the same time' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'It begins as a pretty funny, genre-aware, semi-parody of old school Star Trek . . . Slowly though, the flavour transitions into a more serious, meta-narrative quest' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Satirical without being mean or mocking, and it is extremely, laugh out loud funny. But rather than taking the easy way out, Mr Scalzi slowly takes the story in a very meta direction, but in doing so turns the story into something real and thought-provoking' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'I fell in love with all of the characters, their plight, and the plot, all equally . . . What fantastic fun this book was!' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'The story veers in unexpected directions and becomes about fate and creativity and love and the dialogue a creator has with their creations. It was so unexpected and brilliant. This really was a laugh and cry read for me. I loved it' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Book Information
Posts
Redshirts is a novel in multiple parts. The first part, the main story, takes up 2/3rd of the book - and for most of my time reading, I was going to give it three stars. The latter parts, a series of short stories taking up the last hundred or so pages, I wanted to give one star. I've Compromised to give the book as a whole two. In an interview after the publication of Redshirts, Scalzi admitted he wrote the first draft in a few weeks and then sent it off to the publisher without a second look. It shows. Redshirts has an interesting premise, - focusing in on the lives of the Redshirt trope, borne of Star Trek, where they pretty much exist to be killed. Unfortunately, there isn't really anything else to praise about the book. The plot takes a very meta direction that is neither as clever, original, insightful, nor as humerus as the book thinks it is. The plot is supported by a cast of extremely underdeveloped, forgettable characters that never develop their own 'voice' or mannerisms. In some lengthy dialogue sections, it can be very confusing who is talking to who, since everyone uses the same cookie-cutter speech patterns. As a result, I never got invested or felt engaged with any of the characters. Plus, in order to make the plot work the the characters have to be constantly acting dumb. True, there is somewhat of an in-world explanation to some of the instances where this happened, but it doesn't over all. In order to even accept the basic premise we are asked to believe that in a galactic empire that has managed to master space-travel, only our plucky band of heroes understand *basic statistics.* For me this was a distortion of belief so large, it utterly prevented me from taking anything else in the book seriously - and it's not a minor fix; to patch this hole, everything would need to be rewritten, *re-plotted* from the ground up. We are asked to believe no one but the heroes can see the basic conflict of the plot simply because no one else can plot a histogram; and almost all of the difficulties faced by the protagonists rely on the idea that the person in their way can't read a Y axis. The plot paddles along with these lackluster characters for far longer than it needs to, despite only being 1/3rd of the book. In the Interview, Scalzi likens the plot to low-hanging fruit, wondering why no other author had run with the idea aside from some short stories here and there. Later in the interview, he laments about the fact the plot didn't quite get to novel length. Well, there is a reason for that: it's not a novel plot, it's a short story plot. There's no complexity, and certainly not enough meat in the idea to drive a full-length novel. It's a cute, whimsical 'what if' short story that everyone who has ever watched Star Trek has thought of. The reason no one else decided to write a novel about it, is because it's not a good basis for a novel. Despite the fact the novel part takes only 2/3rds of the actual book, it is *still* stuffed to the brim with filler. But In the end I give it three stars, because I probably sound too harsh. It is a fun premise, and though none of the characters will stick with me and the plot isn't thought-provoking or insightful, it's an easy read and i never felt like putting it down. It's ironic that a book attempting to lampoon the trashy, nonsensical pulp-action of early episodic space operas ends up falling into all the same traps, but the main story of Redshirts is a solid 3-stars; neither off putting nor memorable. And then comes the 'Codas.' In order to be printed and marketed as a novel, Redshirts needed more. Rather than going back and giving the first draft another look and see where the story could be improved and expanded (something it sorely, sorely needed), Scalzi decided to write three sequel short-stories that focus on some of the minor characters of the main story, telling us how they moved on after the events of the book. Thematically, it is appropriate: the main characters of Redshirts are, well, the Redshirts: the minor characters in a normal book. The Main characters of the short stories are the minor characters of the book about minor characters. Unfortunately, they are awful. The first one is told in a series of blog posts - an awful format to be reading in a book - and tells the story of a writer with writers block. I can't help but feel Scalzi was telling us something here - having juiced as much as possible from the simple premise of Redshirts and come up short, he didn't know how to continue - and so he rambles. After a few 'blog posts' of this I skimmed the rest, found nothing interesting, and tried to move on. Through about different characters the other two Codas are much the same, a rambling attempt to get as much down on a page as possible to make the word-count required to be classified as a novel. The short stories are words for words sake, and manage to be even less thought-provoking than the main text. After reading the first few pages of each, i skimmed and skipped the rest. In his Interview, Scalzi talks about other authors who've run with the same premise as Redshirts, mentioning that no one yet had made a novel out of it, so he wanted to. Well, If the premise of Redshirts intrigues you, consider checking out one of the short stories written by those authors. While It's true Scalzi has now made a Novel out of (Arguably not, actually, since it's 100 pages of short stories) it, no one has made a *good* novel out of it. Here is the interview I have been referring to: https://www.tor.com/2012/07/15/how-books-can-become-batman-scalzi-at-sdcc/
Anfangs hielt ich das Buch für eine ganz nette Star-Trek-Parodie. Unterhaltsam, voller Nerd-Humor, aber lange nicht heranreichend an Galaxy Quest oder Lower Decks. Aber dann kam der Moment, bei dem ich beim Lesen dachte:Oh nein, jetzt kippt es zum Schlechten ab. - Aber es wurde nicht schlechter, sondern im Gegenteil besser. Und aus der bloßen Parodie wurde - etwas anderes. Gut gefallen haben mir auch die Codas, vor allem die erste (Ich bin aber auch jemand, die sich bei Computerspielen fragt, was wohl die NPCs von mir denken…) Dennoch bleibt es wohl eher ein Buch für Trekkies und Leute, die nie eine Folge TOS oder wenigstens TNG, DS9 oder Voyager gesehen haben, werden wenig damit anfangen können.
Die Idee dieser Geschichte liebe ich abgöttisch! Ich mag den Perspektivwechsel, die diese Story mit sich bringt - nicht die eigentlichen Hauptdarsteller sind die Tragenden, sondern die „Redshirts“. An sich mag ich den Stil jedoch nicht. Immer wieder „sagte“ jemand etwas. Es gab keine Variationen. Keine Handlungen während sie miteinander sprachen. Und einiges war vorhersehbar. Und trotzdem war es ganz nett und könnte „Trekkies“ gefallen.
Description
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 even more delighted when he's assigned to the ship's Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn't be better ... although there are a few strange things going on:
(1) every Away Mission involves a lethal confrontation with alien forces
(2) the ship's captain, the chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these encounters
(3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.
Suddenly it's less surprising how much energy is expended below decks on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned an Away Mission. Andrew's fate may have been sealed ... until he stumbles on a piece of information that changes everything ... and offers him and his fellow redshirts a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives ...
Readers are crying with laughter at Redshirts:
'One of the best Star Trek novels without really being about Star Trek . . . a fine masterpiece of crafty reading' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'It's never a good thing to wear a red shirt in sci-fi . . . I am very impressed with how creative, funny and moving it is all at the same time. It pokes fun at cheesy sci-fi television while honouring it at the same time' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'It begins as a pretty funny, genre-aware, semi-parody of old school Star Trek . . . Slowly though, the flavour transitions into a more serious, meta-narrative quest' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Satirical without being mean or mocking, and it is extremely, laugh out loud funny. But rather than taking the easy way out, Mr Scalzi slowly takes the story in a very meta direction, but in doing so turns the story into something real and thought-provoking' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'I fell in love with all of the characters, their plight, and the plot, all equally . . . What fantastic fun this book was!' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'The story veers in unexpected directions and becomes about fate and creativity and love and the dialogue a creator has with their creations. It was so unexpected and brilliant. This really was a laugh and cry read for me. I loved it' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Book Information
Posts
Redshirts is a novel in multiple parts. The first part, the main story, takes up 2/3rd of the book - and for most of my time reading, I was going to give it three stars. The latter parts, a series of short stories taking up the last hundred or so pages, I wanted to give one star. I've Compromised to give the book as a whole two. In an interview after the publication of Redshirts, Scalzi admitted he wrote the first draft in a few weeks and then sent it off to the publisher without a second look. It shows. Redshirts has an interesting premise, - focusing in on the lives of the Redshirt trope, borne of Star Trek, where they pretty much exist to be killed. Unfortunately, there isn't really anything else to praise about the book. The plot takes a very meta direction that is neither as clever, original, insightful, nor as humerus as the book thinks it is. The plot is supported by a cast of extremely underdeveloped, forgettable characters that never develop their own 'voice' or mannerisms. In some lengthy dialogue sections, it can be very confusing who is talking to who, since everyone uses the same cookie-cutter speech patterns. As a result, I never got invested or felt engaged with any of the characters. Plus, in order to make the plot work the the characters have to be constantly acting dumb. True, there is somewhat of an in-world explanation to some of the instances where this happened, but it doesn't over all. In order to even accept the basic premise we are asked to believe that in a galactic empire that has managed to master space-travel, only our plucky band of heroes understand *basic statistics.* For me this was a distortion of belief so large, it utterly prevented me from taking anything else in the book seriously - and it's not a minor fix; to patch this hole, everything would need to be rewritten, *re-plotted* from the ground up. We are asked to believe no one but the heroes can see the basic conflict of the plot simply because no one else can plot a histogram; and almost all of the difficulties faced by the protagonists rely on the idea that the person in their way can't read a Y axis. The plot paddles along with these lackluster characters for far longer than it needs to, despite only being 1/3rd of the book. In the Interview, Scalzi likens the plot to low-hanging fruit, wondering why no other author had run with the idea aside from some short stories here and there. Later in the interview, he laments about the fact the plot didn't quite get to novel length. Well, there is a reason for that: it's not a novel plot, it's a short story plot. There's no complexity, and certainly not enough meat in the idea to drive a full-length novel. It's a cute, whimsical 'what if' short story that everyone who has ever watched Star Trek has thought of. The reason no one else decided to write a novel about it, is because it's not a good basis for a novel. Despite the fact the novel part takes only 2/3rds of the actual book, it is *still* stuffed to the brim with filler. But In the end I give it three stars, because I probably sound too harsh. It is a fun premise, and though none of the characters will stick with me and the plot isn't thought-provoking or insightful, it's an easy read and i never felt like putting it down. It's ironic that a book attempting to lampoon the trashy, nonsensical pulp-action of early episodic space operas ends up falling into all the same traps, but the main story of Redshirts is a solid 3-stars; neither off putting nor memorable. And then comes the 'Codas.' In order to be printed and marketed as a novel, Redshirts needed more. Rather than going back and giving the first draft another look and see where the story could be improved and expanded (something it sorely, sorely needed), Scalzi decided to write three sequel short-stories that focus on some of the minor characters of the main story, telling us how they moved on after the events of the book. Thematically, it is appropriate: the main characters of Redshirts are, well, the Redshirts: the minor characters in a normal book. The Main characters of the short stories are the minor characters of the book about minor characters. Unfortunately, they are awful. The first one is told in a series of blog posts - an awful format to be reading in a book - and tells the story of a writer with writers block. I can't help but feel Scalzi was telling us something here - having juiced as much as possible from the simple premise of Redshirts and come up short, he didn't know how to continue - and so he rambles. After a few 'blog posts' of this I skimmed the rest, found nothing interesting, and tried to move on. Through about different characters the other two Codas are much the same, a rambling attempt to get as much down on a page as possible to make the word-count required to be classified as a novel. The short stories are words for words sake, and manage to be even less thought-provoking than the main text. After reading the first few pages of each, i skimmed and skipped the rest. In his Interview, Scalzi talks about other authors who've run with the same premise as Redshirts, mentioning that no one yet had made a novel out of it, so he wanted to. Well, If the premise of Redshirts intrigues you, consider checking out one of the short stories written by those authors. While It's true Scalzi has now made a Novel out of (Arguably not, actually, since it's 100 pages of short stories) it, no one has made a *good* novel out of it. Here is the interview I have been referring to: https://www.tor.com/2012/07/15/how-books-can-become-batman-scalzi-at-sdcc/
Anfangs hielt ich das Buch für eine ganz nette Star-Trek-Parodie. Unterhaltsam, voller Nerd-Humor, aber lange nicht heranreichend an Galaxy Quest oder Lower Decks. Aber dann kam der Moment, bei dem ich beim Lesen dachte:Oh nein, jetzt kippt es zum Schlechten ab. - Aber es wurde nicht schlechter, sondern im Gegenteil besser. Und aus der bloßen Parodie wurde - etwas anderes. Gut gefallen haben mir auch die Codas, vor allem die erste (Ich bin aber auch jemand, die sich bei Computerspielen fragt, was wohl die NPCs von mir denken…) Dennoch bleibt es wohl eher ein Buch für Trekkies und Leute, die nie eine Folge TOS oder wenigstens TNG, DS9 oder Voyager gesehen haben, werden wenig damit anfangen können.
Die Idee dieser Geschichte liebe ich abgöttisch! Ich mag den Perspektivwechsel, die diese Story mit sich bringt - nicht die eigentlichen Hauptdarsteller sind die Tragenden, sondern die „Redshirts“. An sich mag ich den Stil jedoch nicht. Immer wieder „sagte“ jemand etwas. Es gab keine Variationen. Keine Handlungen während sie miteinander sprachen. Und einiges war vorhersehbar. Und trotzdem war es ganz nett und könnte „Trekkies“ gefallen.