Book Review: Redshirts by John Scalzi
I’ve been avoiding reviews of this book, so this may be very redundant of other things you’ve read about Redshirts.
The Universal Union capital ship Intrepid has a problem. Or rather, the crew does. Especially the lower-ranked members. It seems that every time one of the senior officers or the astrogator go on an away mission with a lower-ranked crewmember, that crewmember dies, frequently in improbable ways. Seriously, ice sharks? Yet the senior officers always survive.
New crew member Ensign Andrew Dahl isn’t just going to try to avoid the issue, like many of the other lower ranks. He’s going to investigate with the help of a handful of other people in harm’s way. But what he finds may be more than even someone trained in esoteric philosophy can handle.
This is a very metatextual novel, and a funny one. The parallels to classic Star Trek are deliberate and pointed out in the story itself. It’s difficult to explain further without getting into serious spoiler territory.
After the main story, there are three codas involving minor characters and how the events of the story affect their lives. The first is a little weak, but the other two hold up nicely.
I recommend this book for science fiction fans in general and Star Trek fans in particular, and those who enjoy metatextual fiction.
