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 thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with … confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.
Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expendedon avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.
Redshirts is the winner of the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
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Other Tor Books
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Lock In
The Collapsing Empire (forthcoming)
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I listened to another John Scalzi novel, REDSHIRTS: A NOVEL WITH THREE CODAS narrated by Wil Wheaton. Interestingly enough, I had purchased this for Kindle, but then Audible had a huge sale, and I got the audio version to listen to instead. Why? Because Wil Wheaton, of course! As both a writer, a scifi reader, and a Trekkie, I felt this novel hit …
Just finished reading John Scalzi’s Hugo-winning novel Redshirts. Great sample chapter, so I had to read the whole thing. The premise that junior ship officers realize they’re fated to die on away missions, and try to do something about it, just cracked me up. The writing’s accessible, which I expect out of Scalzi. The three codas at the end were …
Are you a Trekkie or Trekker? Did you love Galaxy Quest? How about the Truman Show? This is a great book that will turn you into an instant John Scalzi fan. If you can swing it, listen to the audio version, as read by Wil Wheaton for Inception levels of self reference.
John Scalzi’s Redshirts starts as a Star Trek parody and ends as something deeper.
His protagonists are five new crew members of the Intrepid, the flagship of the Universal Union. As they get oriented, they quickly discover that a) the ship often solves crises with solutions that don’t make scientific sense, b) certain officers tend to get their …
The concept for this book is a great one and instead of the “story within a story” concept being cliché, the author puts a new spin on things. The critiques of bad sf writing are spot on and the brutally honest discussion about the writing process at the end is hilarious.
I devoured this book pretty fast. Just couldn’t put it down. Star Trek fans will recognize a lot, but you don’t have to know that fandom to get this book. Laugh out loud funny and so meta it’ll make your head spin, butt it’ll also make you think. Sci-fi fans will love it.
As one of the new transfers to the Universal Union flagship Intrepid, Andy Dahl has a lot to learn. Including how to avoid being sent on an away mission at all costs, because the low-ranking members of the crew have a high mortality rate on away missions. There’s a pattern surrounding five particular high-ranking officers, though, who seem to be …
Sometimes you run into a book that seems tailor made for you. John Scalzi is an author that I have very much enjoyed the works of, including Old Man’s War or The Collapsing Empire. He has a delightful appreciation for the absurd and a wonderfully snarky observational humor that reminds me a great deal of my own. His books sometimes go in odd and …
What a disappointment — a good author wasting his and my time
Star Trek fans beware! John Scalzi takes on the perennial facts of Star Trek and the frequent death of those who come on any away team as security. This novel is a great shaggy dog story! I loved it.
As any Trekkie knows, never be the security detail on an away team for TOS. If you’re wearing a red shirt, you’re dead. But what if a bunch of redshirts figure it out?
What if they start plotting for their own survival? I’ll tell you what will happen: A romping hilarious story. With screwy time travel, wildly inaccurate physics, and missing …
What if those who wear red shirts on The Enterprise realize that a huge percentage of them that go on away missions tend to end up dead?
What if there was a way to change their destiny?
** spoiler alert ** Talk about meta! I was completely drawn in by the premise of this book, and once I saw where it was going I was even more intrigued. A very interesting and I feel a fresh take on the Space Opera genre and it’s bevy of tropes. Highly recommended.
Every so often I pick this up for a re-read. In fact, I am re-reading it right now. It is a great (IMO) send-up of the Startrek (original) trope. The meta aspects of the story, the characters, the dialog, all make for a fun read. If you enjoyed Galaxy Quest you will enjoy this. John Scalzi’s humor and comfortable storytelling style make this worth …
It came recommended to me by my husband. He has been trying to get me to read it for over a year. But knowing the kind of books he usually reads, I kept putting him off. As I was making my reading challenge book list, the man tried to put this book in every category I mentioned, so I caved and read it.
And I didn’t hate it. It was actually …
Interesting take on something that happened a lot in the first Star Trek series.
Another humor-sci-fi hit out-of-the-ballpark by John Scalzi; he certainly is a master of this genre.
Fits perfect in the world of Shrek, and other deconstructions. Such a good not-a-Star-Trek book. Laugh out loud funny.
Not one of Scalzi’s more well-known titles, but definitely thought-provoking and funny as hell.
This is the most screwed-up, deliciously cynical, plot-twisting story I’ve ever read. Sure, there’s The Man Who Folded Himself, but that’s a psychedelic 70’s novel. This is John Scalzi, man!
In «Redshirts», Scalzi manages to tear apart and reconstruct all the stupid things every Star Trek series has done that makes no sense, from miracle cures to …