Redshirts by John Scalzi

[Charles Phipps]

It wasn't a dedicated review thread, though. It started out as a publication announcement thread. And had been abandoned since 2012.

We have certainly been reprimanded for necro threads in Trek Lit.

Yes, but creating a dedicated review thread seemed wasteful. I do think it deserves to be discussed from the perspective of Star Trek fans and how it relates to the show, though. Parody or not.

 

[trampledamage]

We have certainly been reprimanded for necro threads in Trek Lit.

Not by me

So long as the thread is resurrected with a real post with content - as this certainly was - then continuing to use the same thread makes sense. Books are discovered as new by people all the time and people re-read books, and the discussions are always up for renewal.

 

[jackoverfull]

I liked it a lot but yes, it loses a lot of steam towards the end...

...which can also be said for the Old Man’s War series, where the first books are really excellent, the last ones not so interesting (and I am under the impression that Scalzi painted himself into a corner with all the changes that happened to the Galaxy and doesn’t know how to exit it).

 

[Stevil2001]

The nicest thing I can say about Redshirts is that it's not as bad as The Collapsing Empire.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Curiously, I feel just the opposite. I found the main narrative to be amusing but not terribly compelling. By contrast, the three codas, with their clever use of shifting point-of-view style (first-person, then second-person, and finally ending back in omniscient third-person) were, in my opinion, the best part of the book.

To each their own. I guess for me, I wanted to stick with the Star Trek parody and the metatextual story of fiction and how it relates to us wasn't really hitting me the way I suspect it did some other authors. I really wanted to see some more tropes of TOS examined and maybe a few more missions. I also felt the Spock equivalent was criminally underused. They could have explained it to him and he would have gone, "Yes, indeed. What you say is logical."

Redshirts was the first Scalzi novel I read, and while I enjoyed it enough to check out his other novels, which I quickly became a fan of and indeed to this day I buy his new ones as they come out. But I got to say, Redshirts is probably now near the lower end of the pile as far as his novels go. I wouldn't call it my least favourite Scalzi novel, but it's definitely not what I consider his best either.

I've read most of Scalzi's biography and rank this pretty high, actually. I think it is above The Collapsing Empire and much of the latter Old Man's War. The first Old Man's War is better, though, and a more entertaining parody (assuming you believe it's a parody of "Starship Troopers" like I do).

 

[jackoverfull]

I also felt the Spock equivalent was criminally underused. They could have explained it to him and he would have gone, "Yes, indeed. What you say is logical."

I always felt Q’eeng was not based on Spock, but on Galaxy Quest’s Dr Lazarus.

 

[The Wormhole]

I think it is above The Collapsing Empire

Wow, The Collapsing Empire doesn't seem to be getting much love around here. It is a lightweight novel, and indeed, I found myself having to reread it before the sequel came out, and reread it and the sequel again when the third novel came out since they are surprisingly forgettable novels which I had trouble remembering in any relevant manner at all. But I still found them rather entertaining.

 

[Christopher]

I always felt Q’eeng was not based on Spock, but on Galaxy Quest’s Dr Lazarus.

Who in turn was uncannily similar to Hawk from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (hero's best friend who was the last survivor of an alien warrior race and had a skullcap-based makeup), if he'd been played by Space: 1999's Barry Morse (distinguished British actor embarrassed by his association with a sci-fi show).

 

[Charles Phipps]

Wow, The Collapsing Empire doesn't seem to be getting much love around here. It is a lightweight novel, and indeed, I found myself having to reread it before the sequel came out, and reread it and the sequel again when the third novel came out since they are surprisingly forgettable novels which I had trouble remembering in any relevant manner at all. But I still found them rather entertaining.

My impression of the novel could be summarized as, "It is amazing how a novel about the deaths of billions via starvation and societal collapse is so incredibly lighthearted. Everyone is basically a sociopath to not feel anything in the face of this."

 

[Stevil2001]

I think Scalzi cannot write a human being who feels real-- his characters all quip all the time, and have shallow or no emotional reactions to things. At least Redshirts makes this into a feature.

 

[The Wormhole]

My impression of the novel could be summarized as, "It is amazing how a novel about the deaths of billions via starvation and societal collapse is so incredibly lighthearted. Everyone is basically a sociopath to not feel anything in the face of this."

At this point, I pretty much know when I'm going into a Scalzi novel that it's going to be smartass characters being sarcastic and making jokes all the time. And that's exactly what The Collapsing Empire trilogy delivered. Besides, everyone in those novels reacted to their crisis a lot more logically than some people have this past year's events.

I think Scalzi cannot write a human being who feels real-- his characters all quip all the time, and have shallow or no emotional reactions to things.

Which, for me is actually the appeal of Scalzi's novels. The weakness, is he tends to write super short novels which I essentially devour in a day or so, depending on my free time. Not that I'm one to complain about novels being too short, but when they're as interesting as many of his stories tend to be, it can be rather frustrating and gives things a rushed and unfinished feeling.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Well I'm not going to cast stones. My job in RL is that I write comedy novels with hefty amounts of sarcasm, genre tropes, and parody of existing franchises. Indeed, that's the reason I'm able to make a living at it. Still, I feel you should maintain a level of authenticity about it. Which is to say actual grief and anger at the deaths of Redshirts in your setting or the imminent destruction of your civilization.

I think Redshirts actually does better than the Collapsing Empire. But I felt the characters of Old Man's War, particularly the first one, felt the most "authentic."

 

[Starbreaker]

I enjoyed Redshirts when it first came out. I wouldn't mind rereading it. I just reread Old Man's War and then The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony. Redshirts is really the only one with a bunch of pop culture references. His books are fun without getting bogged down with sci-fi references like Peter Clines, Dennis E. Taylor, or Ernest Cline. Scalzi's work will still be mostly readable without context 200 years from now.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

I don't know how I missed this, seeing as I've been obsessed with Redshirts since long before 2012. It's now on my to-read list though! No spoilers please.