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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Have read better works of his. Just dragged on for me. More of a Star Wars guy the Star Trek, which had a lot of similarities described by other reviewers.
Nearly perfect. This was my first Scalzi, after reading Whatever Blog for years (though I also fell off that wagon years ago), and I was a little nervous from the expectations. But the novel is gorgeous, funny, and sad - all of the hallmarks of elegant and profoundly moving fiction, not matter what genre. When the final three meta chapters came up I did start to get a little restless as they seemed to land on "cute" instead of necessary connections, but overall this is a joyous book that I would heartily recommend to anyone who has watched their share of Star Trek or related television.
I went into this blindly. The title attracted me, I must admit. When I saw it I kept on saying "Please let this be a Star Trek reference, please lord OH PLEASE". And then I started reading it... this book is a dream come true. Redshirts from a science fiction world realize they are redshirts in a science fiction show and they need to figure out how to stop dying!??!!? How can this get any better???!?! OH WAIT IT CAN!!! I won't say more because that would mean spoilers and I don't want to add any spoilers to this.
Scalzi is a brilliant writer. I have read Old man's war by him and this man writes good SciFi with a cool air. I recommend his work 100%. And Redshirts is every Star Trek fan's dream.
Scalzi is a brilliant writer. I have read Old man's war by him and this man writes good SciFi with a cool air. I recommend his work 100%. And Redshirts is every Star Trek fan's dream.
Fun concept, but a little too self-aware. When the characters know they're deconstructing tropes, it becomes a book about writing.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Great story. If you ever liked the original Star Trek series then you should really read this book. Very funny and entertaining.
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
As a person who recently discovered how good Star Trek is and a life long reader, Redshirts hit really hard for me. My husband and I recently started watching the new season of Brave New Worlds and some of the things brought up in this book literally played out on screen for me.
First and foremost, the book was incredibly entertaining, but it was also much more than that. Not only does Scalzi poke fun at the show in a way that is logical and would not upset the fanbase, he also had really in-depth philosophical discussions about what it means to actually be alive and what it means to deserve to be alive.
The reason it was not a full 5 star is because I felt there was a strong story line for about 75% of the book and when that story line ended, I assumed that we would come back to get a closer look at its conclusion at the end of the book. However, a separate storyline picked up and the initial one was never revisited. I feel like it could have been really impactful to have revisited the initial storyline after the scene where Matthew discovers his camera. But overall, it was a really good read and I would highly suggest anyone who loves Star Trek to pick it up.
First and foremost, the book was incredibly entertaining, but it was also much more than that. Not only does Scalzi poke fun at the show in a way that is logical and would not upset the fanbase, he also had really in-depth philosophical discussions about what it means to actually be alive and what it means to deserve to be alive.
The reason it was not a full 5 star is because I felt there was a strong story line for about 75% of the book and when that story line ended, I assumed that we would come back to get a closer look at its conclusion at the end of the book. However, a separate storyline picked up and the initial one was never revisited. I feel like it could have been really impactful to have revisited the initial storyline after the scene where Matthew discovers his camera. But overall, it was a really good read and I would highly suggest anyone who loves Star Trek to pick it up.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
I enjoyed this. It began feeling like a kind of Catch-22 in Outer Space, and then turned into something more unusual as time went on. At first, I thought the protagonists were kind of one dimensional cyphers...and then I realized they were, but made so on purpose. So that was neat. As usual, I found Scalzi's writing brisk, easy to absorb and become absorbed in, and frequently quite funny. If I had a quibble about it at all, it would be that everyone takes the ultimate reveal rather well--astonishingly so in many cases, given how pants-wettingly disturbing it would be to those suddenly brought into the truth. Hardly a sticking point for such an entertaining read.