noah_hurts 's review for:

Redshirts by John Scalzi

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I really wish that I could give this book 4 and a half stars because I don't think it's quite deserving of five but man I think it was better than some of the things I've given four stars on here...

Firstly though I have to admit that I had to take some time to come around to this book. I read it on recommendation from my girlfriend who has never once given me a book that I didn't love on recommendation, so when I found myself entirely uninterested by the writing of the first 50 pages of the book I kept on trucking, hoping (pretty confidently too) that something would end up happening and grabbing me, and then lo and behold, it sure as hell did. I've always been a fan of what many people (myself included that is) would call "existentialist bullshit", and while I quite frankly found Scalzi's writing to be entirely unimpressive when it came to dialogue until the later "codas" of the book, I was completely and totally hooked by the story that I couldn't put it down. Redshirts has times when it is very clear that Scalzi thinks he's the next god damn Douglas Adams and really truly thinks that's absolutely hilarious and clever. I saw some reviewers say that this was really the funniest book they've ever read: the back of the book included, which promised it to be "ruin-your-underwear funny" (thank you, Joe Hill. I'm really glad that you enjoyed the book so much), and to be frank I only really actually audibly laughed at a few points in the book... If you want something that funny I recommend [a:Terry Pratchett|1654|Terry Pratchett|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg]. But if you want some damn good existentialist science fiction that crosses lines that you hadn't even imaged were even lines when you started the book than give this book a shot.

In conclusion, Redshirts takes a little time to get going, but when it does get going damn does it go. I was unimpressed with Scalzi's writing for the most part, but still couldn't put the book down from the minute I started reading and was even drawn to tears at the end of the book. Maybe Scalzi's odd writing and cardboard dialogue was just a super meta way of characterizing characters that don't normally get characterization? Maybe the book was just too meta for me...