Difference between revisions of "Redshirts"

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* The scene where Dahl meets the actor version of Finn is quite touching.
 
* The scene where Dahl meets the actor version of Finn is quite touching.
 
* The end, where Dahl realizes that he's actually the protagonist of yet another work of fiction and his friend knew all along is nicely meta.
 
* The end, where Dahl realizes that he's actually the protagonist of yet another work of fiction and his friend knew all along is nicely meta.
 +
* The codas are interesting short stories told in the perspective of other character from the book.
 
* I like how, in the first coda, Scalzi lists various other forms of fiction which use the same theme he did, demonstrating that he knows he wasn't being entirely original.
 
* I like how, in the first coda, Scalzi lists various other forms of fiction which use the same theme he did, demonstrating that he knows he wasn't being entirely original.
  
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* Although I generally enjoy sexual humor, most of it seemed a bit forced.
 
* Although I generally enjoy sexual humor, most of it seemed a bit forced.
 
* The crew was able to convince their actor selves of the TV premise far too easily.
 
* The crew was able to convince their actor selves of the TV premise far too easily.
 +
* Although interesting, I didn't feel like the codas added anything worthwhile to the book, and I would have been fine without them.
  
 
===Ugly===
 
===Ugly===

Revision as of 17:33, 29 September 2019

US hardcover, 1st edition.

Redshirts: A Novel With Three Codas is a novel by John Scalzi first published on 2012-06-05. The story takes place in a future science fiction setting where five low-ranking crew members are assigned duty together on the Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union. However, shortly after arriving they realize that there are a staggeringly high number of fatalities on the ship. None of the senior officers see a problem with this, but the rest of the crew lives in a constant state of terror. The story follows the five crew members as they try to figure out what's going on.

Status

I don't own this book, but I am currently listening to an audio book recording.

Review

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • The general concept, that a poorly written science fiction TV show suddenly starts infringing into reality and people start noticing it, is a really clever idea.
  • I like how the characters who know that they're part of a TV show narrative often have exasperated "seriously?!" moments.
  • The scene where Dahl meets the actor version of Finn is quite touching.
  • The end, where Dahl realizes that he's actually the protagonist of yet another work of fiction and his friend knew all along is nicely meta.
  • The codas are interesting short stories told in the perspective of other character from the book.
  • I like how, in the first coda, Scalzi lists various other forms of fiction which use the same theme he did, demonstrating that he knows he wasn't being entirely original.

Bad

  • Although I generally enjoy sexual humor, most of it seemed a bit forced.
  • The crew was able to convince their actor selves of the TV premise far too easily.
  • Although interesting, I didn't feel like the codas added anything worthwhile to the book, and I would have been fine without them.

Ugly

  • Rather than add variety to the end of spoken dialogue with phrases like "Al exclaimed," "Bob stated," or "Carrie expressed," nearly every instance of spoken dialogue ends with "Dahl said." The word "said" is repeated, even when it isn't necessary, over and over again, throughout the whole book. This annoyed me so much in the first chapter I almost gave up on the book. Scalzi needs to be slapped with a thesaurus.

Links

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