Redshirts

The second John Scalzi book I’ve read, my friend had been recommending that I read RedShirts by John Scalzi for a while, and by happenstance, I stumbled upon Starter Villian also by John Scalzi. After reading that and enjoying it, I decided to check out Red Shirts.

Andrew Dahl is excited when he gets posted to the flag starship of the Universal Union with his friend, the son of a rich billionaire. That excitement starts to wane when he notices the odd behavior of his senior crewmates. Then Andrew hears about how the Intrepid is cursed and any away mission with the five major bridge members always leads to one or more deaths of the ensigns wearing red shirts. The insanity doesn’t stop there, there is also The Box, a plain microwave-looking device that can discover the solution to any problem, as long as you make the reveal dramatic enough.

John Scalzi has a great way of making an everyman out of his characters put into the most absurd situations. In a book about meaningless deaths, you think it would be hard to make us care about the cast of characters since they’re all going to probably die anyway, but I found myself wishing during every away mission that this or that character would make it through. By the time Scalzi has revealed the plot and you know what exactly the story is about, the ridiculous idea makes a sort of sense that would be offered up in the story you’re reading. And I mean that in the best way!