Yes, the title is the reference you think it is. I just got the book yesterday and haven’t finished it yet, but I’m laughing during almost every chapter so far. It is an explicit satire on Star Trek TOS from the perspective of a group of ensigns newly-assigned to a ship that has a stunning mortality rate among crew members not in the senior staff
Oh, and I just found out that the audiobook is narrated by Wil Wheaton
Ok. I was gonna grab this but now I gotta have it.
I’ve read this- it’s really good! I’m a bit in love with Scalzi right now. I’ve been reading all his stuff lately. Right now I am in Android’s Dream.
I’m very pleased to announce that by an overwhelming majority the Book Club selection for November and December is Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi!
In other words, crew deaths are a feature, not a bug.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Waited a long time for this, Scalzi read an except from this two years ago at a convention while it was as yet ‘untitled’. I had been eagerly anticipating it ever since…
The opening is great and gives you a taste of what is to come, and it lets you inside of the mind of a ‘red-shirt’ so you can see how the infringing ‘narrative’ not only effects their reality, but their own thoughts as well. Causing them to make irrational decisions so that they can have a dramatic and rather ‘pointless’ death.
The writing style was unusual, in that the majority of the story (the first one) is told almost entirely by dialog. There is very little in the way description, ‘scene setting’ or even visualization. And yet it works, and works well. Since this is not your typical Science Fiction story there is no point in focusing on the hardware or the ‘science’ of how things work in any way, and once you have read the ‘big reveal’ it is obvious why. He instead focuses on what is really important, the characters. And I think that is why all of the poignant moments hit me as hard as they did, you are brought so wholesale into their heads and become a part of them so completely that when something happens to them it effects you as well.
Each of the Codas has a very different feel to them, and you do not feel as though you are ‘retreading’ over familiar ground. And each tells a story worthy of your time.
The only part of the book that felt awkward to me was where the main characters first meet on the station, and the first meeting with the crew in the Xenobiology lab. Those sections are just crammed with ‘he said/she saids’, it felt very clunky and it bogged the dialog down. Almost to the point that the dialog lost it’s pacing, and the timing for the humor was lost. But once Scalzi felt that the reader had become familiar enough with the characters that they could distinguish them by their ‘voices’ he eased up, and things really began to flow nicely.
It is far more than just the humorous read I had expected, well worth the wait. I heartily recommend this book to all of you.
Just finished my re-read, and even more than the first time I read this, I’m amazed at the Scalzi’s range. The main story and the codas should have been enough to show me the range of styles he can write, but I appreciate it more after reading some of his other stuff.
FYI…for any of you who are fans of the game Munchkin…there’s a CCG made for the Redshirts also I picked it up last summer at Gen Con…it’s pretty hilarious…I might have to add the book to my short reading list too!
yes indeed it is…it’s good fun and all the cards are well done, I had to stack and read through them all once 
Excellent!
The bits I’ve seen look fun and funny, so I bought in.
Six sets of everything!!! \o/
If I can get to Dallas in March this year I was planning on bringing it actually 
Don’t think it’s related, but it looks entertaining.
Surprised there hasn’t been more feedback. It seems like most of the reviews I read either really liked the main story and didn’t like the codas or the other way around.
I also really liked “The Box” (a.k.a Deus Ex Microwave) as a way of explaining away blatantly wrong science.
Fun back story to this book. John Scalzi regularly attends various local conventions but makes a point of coming to Penguicon. One of the guys who is very active on the Convention committee is a hard ass. He regularly pisses people off because he’s abrasive when getting things done. “Jer is a dick” is a good humored common phrase regarding him. While Scalzi was writing this book he came to Penguicon & one night after a lot of drinking a charity “event” was decided, if they reached a certain goal, Scalzi had to include the phrase “Jer is a dick” into the book. They reached the goal & the phrase it in the book. Jer actually had forgotten about it & was surprised & laughed when he got to that part in the audio book.
I read this on the plane and it was great fun - I enjoyed the codas, and the characters, and the conceit. I like how it ends somewhat ambiguously about who is writing who is writing who.
Agreed! I also liked the ways characters reacted to leaving the Narrative (in scenes. not by death…)
Oh yeah, like the running commentary in the battle Andy was on the bridge for.