A review by isabellarobinson7
Redshirts by John Scalzi

4.0

“ 'Well, that's science fiction television for you, though,' Abnett said. 'Someone's got to be the red shirt.' ”

Rating: 4 stars

So there's a giant starship with thousands of crew, dangerous situations are their forte. Someone's got to die, right? Can't be the Captain, we need him to run the ship. Can't be the First Officer, we spent all that time building up the relationship between the Captain and him, we're not going to waste all that good character work. We can't get rid of the doctor in case someone gets injured. Engineer? Nope, we need the ship to keep working. Helmsmen? Nope, need the ship to move. Female assistant? Definitely not, we need those legs to keep audience ratings up. Tom, Dick and Harry though...*

Redshirts by John Scalzi is about exactly that: the expendables. The cannon fodder. The lowly ensigns. The security officers. Those guys in the back of every OG Star Trek episode wearing red. There are so many genius lines that sum up the general premise of this book (including the one I opened this review with) but this one is equally as brilliant:

“The moral of the story was not to wear a red shirt. Or go on away missions when you’re the only one whose name isn’t on the opening credits.”

What unfolds is a book entirely as tongue and cheek as you would imagine from such a premise. John Scalzi has his tongue so firmly lodged in his cheek I worry he pulled a muscle or something in there.

With this premise, Scalzi knew precisely what audience his book was going to reach, and wrote accordingly. I mean, I vaguely recognised his name, but the title was what grabbed me and the description what sold me. I even made my dad read the synopsis on Wikipedia.

Speaking of Wikipedia... I just have to insert this line here:

“ 'For all we know, this'—he scrolled up on the phone screen to find a label—'this Wikipedia information database here is compiled by complete idiots.' ”

Yes. This is an actual line John Scalzi wrote in his book. And as one of said "complete idiots" I can say that personally I often have little to no idea what I am doing on Wikipedia.

But anyway, back to the book. So all the extras- ah, I mean ensigns run away from the senior staff because everyone dies around them. They even have a method where they tell each other where the officers are in the ship so others can avoid them. And, naturally, no one wants to be assigned to an away team where their chances of biting the dust hit warp speed (yes, that pun was 100% contrived).

“ 'Is it just me,' Hester said, 'or is everyone on this ship monumentally fucked up about away missions?' ”

I mean... number one cause of death for people wearing a red shirt.

“ 'Yes, death by away team. Very effective on this ship,' Jenkins said.”

I could copy and paste the whole book here, every line is just perfect, but I decided to cut my quoting off at a point in the story when going any further would be giving away a significant plot element. Just know that there are many more hilarious lines, I am just not including them for spoiler reasons (also I am way, WAY over due to post this review, so I'm kind of using that as a mental block to stop myself getting carried away).

One thing this book did do, was make me want to watch Star Trek, and I count that as a major success. That is in spite of this absolute blasphemic line:

“ 'That as far as I can tell,” Jenkins said, “it’s not actually a very good show.' ”

How dare you. I feel personally attacked. Star Trek: The Original Series has some of the best scenes in all of- ok yeah. We all know TOS often falls into the "so bad it's great" category.

Now, how do I say this next part properly. I was kind of surprised when I found out that Redshirts won the Hugo. Not because I didn’t love it, I obviously did, but it doesn’t really seem like a Hugo-type book, if you know what I mean. It’s not very… deep. The messages are exactly what you expect them to be. It's surface level, dare I say. And I'm not saying every book has to be this ultra philosophical, awe inspiring examination of the human condition that is such a Debbie Downer you have to read it in spurts to avoid a depressive episode. It is totally fine, essential even, to have lighter books every now and again (or more consistently than tonally darker ones, some would argue) but regardless, in my experience any award-type book has to have some kind of underlying message or thematic element that sets it apart from the rest. Now I haven't read any of the other nominees the year Redshirts won, but unless 2012 was a real dud for SFF books, I don't really understand why Scalzi's book was chosen.

...but then there is that episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, "A Night in Sickbay" that was nominated for an award, too. (Yes, the episode with that scene with T'Pol and Archer.) It still baffles me how it was even considered, so maybe I just don’t understand the Hugos full stop. Or maybe the episode and Redshirts are both super deep and introspective and it just went over my head. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Lastly, the book ends with three epilogues or "codas": First Person, Second Person and Third Person respectively. And yes, the titles are indicative of their perspective. That means a second person one. Ewwwwwww. I hate reading from second person with a passion. With all the "you" this and "you" that. No! "Me" is not doing any of that stuff! Fortunately, this was only a short epilogue, so it didn't drag on for too long and therefore only elicited a small amount of ire from me. The last epilogue was the best though, and that’s not because third person is my preferred perspective. I know this is the worst book to say this for, but it’s just a coincidence I swear!

But now this review is done. DONE. No more touching up. No more editing. Or, more realistically, no more staring at my nonsensical notes wishing them into coherence. 218 days since I finished reading Redshirts by John Scalzi I have completed its review, and with its publication my goal to review every book I read in 2022 is finally accomplished ...over half way into 2023.


*Harry Kim and Tom Paris are exempt from this rule.