Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John…

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas (edition 2013)

by John Scalzi

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5,177	435	2,255	(3.77)	1 / 439
Enjoying his assignment with the xenobiology lab on board the prestigious Intrepid, ensign Andrew Dahl worries about casualties suffered by low-ranking officers during away missions before making a shocking discovery about the starship's actual purpose.

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Member:	drumcondra
Title:	Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas
Authors:	John Scalzi
Info:	Tor Books (2013), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 320 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	Science fiction

Work Information

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi

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▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

	Group › Topic	Messages	Last Message
	The SF&F Book Chat: Chat about... Redshirts by John Scalzi	3 unread / 3	Scorbet, February 2013

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▾Member reviews

English (429) Dutch (1) Catalan (1) German (1) All languages (432)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 429 (next | show all)

I found it pretty predictable and the parody elements not all that funny. It's like Kaiju Preservation Society, something makes me feel like he's trying too hard. Too hard to have characters perform cute tricks and spout cool quips. Too hard to make sure we know that he knows all the Star Trek things.

Not for me. (

)

psyq123 | Jan 4, 2025 |

from James:

There's a lot here to like: parodies, Star Trek, SciFi, and/or meta-stories (including meta-data, meta-physical, meta-phoric...). John Scalzi tackles it all. It's a quick read with just the right amount of characters, story and philosophical wanderings to keep it light and interesting. Even while you're reading, you're aware of your place in the story. A couple of times, the "science" of time travel and other "explanations" become ridiculous and hard to follow, but I'd argue that's part of the point (part of the joke, even). Embrace it and go along for the ride. I recommend it. (

)

JamesMikealHill | Jan 3, 2025 |

I was happily reading away, laughing uproariously at Scalzi's wit, totally into the plot--getting all of the nerdy sci-fi allusions. But, then it began to get wonky close to Coda 1. Then I had to skip around because the magic of the book was gone--I was so disappointed. Coda II nor Coda III recooped the lost momentum; it was dead. Sad... (

)

lou_intheberkshires | Dec 26, 2024 |

It's pretty rare (in my experience) for a book to be both laugh-out-loud funny and thought-provoking. But this book is. I've been thinking about some of the issues explored here for years. What if, for every work of fiction created in our world, there was a parallel world where that fiction was real? But I've never traced all of the ramifacations of the idea. Scalzi looks at what would happen if the fiction isn't very well written. Would the characters start to question why their world is so strange, or even ridiculous, and perhaps come to the conclusion that they were characters in a work of fiction? As Scalzi himself points out, Jasper Fforde has explored some of these same questions.

The structure of this book is original. About the first two-thirds is the novel, the final third is...different. And unpredictable. I was very pleasantly surprised at the number of times I said "Oh, I wasn't expecting that" while reading it. (Of course, in the very nature of it there were many things that were predictable. Oh, well.)

This is simultaneously an enjoyable satirical romp, a plea for better (read: less lazy) writing from our science fiction (and other) writers, and a meditation on the nature of "The Narrative" and its relation to reality.

Foretopman | Dec 17, 2024 |

This was one of my all-time favorite stories! Meta is real! (

)

kenlefeb | Nov 27, 2024 |

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▾Other authors

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
John Scalzi	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Getty Images	Photographer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Hayden, Patrick Nielsen	Editor	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Kowal, Mary Robinette	Introduction	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Lutjen, Peter	Cover designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Wheaton, Wil	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

L'Atalante - La Dentelle du Cygne

Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy (52995)

Tor Essentials

Contains

Redshirts: Chapters 1-4 by John Scalzi

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Geffen Award (Best Translated Science Fiction Book – 2016)

Goodreads Choice Awards (Nominee – Science Fiction – 2012)

Hugo Award (Winner – Novel – 2013)

Hugo Award (Nominee – Novel – 2013)

io9 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Year (2012)

Locus Award (Winner – Science Fiction Novel – 2013)

Locus Award (Finalist – Science Fiction Novel – 2013)

Seiun Award (Nominee – Foreign Novel – 2015)

Distinctions

Notable Lists

SF Site Reader's Choice (2012)

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▾Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2012-06-05

People/Characters

Important places

Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid

Universal Union Capital Ship Nantes

Burbank, California, USA

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Malibu, California, USA

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

Redshirts is dedicated to the following:

To Wil Wheaton, whom I heart with all the hearty heartiness a heart can heart;

To Mykal Burns, my friend since the TRS-80 days at the Glendora Public Library;

And to Joe Mallozzi and Brad Wright, who took me to space with them.

First words

From the top of the large boulder he sat on, Ensign Tom Davis looked across the expanse of the cave toward Captain Lucius Abernathy, Science Officer Q'eeng and Chief Engineer Paul West perched on a second, larger boulder, and thought, Well, this sucks.

Quotations

"Someone who knows that no matter what, you don't deal upward on the chain of command," Dahl said. The crewman grinned.

"I don't think luck had much to do with it."

"That's it? 'The Box'?" Dahl said.

"If it makes you feel better to think it's an experimental quantum-based computer with advanced inductive artificial intelligence capacity, whose design origins comes to us from an advanced but extinct race of warrior-engineers, then you can think about it that way," Collins said.

"Is that actually what it is?" Dahl asked.

"Sure," Collins said . . .

“In other words, crew deaths are a feature, not a bug,” Cassaway said, dryly.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Nielsen Hayden, Patrick

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

John Scalzi

Redshirts (novel)

▾Book descriptions

Enjoying his assignment with the xenobiology lab on board the prestigious Intrepid, ensign Andrew Dahl worries about casualties suffered by low-ranking officers during away missions before making a shocking discovery about the starship's actual purpose.

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