Title: Redshirts (Goodreads)
Author: John Scalzi
Narrator: Wil Wheaton
Published: Tor, 2012
Pages: 320
Genres: Humour, Science Fiction
My Copy: Audiobook
Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)
When people talk about a book being “meta”, I have to admit that I often wonder what they are talking about because it really doesn’t say anything about the book itself but it is a good way to sound pretentious. John Scalzi’s Redshirts is so meta; I think the author must have had a lot of fun writing this novel and playing with the red shirt concept. For those people that don’t know what a Red shirt is; it’s a concept made famous by Star Trek in which the character wearing the red shirt on a mission was always the one that died for dramatic effect.
The book Redshirts follows a copy of characters who decided why there was a high mortality rate for the people on missions with high ranking officers. Through their research they found that the only other ship with the same mortality rate was the USS Enterprise. This drives the story in a comedic dig at science fiction television shows.
This book starts off so strong, it has an interesting premises but it turns out all downhill from there. I really think this book would have worked a lot better as a short story and I think Scalzi was just adding filler in to make the book longer. I did enjoy the meta elements of this book and I found it was an entertaining look at the Star Trek storylines but once you hit the halfway point you might as well stop reading. Think of it as Star Trek parody meets Stranger then Fiction jammed together in a very sloppy way.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book and I think that was one of the best parts of my experience of this book. The audio version was read by Wil Weaton adding a whole new element of meta to this book. As a geek, I’m a fan of Wil Weaton and this was the main reason why I read this book. Redshirts could have been an entertaining book, but I don’t think it really came together as well as I was hoping for. Luckily it was a very short book; which could have been shorter. The comedy and meta elements of the novel were worth checking out but the rest of the book didn’t work.
It’s a shame this didn’t work for you – I definitely don’t think it would work for me, seeing as I’m not really a Star Trek fan (confession: I’ve never watched it, ever). I love Wil Wheaton though.
Wil Wheaton is super awesome, main reason I wanted to listen to the audiobooks
Omg Wil Wheaton does the audio version. I’m sorry to hear it wasn’t fantastic but being the Star Trek geek girl I am I may have to get it anyway
It started off so well too. I love Wil Wheaton so I often get any audiobooks he narrates.
Hmm, I was thinking about giving this to one of the nerds at work (I’m sure they’d get all the geekery), but it does feel a bit like a one-joke sort of premise.
The joke only lasted half the book then the novel changed into something entirely different 🙁 I think if they stopped there it would of been better
[…] Literary Exploration: “I did enjoy the meta elements of this book and I found it was an entertaining look at the Star Trek storylines but once you hit the halfway point you might as well stop reading. Think of it as Star Trek parody meets Stranger [Than] Fiction jammed together in a very sloppy way.” […]
I’ve heard pretty mixed reviews about this one, but it *should* be something I love so I think I’ll probably get to it eventually. Except it’ll definitely be a library loan.
Totally agree though that mentioning a book being meta = pretentious 9 times out of 10. Ha. It’s one of those words (like dystopian) that people seem to love to throw into blurbs or reviews without actually thinking about what it means.