Stuff I Read: Redshirts by John Scalzi

Ensign Andrew Dahl, expert on alien biology and religion, gets assigned to the Intrepid, the flagship of the Universal Union in 2456. It’s a special posting on a special ship, and he makes fast friends with some of his new crewmates. But after low-ranking members of the crew die on away missions with alarming regularity, Andrew notices that the crew takes extreme measures to avoid them, and Andrew gets to see how special the Intrepid really is. Come along on an adventure across time and over the airwaves in John Scalzi’s 2013 novel, Redshirts.

It's hard to review this one without SPOILERS. You’ve been warned.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

In Redshirts, Andrew, his best friend Jimmy Hanson, and three others are recruited to join the crew of the Intrepid, which has recently had several vacancies. It’s a dream posting, as the Intrepid is the Universal Union’s flagship, and Andrew’s expertise in xenobiology and xenotheology make him a perfect candidate. However, in his time on the Intrepid, Andrew sees or hears of multiple deaths of low-level crewmen and women in increasingly fatal and ridiculous away missions. The most fatal ones are led by the bridge crew: the square-jawed captain, Lucius Abernathy; the taciturn alien science officer, Lt. Q’eeng; the navigator, Lt. Anatoly Kerensky; or the Chief Engineer, Paul West, whose missions have the highest body counts. Andrew and Jimmy notices that it’s strange to have key crew members—like the captain—going on away missions; stranger still that, despite the fact that people die on these missions quite frequently, the bridge crew survives mostly unscathed (except for Kerensky, who seems to get gravely injured every other week, but miraculously recovers in time for the next mission). The crew of the Intrepid escape life-threatening, no-win situations, mostly with some improbable confluence of events occurring just in the nick of time. The low-level crew members of the Intrepid, especially in Andrew’s department, all seem to be exceptionally good at avoiding these missions, except for Andrew. He soon finds out why: his co-workers are being tipped off whenever an away mission is coming up. Their lookout is Jenkins, a possibly insane former crew member, hiding in the bowels of the ship. Jenkins has a theory: the events of their lives, and the stuff that happens aboard the Intrepid, are being shaped by what he calls “the Narrative,” and they are all players in a poorly written science fiction TV show airing over 400 years in the past. At first, Andrew dismisses the theory as the ramblings of a madman, but as improbable crew deaths pile up, he figures Jenkins may be on to something.

Right off the bat, I liked this book, and finished it in a day. John Scalzi takes great joy in skewering some of the tropes found in the Star Trek franchise. The plot is goofy and nonsensical, but in the most fun kind of way. It’s incredibly well-layered, and serves as both a space-based satirical riff on the blandness and banality of Star Trek as well as a musing on loneliness and grief. Jenkins’ theory of the Narrative only comes about after he loses his wife on an away mission, an emptiness that’s shared by the actor who portrayed him in the past (it makes sense when you read the book, I swear). There’s a lot here to unpack, and Scalzi makes it fun to do so.

However, by pointing out how recycled and rehashed pop culture things can be, while using popular media to do it, you run the risk of falling into the same predictability traps you shine such a bright light on. As clever as Redshirts may be, Scalzi is unable to avoid those pitfalls. Most of his beats, ironically, have been done better in some version of a Star Trek episode, and while that may be the point, a sarcastic rehash is still a rehash, no matter how much fun it may be.

However, if you’re looking for an enjoyable adventure you can devour in a weekend, Redshirts is funny, clever, fast-paced, and a joy to read.

Pros: Clever send-up of Star Trek tropes; fun, quick read; enjoyable and relatable characters

Cons: A rehash is still a rehash.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars