# Anyone else read Redshirts?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 17, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564 "2012-07-17T21:53:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/1 "2012-07-17T21:53:24Z")
by John Scalzi?
I started it last night and finished it today and I freaking LOVED it! I turned around and started rereading it over again.
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### Author:  [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/2 "2012-07-17T21:55:28Z")
I’m on the waiting list for it at my library but I think I’m going to splurge and pick up the audiobook on Amazon, because Wil Wheaton is an amazing reader. He did such a great job on Fuzzy Nation, and I think he should read every audiobook ever.
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### Author:  [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/3 "2012-07-17T22:45:59Z")
Read it. Liked it a lot. I especially like the part at the very end where the main character, whose name slips my mind,
Realized he was not an extra in a television show but the protagonist of a novel.
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### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/4 "2012-07-17T23:27:20Z")
I have the audiobook and will get to it eventually. Scalzi read a bit of it for us at the 2011 Phoenix Comicon and it sounded like a lot of fun.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/5 "2012-07-18T00:26:03Z")
The book is already on it’s way from Amazon. Do not tempt me with the audiobook.
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### Author:  [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/6 "2012-07-18T00:40:15Z")
I loved the book. The main story is solid and I like the humor, but I liked the emotional punch of the three codas even better. Srsly, two of them even made me cry a little bit.
I liked that the book had an unusual structure with the main story and then three short stories. I wish more authors were willing to try different things in terms of story structure. I read Scalzi’s blog, and he said that he went with the novel and three codas rather than try to stretch out the main novel and shoehorn a bunch of extra stuff in there. Good choice.
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### Author:  [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/7 "2012-07-18T20:04:02Z")
> [@Waenara](#):
>
> I loved the book. The main story is solid and I like the humor, but I liked the emotional punch of the three codas even better. Srsly, two of them even made me cry a little bit.
>
> I liked that the book had an unusual structure with the main story and then three short stories. I wish more authors were willing to try different things in terms of story structure. I read Scalzi’s blog, and he said that he went with the novel and three codas rather than try to stretch out the main novel and shoehorn a bunch of extra stuff in there. Good choice.
Cry a LITTLE BIT? I’m not ashamed to say that I cried like a baby. I liked the structure as well–it reminded me of The Passage, in an odd way. A whole story told in a lot of different ways.
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### Author:  [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/8 "2012-07-18T20:40:01Z")
> [@BrassyPhrase](#):
>
> by John Scalzi?
>
> I started it last night and finished it today and I freaking LOVED it! I turned around and started rereading it over again.
I’m dying to read it, but only TWO libraries in the entire San Diego iLink library system ([Las Vegas! San Francisco! Palo Alto! Oakland](http://csul.iii.com/screens/members.html)!) have it and it’s not possible to make a request.
Good to hear it’s great, I will read it eventually.
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### Author:  [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/9 "2012-07-19T00:18:57Z")
I can’t decide whether to start by reading the book or listening to the audiobook. I’ll end up doing both, but I’ll sort of spoil one with the other, and I’m not sure which way to do it!
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/10 "2012-07-19T02:00:46Z")
I’m surprised there’s no post by **Der Trihs**.
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### Author:  [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/11 "2012-07-19T03:44:23Z")
> [@Antigen](#):
>
> Wil Wheaton is an amazing reader. He did such a great job on Fuzzy Nation, and I think he should read every audiobook ever.
I just listened to Wheaton’s _ **Just A Geek** _ audiobook, and I agree that he’s a very good reader (and Star Trek fans should find _ **Just A Geek** _ pretty interesting).
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### Author:  [@DeptfordX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeptfordX)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2012, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/12 "2012-07-21T09:58:43Z")
Really, i thought his reading was dreadful. I don’t know if it’s because he can’t or he didn’t bother for some reason but he didn’t differentiate between his characters in any way. Men, woman, young, old, _Aliens_, the same sarcastic wil wheaton delivery which would have been great for the main character but is terrible when you have a long conversation between the main characters all of whom sound identical.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/13 "2012-07-21T16:52:03Z")
I read it a couple of weeks back and liked it. Yes, it was lightweight but it was fun.
I don’t know if it’s still true but you could get the first four chapters as a free Kindle download on Amazon.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/14 "2014-02-10T15:27:53Z")
Haven’t read it, but I see it’s gonna be a TV show: [http://www.slashfilm.com/meta-star-trek-novel-redshirts-heads-to-tv/](http://www.slashfilm.com/meta-star-trek-novel-redshirts-heads-to-tv/)
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/15 "2014-02-10T16:22:21Z")
I read it and liked it (lots of quotable lines), but not quite enough to re-read.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-read-redshirts/628564/16 "2014-02-10T17:58:54Z")
Scalzi is a bit like Neil Gaiman for me: I enjoy his works, and I think he’s an awesome guy from his blogs, but at the same time I think he’s a bit overrated. I enjoyed Red Shirts, but nowhere near the level a lot of people did; it’s not close to the best humor-fantasy I read last year.