Library Book: Redshirts

A friend of mine recommended that I read Redshirts by John Scalzi some time ago.  Needless to say, I finally read it today.  I'm trying to pair down the library books that I have so I can get back to reading books that I own; now that I finished reading Redshirts, I only have two more library books out.  I'm not altogether sure I'm going to read them right now though; I might send them back and get them out another time.

Anyway, Redshirts is a book making fun of the early Star Trek. There are five people on board the Universal Union flagship Intrepid who can go into uncertain danger and escape (mostly) unscathed: Captain Abernathy, Commander Q'eeng, Chief Engineer West, Medical Cheif Hartnell and Lieutenant Kerensky.  Everyone else is expendable, particular when they are assigned to an away team with one or more of the five officers.  The Intrepid goes through a ridiculous amount of crew as the ensigns die, one after another in a myriad of spectacular ways.  And then some of the ensigns, led by Andrew Dahl, notice the pattern.  And they're not content to wait around until it's their turn to die.

Red Shirts was a pretty fun read.  It was super predictable, particularly through the main narrative (not so much the three codas at the end of the book), but that didn't really take away from its charm.