I am so behind on my reviews! I’m going to try to post the 7 (!!) that I owe at some point today — wish me luck! Starting with Redshirts: A Novel with 3 Codas. 5 stars for the novel itself. About 1.5 stars for the totally unnecessary codas.
“God is a hack,” he said. “He’s a writer on an awful science fiction television show, and He can’t plot His way out of a box. How do you have faith when you know that?”
Set in a Star Trek-y universe, Redshirts stars Ensign Andrew Dahl, who has just recently been assigned to the starship Intrepid. It doesn’t take him long to realize that something is…off. The captain acts strangely dramatic at times; normal and quiet at others. They have technology that no one really understands. And worst of all, the crew members die at an alarming rate on “away” missions, which Dahl quickly learns to avoid. The more he digs, the weirder (and more wonderful) the story gets.
The novel is great. I’ve never watched an episode of Star Trek in my life, but I’ve been alive in the world (and on the internet) long enough to get all the in-jokes. I’ve also seen Galaxy Quest about a million times. So don’t worry if you don’t have a good knowledge of Star Trek going into this one — all you really need is a sense of humor.
Unfortunately, I really hated the 3 codas. I can’t go into detail without spoiling the awesome plot of the novel, but I felt them to be extraneous. Most of the book has a pretty “wink wink” vibe to it, but it’s enjoyable. The codas go way overboard with the meta stuff, and left a bad taste.
I think everyone feels the same way about the Codas.
They didn’t bother me as much as they did you, but they didn’t make the already excellent book any better.
I don’t understand why people complain about the codas. I love them.
I actually just read my review from last year – and I guess I enjoyed them more than I remembered.
So I guess you aren’t alone in that.