As already admitted on this blog, I am a nerd. I love Star Trek. I enjoy Star Wars. I read science fiction, fantasy, romance, and just about anything that crosses my desk. I have an active Audible account thanks to the people at Writing Excuses (a podcast that every single writer in the world should listen to) because they introduced me to it. I’m also on Goodreads, where I can share my love of the written word to anyone who wants to listen.
If that wasn’t nerdy enough, I also play Star Trek Online. Granted, my time is limited with work, son, writing, but I have managed to reach the level of Captain — *insert squeal of pleasure here* — and sometimes allow my son to help “fly” the ship. He’s four, so I don’t feel too bad when the Borg constantly destroy us.
With that in mind, Redshirts by John Scalzi was right up my alley for reading material. Quasi-trekkie, playing off the known joke about how red-shirted individuals on the original show would inevitably die a horrible death, I walked into this book ready to laugh. And when I discovered that none other than Wil Wheaton was performing the book, I positively beamed with delight.
I loved this book. I listened to it while at work and was laughing so hard in some places that my coworkers were concerned for my mental health. (I work in an upstairs area from them so they couldn’t see the headphones, they could only hear my laugh. Which, now that I think about it, might have seemed a little creepy. )
I won’t give any spoilers, but I will admit that about a quarter of the way into the book I was concerned because I was getting attached to these Redshirts. I didn’t want to see any of them get their faces eaten by exotic alien creatures. But they had the dreaded red shirts on, so one part of my brain was always waiting for the curtain to come down on them.
There was one portion of the plot that was a hiccup for me — the discussion of back-stories, which I won’t explain because I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. Suffice to say, my rational brain was trying to make sense of a purely irrational thought-process. But in the end, I chose to ignore this hiccup because … well … I was enjoying the book so much that I just didn’t care. And … I mean, come on, it’s science fiction. Fiction being the operative word.
If you’re on Goodreads, then you can see I gave it 5 stars. If you’re on Audible — I don’t think you can find me because that’s got a different name on it — but I gave it 5 stars all around there.
Thank you, John Scalzi, for the wonderful book. Thank you Wil Wheaton for the wonderful performance. It was truly a blast.
AJMaguire 