It's a highly self-aware novel - a narrative about out-narrating a Narrative - and with so much to juggle, it sometimes falls short of the mark.
Soon they're hatching a plan that, like any good sweeps-week episode, involves time travel, death-defying disobedience, unexpected guest stars, and breaking the fourth wall (then the fifth, and the sixth.).Īuthor John Scalzi is the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. They're living in a terrible TV show, victims of the Narrative, and they're the Expendables (the veil between world drops early there's universal disappointment that they only rate a second-string Star Trek-ish series). Ground missions go awry so often that by the time Ensign Andy Dahl comes aboard, the crew have an alert system that allows them to escape being drawn into a plot.Īs Dahl and his fellow ensigns soon realize, that's not a figure of speech. The Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union, is a starship famous for its groundbreaking discoveries, its fearless officers, and its startling mortality rate. In John Scalzi's new novel Redshirts, the ship's crew is asking that question too. In fact, it's a show's biggest fans who are most likely to be watching a starship crew suit up for a mission and asking the screen, "All three top-ranking officers are going? Really?" It's a place inhabited by loyal, passionate fans who are nonetheless acutely aware of - and happy to question - the minutiae of what they love. Science fiction is often a genre in conversation with itself from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels to Galaxy Quest, from The Walking Dead to The Purple Rose of Cairo, it thrives on metatext and a love of details. Your purchase helps support NPR programming.
Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Redshirts Author John Scalzi
0 kommentar(er)
