Sunday, February 10, 2019

Off the Bookshelf: REDSHIRTS, by John Scalzi

I confess, I'm a Trekker from the early days. I can remember seeing episodes when it was on network TV. Not going to tell you how young I was, and how rare it was to stay up past my bedtime to see it ...

So hearing this audiobook (my FIRST audiobook) was a Star Trek salute/parody AND is narrated by Will Wheaton (ST:NG) kind of nudged me closer to taking the plunge and getting my Audible membership. Besides, I'm hooked on listening to writing and marketing podcasts for long road trips, so switching over to audiobooks and having FUN while I make long drives (my business partner in Mt. Zion Ridge Press is 9-1/2 hours of driving away) wasn't that hard of a decision.

Audible is extremely talented at temptation. If you're careful with your credit that comes with your membership fee every month, and you wait and watch for specials, and the Audible Originals ... you can build up a huge library pretty fast, without spending a lot of money.

REDSHIRTS is ... for those not in the know ... a reference to the hapless crewmembers who are marked for death for the simple reason that 1) they're wearing a red uniform shirt and 2) someone has to die or come close to it to ratchet up the tension in that week's episode.

But what happens when this is happening to "real" people on a "real" starship in the far distant future, and they figure out that their lives (and deaths) are being controlled by ... ?

I'm not going to give away that much of the plot, because it takes a while for our heroes to figure it out. And a number of people we've come to like ... die! Let me just say that they figure it out, and hopefully live happily ever after. Maybe. With some ripples in the time-space continuum that make you wonder what version of reality is the real one.

Lots of snark. Lots of griping. Lots of fun. Lots of groaners and inside jokes. Hmmm, some profanity. Kind of understandable, under the circumstances.

If you love Trek, if you love parodies. If you're a writer who feels like your characters are coming to life and arguing with you about what you're doing to them ... Fun.

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