Book Review: Redshirts by John Scalzi

So last May I first came across the book Old Man's War for one of my book clubs and pretty much immediately jumped on the John Scalzi band wagon; telling friends to check out the book and deciding (as I often do) to work my way through the various novels of any new author I come across who really impress me in Fantasy, Science Fiction (SF) or Horror.

Since then I've read a majority of Scalzi's fiction, and I've honestly got to say it's some pretty great stuff.  As a die-hard SF fan I could draw a lot of comparisons with other SF authors, but in simplest terms what it comes down to is the guy writes book I like, my mom likes and (when they get around to it), I'm pretty sure my kids will like.

Which brings us to Redshirts.  

The thing is, much like with Old Man's War, some of the best parts of the book come from discovery, so here I am with a book I'd like to review/recommend, but without saying much about it.

It's science fiction, it focuses on a number of new crewmen on a starship, and after joining the ship's crew they all quickly begin to notice that something is very very wrong with the ship.

Also, the term redshirts is a pretty clear reference to the original series of Star Trek wherein the lead characters would go through all sorts of dangerous situations, but escape while token characters (often wearing red uniforms) would be killed to show the viewer exactly how dangerous the situation was.

The book is a lot of fun, just won a Hugo and again, having read most of Scalzi's novels at this point, I'm pretty confident in saying it's worth your while.