The failure mode of clever is ‘asshole.’
― John Scalzi, RedshirtsIf knew you were going to drug me, kidnap me, and take me back to the dark ages with out my pants, I never would have slept with you.
― John Scalzi, Redshirts
Andy Dahl has seen plenty of strange things. A former acolyte of an alien religion, Andy was scooped up by the Universal Union when the religious factions on his adopted planet went to war. Now, with a couple of years of Xenolinguistics training and a freshly-appointed rank, Andy is ready to set off on his first assignment on the Intrepid, the flagship of the UU.
Any of this sound familiar? Good.
Andy befriends other junior crew members, each one adding their own area of specialization to a surprisingly lean crew. The crew members or rather the lack of crew members for such an important ship does not cause much concern, at least not until Andy is assigned to his first away mission. He is excited about being hand-picked by the senior science officer until his colleagues in the Xenobiology lab explain that he should never, ever, be around when bridge officers are trying to fill out their landing party roster. It turns out that the Intrepid has a huge problem with away missions, as in at least one or two members of the away team meets a gory death that could have been prevented with even a tiny bit of planning or logical decision-making by the senior officers present.
After witnessing this phenomenon, Andy and his friends manage to avoid “obliteration by away mission,” but only just barely. It turns out that this is only a symptom of a much bigger problem that has been going on for years.
To say that I was excited about this book is an understatement. One, I am a lifelong Star Trek fan. Have I done Star Trek cosplay? Yes I have. Attended conventions? Yes. Paid stupid amounts of money to get an awkward photo standing beside my childhood heroes? Yes and yes.
Two, this is my first Scalzi. He is an author that I’ve always wanted to check out. However, with only the small amount of knowledge I have about his books’ contents and his writing style, I avoided reading him for fear of falling down a new rabbit hole and completely abandoning my TBR pile. In summary, I’ve been saving him for a long flight or an icy, stormy weekend at home.
I like to read at a local cafe but I had to limit myself to reading this at home because I was snorting and laughing constantly. I adore the story, the characters, and the gorgeous, loving tribute to Star Trek. If you are a fan of Trek, or of the types of episodic science fiction television shows that were perfected in the 80s and 90s, then you should get this book.
Now, for the complaints…
This book has three codas that take up the final 25% of the book, and the switch from the main story to these brought the narrative to a screeching, sparking halt. I finished the “main” story and was super super happy. But for some reason, the author added more. I appreciate the codas. I even like how Scalzi used them to link the side characters to the main part of the book. But it was such an abrupt change of pace that I almost wanted to stop reading just so I could hang onto the euphoria of the first part for a little while longer.
To put it plainly: I understand why they are there, but I don’t like them.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with my assessment of the codas, this was a fantastic book and a great leaping-off point for Scalzi.