Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“Well, that’s science fiction television for you, though,” Abnett said. “Someone’s got to be the red shirt.”

Redshirts by John Scalzi

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This book is a satirical love letter + wink + elbow nudge for fans of Star Trek. As any Trek fan knows, those wearing redshirts get killed. Minor background person you don’t know anything about getting more backstory? Killed. Someone about to do their “last away mission” before moving on? Super killed. Though on the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid (which exists in a different universe) the redshirts are dying in a similar fashion, they band together to try to figure out what is going […]

It’s Worse Than That; He’s Dead, Jim.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

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 This book was the perfect little bit of escapism to get me through a long, challenging weekend recently. It’s a really funny little book that goes a lot deeper than you think it would on the surface. Andrew Dahl has been posted in the Intrepid, the flagship of the UU fleet. It seems like a real career boost and he’s looking forward to it. Until he gets to the Xenobiology lab. Why does everyone hide when the senior officers arrive? Why is it everyone is […]

Stop Waiting and Do Something

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On the spaceship Intrepid, low level crew members die at an alarming rate. The premise is right there on the cover: They were expendable…until they started comparing notes. Whether you have watched the original Star Trek series or not, most people know that the guy in the red shirt was going to die. In Redshirts, Scalzi explores what would happen if, rather than actors who went home at the end of a day of shooting, the characters were just going about their lives until everyone started […]



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