"Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas" ~ John Scalzi

I realize it's been a while since my last post.  I got distracted finishing up my non-fiction book and with a little show called Dr. Who.  I admit I'd never seen it before and can't figure why not.  Anyway, that's a whole other topic.  So I have a backlog I'm hoping to get through in the next few days.  First up is "Redshirts" by John Scalzi.  I bought this book to take on vacation and it was perfect.  I just enjoyed this book while sitting on the deck in the sunshine.  Any "Star Trek" fan can tell you who a redshirt is. He is the poor unnamed crewman who dies on the away mission.

"Redshirts" main character is Ensign Andrew Dahl who is posted to the Universal Union Flagship The Intrepid.  It doesn't take him long to realize the bad things happen on away missions, especially if you go with the Captain, the Science Officer or Lt. Kerensky.  Dahl soon becomes involved in tying to find out why.  Given the title I expected some tongue in cheek fun and it was there.  Nice characters, good flow, and interesting plot keep the book moving.  Woven in there is the idea of what is "real" and does it matter?  This was a fast read partly because I was on vacation and partly because I wanted to see what would happen next.  I finished it in a day and a half.  I paid $11.99 on Kindle and had no problem with that.  I don't know that I would spring for the hardcover version.  I will however check out Scalzi's other titles.