“Redshirts” by John Scalzi (Tor/Gollancz)

You’re an Extra. You are not long for this universe… [Or: “All your lives are belong to us…”]

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn’t be better… until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

I really have no idea how to review this novel… The potential for spoilers is just too great. Which is a pity, as the novel is filled with quotable passages. I’d been really looking forward to this ever since it was first announced – it sounded like an endearing parody of the tropes of old sci-fi movies and fiction. As it turned out, that is exactly what a lot of this novel is. I certainly enjoyed it, and read it at near-record speed (for me), but I do have mixed feelings about the book as a whole.

“Redshirts” by John Scalzi (Tor/Gollancz) - the Mark Lawrence Method

Ok, this is one of two “reviews” I’m going to post for John Scalzi’s latest novel, Redshirts. This one came about because I sent Scalzi a tweet telling him that I was irked about how difficult it was going to be to review the book. [Spoilers could so easily abound!] Mark Lawrence caught the tweet, and suggested that I

“perhaps use a series of animal pictures wherein the expressions of kittens, elephants, etc., convey your thoughts?”

To which I, naturally, replied: “Done.”

So, here it is. As a dog lover, but also someone familiar with internet memes, I have provided (where possible) a parallel dog and cat (or, “kitteh”) review of various emotions I went through while reading Redshirts. This is far from exhaustive, of course.

[This is a one-time thing. Probably.]

Weekly Round-Up (Apr.23-28)

This week, we saw the conclusion of Justin’s excellent series of Agency guest posts (by Robert Jackson Bennett and Robin Hobb); Suzanne Johnson wrote about her Urban Fantasy novel set in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans; Ian Irvine wrote about the lessons he’s learned writing fantasy; Chuck Wendig provides some thoughts on the Big Idea behind Blackbirds; Tor US announced their eBooks were going DRM-free from July, and both Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi commented on the decision and what it might mean for readers and authors.

These are all largely from the first half of the week – I was rather busy after Wednesday – so feel free to share links in the comments of anything I missed.

Week in Review (Apr.14-21)

A very busy week around the book-related regions of the internet, with a bundle of interesting articles. I’ve included a couple of older articles, because I was slow and didn’t get around to them until after I posted last week’s links round-up. One is a particularly good comment from John Scalzi.

Herein: Aidan Moher on Women in Fantasy, Elspeth Cooper on Disabilities in Fantasy, Jeff Salyards on being Embedded with the Enemy, an interview with Amanda Carlson, Brad Beaulieu on how he likes shades of grey, John Scalzi on eBooks Drama, The Atlantic on the eBooks Drama, The New Republic on the Dept of Justice & Monopolies (related to eBooks drama)

Week in Review (Mar.24-)

A nice, mixed bag this week. There were a lot of great articles posted this past week. Enjoy!

Jezebel: “Racist Hunger Games fans are disappointed” by Dodai Stewart [Article]

Frankly, I’m stunned there are people like this out there still. Especially people willing to air their racism in public! One fan of the series said the casting of a black actor for a character described in the books as having “dark brown skin” “ruined” the movie?! Unbelievable!

A Dribble of Ink: “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins [Review]

Related to the above post, but on the fiction side. As can be expected from Aidan, this is a great, in-depth review of the mega-selling YA novel.

A Dribble of Ink: “We All Love a Good Show” by Robert Jackson Bennett [Article]

Another good post from ADoI, but earlier in the week. I’m a big fan of Bennett’s novels and writing-style, and I thought this was a great article. [Also, while I’m at it, I really like ADoI’s new design.] If I could just carve out enough time to read The Troupe…

Fantasy Literature: “Marion Chats with Jon Courtenay-Grimwood” [Interview]

Rather self-explanatory what this is, but I loved Jon’s previous novel, The Fallen Blade, and am just waiting for the right time to read and review The Outcast Blade (the sequel). Want more from Jon? Check out his interview for Civilian Reader.

John Scalzi’s The Big Idea: “Alternative Histories” by Anne Lyle [Article]

“What if European explorers hadn’t succeeded in conquering the New World? What if they, not the Native Americans, were the ones facing an enemy they didn’t understand, an enemy they were ill-equipped to fight? That, in a nutshell, is the Big Idea behind The Alchemist of Souls, the first volume in my fantasy trilogy Night’s Masque. The roots lie farther back, however.” Really interesting article. Also made me even more eager to get to The Alchemist of Souls…

Bastard Books: Interview with Tim Marquitz

Tim Marquitz has been on my radar for a little while, now, but given how many other books I have and have received, I just haven’t managed to read anything just yet. After reading this interview, though, my interest has been piqued. Nicely done.

The Speculative Scotsman: “Becoming a New Type of Reader” by Amanda Rutter [Article]

Which type of reader are you? I’ve been many of these types. A nice article, and it’s always nice to see Amanda back on the blogosphere.

Bookworm Blues: “Author Interview – Alex Bledsoe”

As I wrote in the comments on the interview, I’ve never seen an Alex Bledsoe book on any shelf in any bookstore I’ve been in… Why?! Is he just selling out immediately, or are there just not enough people ordering his novels in? A literary mystery!

Oh, and it’s an interesting interview.

Foreign Affairs: “Game of Thrones as History” by Kelly DeVries & “Game of Thrones as Theory” by Charli Carpenter [Articles]

These two articles were an interesting surprise, and I stumbled across them only while checking for to see if there was a new FA issue…

DeVries, a medieval military historian, opens his article with a paragraph guaranteed to make some fantasy fans irritated, so just be aware before clicking through to the article that he isn’t as up on the modern Fantasy genre as he is on Military History. Moving on. The author examines the assertion that Martin’s world is a realistic and accurate representation of Medieval Europe, and comes to the conclusion that it actually isn’t very realistic, and that this is actually a very good thing: “As a historian of the period, I can assure you that the real Middle Ages were very boring – and if Martin’s epic were truly historically accurate, it would be very boring too.”

For those with a little understanding of International Relations theory, I’d also recommend Carpenter’s piece, which tries to look at the novel and HBO series through a Realist lens – while the two media “are laced with Hobbesian metaphors, Machiavellian intrigues, and Carr-like calculations of power”, the author nevertheless finds that “the deeper message is that realism alone is unsatisfying and unsuccessful”.

I should warn you that there are a few spoilers in these two articles.

***

On Civilian Reader this week, things have been very busy as well. Along with the two comics reviews (#1 & #2), I’ve reviewed Stuart Woods’s Capital Crimes, James Swallow’s Garro: Legion of One, V.M. Zito’s The Return Man and James Lovegrove’s Age of Anansi. If you liked the Age of Anansi review, then have a read of this week’s interview with Lovegrove.

Next week is shaping up quite nicely, too: already lined up are interviews with both Helen Lowe (Monday) and Lyndsay Faye (Wednesday), reviews of Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Void Stalker (Tuesday – it was awesome) and Faye’s Gods of Gotham (Thursday or Friday). I’m also aiming to get a few more graphic novel reviews up there, a couple of bumper comics round-ups, and hopefully an audio-book review (Graham McNeill’s Eye of Vengeance). So a good, strong start to April.

Feel free to share more interesting links in the comments, if you think there are any that I’ve missed that readers will find interesting.