Redshirts

Redshirts is a humorous science fiction novel by John Scalzi. Released in 2012, the novel was awarded the Hugo Award the following year, and is essentially based on a 'joke' related to the Star Trek TV series.

According to this joke, the extras that accompany the protagonists of the series on an away mission, if they are wearing the red uniforms of security personnel, they probably will not make it through the episode, but will die, in a frighteningly stupid way. These are the so-called "redshirts".

Scalzi’s book follows ensign Andrew Dahl, who has been transferred to the Universal Union’s flagship, the Intrepid. Soon Dahl befriends other ensigns that have also been transferred to the Intrepid, and together they begin to notice that something is wrong with the ship. It seems that anyone who accompanies bridge personnel on away missions has a very good chance not to survive the experience, and subsequently, the crew that have been able to survive on the Intrepid longer are the ones who manage to avoid away missions. As the newest onboard, Dahl and his friends are the ones most often chosen for away missions, so they must quickly solve the puzzle of what is going on, if they want to their life expectancy to exceed a few months.

This is a funny, lighthearted book by Scalzi, which I think is mainly oriented to those familiar with Star Trek, but will probably appeal to anyone who likes humorous books.

6/10