Redshirts
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 6/10/2021
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 6/10/2021 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this softcover at Annie's Book Stop, for another release copy.
The summary for this one made me think of Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!, another book that's an homage to the characters whose purpose in the story is to get killed to show the *important* characters (and the reader) how dangerous the situation is... (It also reminds me of the hilarious Star Trek homage/parody film Galaxy Quest, which features a character who spends a LOT of time fretting about his fate as an obvious redshirt!)
The book's a very entertaining set of riffs on the "redshirt" concept, from the early scenes in which the designated victims meet assorted unpleasant fates - even when it requires the combined foolishness of several otherwise-clever characters to make the deaths possible - to the more advanced part of the story, where the redshirts who've realized what's going on find some surprisingly innovative ways to attempt to change their fates. In between, we get to see how office politics might play out in a world where the senior folk are aware of the redshirt issue, and work out how to hide from any interaction with the main cast so as to avoid becoming redshirts themselves.
I think my favorite character was Lt. Kerensky, the "Chekov" expy whose role was to take loads of damage but NOT to actually die; this trait is used by the redshirt team once they work out how the "Narrative" functions, and it's vastly entertaining, if not always very pleasant for Kerensky...
The whole book is full of fiction tropes, some useful and some ridiculous, including bits where people suddenly remember chunks of back-story that are only relevant for the current situation, and which they never knew before (and may have forgotten by the next major incident, assuming they survive that long). And then there's The Box, the magical diagnostic gizmo that will create cures or decipher illnesses - but only at the very last moment.
The story gets even more meta when the characters discover another spaceship with a similar and oddly unlikely mortality pattern to their own: one "Enterprise"...
Despite the levels of complexity - and reality - involved here, the story does come up with a resolution, or perhaps several depending on how you read the multiple codas. Great fun!
[There's a TV Tropes page on the book, with some entertaining tidbits.]
The summary for this one made me think of Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!, another book that's an homage to the characters whose purpose in the story is to get killed to show the *important* characters (and the reader) how dangerous the situation is... (It also reminds me of the hilarious Star Trek homage/parody film Galaxy Quest, which features a character who spends a LOT of time fretting about his fate as an obvious redshirt!)
The book's a very entertaining set of riffs on the "redshirt" concept, from the early scenes in which the designated victims meet assorted unpleasant fates - even when it requires the combined foolishness of several otherwise-clever characters to make the deaths possible - to the more advanced part of the story, where the redshirts who've realized what's going on find some surprisingly innovative ways to attempt to change their fates. In between, we get to see how office politics might play out in a world where the senior folk are aware of the redshirt issue, and work out how to hide from any interaction with the main cast so as to avoid becoming redshirts themselves.
I think my favorite character was Lt. Kerensky, the "Chekov" expy whose role was to take loads of damage but NOT to actually die; this trait is used by the redshirt team once they work out how the "Narrative" functions, and it's vastly entertaining, if not always very pleasant for Kerensky...
The whole book is full of fiction tropes, some useful and some ridiculous, including bits where people suddenly remember chunks of back-story that are only relevant for the current situation, and which they never knew before (and may have forgotten by the next major incident, assuming they survive that long). And then there's The Box, the magical diagnostic gizmo that will create cures or decipher illnesses - but only at the very last moment.
The story gets even more meta when the characters discover another spaceship with a similar and oddly unlikely mortality pattern to their own: one "Enterprise"...
Despite the levels of complexity - and reality - involved here, the story does come up with a resolution, or perhaps several depending on how you read the multiple codas. Great fun!
[There's a TV Tropes page on the book, with some entertaining tidbits.]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at LFL [OBCZ] - New Searles Rd, #46 in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, June 12, 2021
GoryDetails at LFL [OBCZ] - New Searles Rd, #46 in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, June 12, 2021
Released 2 yrs ago (6/12/2021 UTC) at LFL [OBCZ] - New Searles Rd, #46 in Nashua, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.I left this book in my Little Free Library today; hope someone enjoys it!
[See other recent releases in NH here.]
*** Released for the 2021 Allergic to A challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2021 Science Fiction challenge. ***
This book wasn't in the LFL today; hope the finder enjoys it! Would love to hear about its travels one of these days!
