Redshirts: a Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi

It’s an interesting premise. And it’s well executed. As far as it goes.

A novel from the point of view of the “Redshirts”, named after those characters on Star Trek with the red uniforms (depicting grunt crew), who were effectively there to “show how the monster works”, as my old boss once put it. Disposable characters.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Star Trek style.

But you get two thirds through the book, and it ends. But it doesn’t. Because there are two more “codas”. Which is another way of saying “filler”. The concept just didn’t stretch out to a full length story.

But, what was there was fine. Worth a borrow, if not an outright purchase.