Home Sweet Own Book 10

Whether you’re a Star Trek fan or don’t know Klingon from German, you’ve heard the jokes about the red shirts in the original series. The main cast plus an ensign in a red shirt go on an away mission and the red shirt bites it before the commercial. What if the Star Trek universe were real and all the red shirts on the ship were starting to figure it out? That’s what John Scalzi does in this novel.

I thought the premise was absolutely brilliant and it was executed with Scalzi’s trademark wit and sarcasm. I really enjoyed watching the characters piece together and figure out what was really going on. It’s one of the things I love about Jasper Fforde’s novels. They give the traditional narrative a whole new twist without ever breaking the fourth wall.

The Codas at the end were interesting. They were separate from the main narrative but added another layer to some of the other characters. Not to spoil anything but there are some characters that arrive later in the story that you don’t get to know well. This helps explain them and the aftermath of the main narrative. Scalzi uses the codas to explore them further. It’s not something writers often do so it added a really good perspective.

If you’re a sci-fi fan at all, you should read this (by should I mean ‘have to at your leisure’). If you’re any sort of Star Trek fan, you must read this. Faster would be better. It’s rare that I’ll force a book on someone so when I do, I mean it.

1) Fiction 

2) Nonfiction – The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

3) Sci-Fi – Redshirts by John Scalzi

4) Fantasy 

5) Mystery 

6) Horror 

7) Memoir/Biography – Data, A Love Story by Amy Webb

8) Chick Lit – Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter

9) Feminist 

10) Teen 

11) Holiday 

12) Essays – What Was I Thinking? ed. by Barbara Davilman & Liz Dubelman

13) Short Stories 

14) Library 

15) Animal 

16) Book about Books 

17) New – Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin

18) Old – Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P. N. Elrod

19) Pop Science 

20) Near 

21) Far 

22) Graphic Novel – Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? by Thomas F. Zahler

23) Reread – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

24) Wild Card 

25) Otherworldly Creature 

26) Free 

27) Noteworthy 

28) Bestseller 

29) Themed Anthology 

30) Steampunk 

31) Movie-Book 

32) Media  

33) Travel 

34) Food 

35) Classic 

36) Humor 

37) Poetry 

38) Past – Stasiland by Anna Funder

39) Future 

40) Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic 

41) Zombie 

42) Sports

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