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Redshirts
- A Novel with Three Codas
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction
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What listeners say about Redshirts
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mr. G. Mitchell
- 12-10-17
Interesting concept ruined
Like others have said (pun intended) they do say "said" A LOT and that has to be down to the author rather than the Narrator or the production, but the situation isn't helped by Wil Wheaton doing the same voice for all the characters.
The underlying story was interesting and different but I was unable to enjoy it due to the above.
36 people found this helpful
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- Daryl
- 21-08-17
He said, she said, he said, she said.
Is there anything you would change about this book?
The author really needs to either get an editor, or do some basic writing courses again. The constant use of "He said" at the end of every single sentence is enough to drive you mad 10 minutes in to the book. You eventually manage to tune out of it, but it's infuriating. Probably isn't as bad when you read it in a book, but audibly it's really noticeable.
Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Wil Wheaton?
Anyone who can differentiate female from male voices.
26 people found this helpful
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- Lewis
- 06-10-17
A mixed bag...
So yeah, a seriously mixed bag.
Firstly, the "said" issue that other reviewers mention is definitely a thing, together with a number of other grammatical and phrasing issues. If you are anything like me, you are going to have to constantly suppress a nervous tick while listening to this.
The story goes in a much more existential direction than I expected, but I have to admit I was totally hooked in the middle. I expected the Star Trek like setting to be a lot more relevant than it was, but the book still manages to keep you interested. I found myself thinking about the book in-between reading it, which to me is the sign of a good book. It's an interesting idea for a story and develops reasonably well.
It is worth a listen/read, but do yourself a favour and skip the last "Coda" (or both of them if you are not that bothered). The first is mildly amusing, but the second tries too hard to be sentimental, made worse by the author delivering it in an over the top dramatic style. I wanted to vomit a little bit.
23 people found this helpful
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- J Hurwitz
- 02-04-17
I cannot listen to this book
I am an hour into this book and literally have pulled my headphones out. If I hear "he said" "she said" "he said" "he said" "she said" one more time I will freak out. This is the single worst piece of literature I have come across.
75 people found this helpful
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- Sam Martin
- 08-01-16
Great listen, if a little jarring sometimes.
I loved this book, the concept was great, the characters, great and the performance - while not as good as Wheaton's other reads maybe - still absorbed me into the story. The codas in particular I thought came across as funny, involving and touching all at once and here was where Wheaton excelled. Much has already been made in other reviews here of the overreliance on 'he said' 'she said' 'he asked' etc and they are right, but you do eventually start to tune it out and I think this is more the fault of the editing for the audio read than against the writing or the performance as it doesn't notice as much when you read the physical copy yourself. I was surprised at how the book changes throughout. What starts as a sort of goofy idea full of nerd lore becomes a rumination on life, the soul and our place in the universe and reality. Once you get past the said issue, I'd highly recommend this to anyone, nerd and non nerd alike!
15 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 18-07-12
Great Book But Annoying Over Use of The Word "said
Like a previous reviewer stated this author really needs to learn another word for "said"; Yes, almost every line contains "...said" or "said...", it really does get annoying and you can almost hear the annoyance in the voice of the narrator.
The storyline is pretty good and I did enjoy it; a subtle, or perhaps not so subtle, parody of Star Trek which mocks the fact that in almost every Star Trek episode you knew who was going to die as soon as the "away party" beamed down; those poor guys in red.
41 people found this helpful
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- Mark
- 14-07-15
this was like a teenage boy reading a comic....
What would have made Redshirts better?
if it had been half as good as his previous book
What will your next listen be?
wil wheaten is a great narrator but this is not his finest
Any additional comments?
john scalzi has written better novels, go and try the one about the agent to the alien, its funny
9 people found this helpful
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- Laura Prado de Assis
- 10-05-17
It's complicated, she said
The story is brilliant but the writing leaves much to be desired. There is an over use of the word "said", and of the phrase "it's complicated". Characters are not very well developed emotionally but I guess that's partly in keeping with the story, but still feels like every single character is the same person, as they are all awfully snarky in the exact same way. Either way, I enjoyed it, being a big Star Trek fan.
8 people found this helpful
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- Simon
- 04-12-13
Meta- but in a good way
Where does Redshirts rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I've probably listened to 30 audiobooks in the last 2 and a half years. Almost all of them have been very good. I'd say this was in the top half of those.
What did you like best about this story?
I loved the paradox, that the characters were supposedly vulnerable because they were not the main characters of the show, but of course they're the main characters of the book so in fact a slightly different set of rules apply. As much as the idea is (as the characters know) derivative of Galaxy Quest, Last Action Hero etc, Scalzi does a great job of making it feel fresh without it getting stuck up its own arse.
Which scene did you most enjoy?
The last scene, which I won't say more about, because it would spoil it.
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Both actually, but it was surprisingly touching towards the end, considering how tongue in cheek the concept seems.
Any additional comments?
Really recommended. I'm not a big Trekkie or into anything particularly similar, but I think it's enough to have a passing familiarity with the tropes of the genre, which virtually everyone surely does.
13 people found this helpful
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- A. Farenden
- 25-06-13
One annoying flaw in an excellent piece of prose.
What did you like most about Redshirts?
I liked the principle most, and the inner monologues. The fact that nobody knew why they were doing what they did.
What other book might you compare Redshirts to, and why?
The only book other than John Scalzi's other books that this reminds me of is John Ringo's Last Centurion. Both books have soldier protagonists, both are commentary on how f-ed up the world they are living in is, and the tone and humor are similar. So are the narrators' voices.
What about Wil Wheaton’s performance did you like?
I liked everything about the way he portrayed the characters, with the exception of Duvahl (not sure of spelling) Some narrators are able to portray female voices well, but Wheaton's female voice was indistinguishable, which is part of the flaw this book has.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I actually started crying somewhere near the end. It might have been when Dahl got skewered. Or it might have been during the epilogue when Finn lectures Nick. Actually Nick's epilogue is a pretty good part in itself.
Any additional comments?
The big flaw in this audiobook is a combination of writer and narrator. Scalzi overuses the word 'said' which _in print_ probably doesn't matter too much. He also named two of his main characters Dahl and Duvahl.
When you get lines like:
"Are you sure?" Dahl said.
"I'm sure." Duvahl said
Near the start and you can't tell which one is the female character because the narrator isn't that capable of female voices and the names are too similar to connect with the identifying information you were given...
After the first hour I'd gotten over the "said,said,said," thing, but that section near the beginning is really annoying.Still a good listen though.
16 people found this helpful
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- Kent
- 18-04-13
Clever, creative, and FUN!
What a creative and clever way to look at characters! I don't know if this started off with Scalzi saying, "Hmmm, I wonder if I can write in various points of view, and look behind the scenes of how characters tick?", or as just a random idea. Regardless - it worked! The main story was funny, poignant, and creative. The separate coda were well-linked to the main story in a very heart-felt manner. I really liked this book a lot! I am fastly becoming a huge Scalzi fan-boy! “Old Man’s War”, “Fuzzy Nation”, and not “Redshirts” – all good stuff! Oh, but, I guess amidst all this mush of Scalzi-love, I probably should point out that he does have a tendency to use the screenplay style ("he said", "she said") a bit too much! And, particularly in an audiobook, this becomes VERY obvious…and not just a little irritating! Let's just call this his "room to grow" as an author! (Maybe that's how he gets his word-count up for meeting publisher requirements???) Still, other than that one affectation, I really like the way he thinks and writes! His dialog is crisp and focused, and his characters are ALWAYS unique and enjoyable. I will definitely read/listen to more of his works!
And, as an audiobook, Wil Wheaton did an excellent job as Narrator - which makes sense that he'd be able to inflect emotion into these characters because, he himself (as Wesley Crusher on "Star Trek TNG") must have felt like his character might just as casually become just such a "Redshirt" in the early days of his TV series appearances. Wil Wheaton did a really good job of putting dynamic range into the various characters - with more vocal intonations than I'm use to from him (as an audiobook Narrator). He really got into these characters!
So, from all perspectives, this was an excellent listen!
104 people found this helpful
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- Bradford
- 06-03-13
Disappointing, but somehow still worth a listen.
There were a few reasons I was intrigued enough to purchase this audiobook. First, I was eager to read my first John Scalzi book and see what he could do. Second, I'm a fan of Wil Wheaton as a narrator. Third, I'm a huge Star Trek fan. So, the idea of a novel based around one of the funnier/sad aspects of ST:TOS, I was excited to read this book. My intrigue quickly turned to disappointment especially once the core story's big reveal took place and the course of the 2nd half of the novel came into focus. But to Scalzi's credit, I cared enough about his characters by that point that I wanted to find out what happened to them, so I read on. After finishing the book I had to endure the three codas. Interesting as they were, Scalzi had more than used up my patience by that point with the storyline and his writing. I was surprised to find the codas were written better than the main novel itself! I look forward to reading more Scalzi novels to determine whether this is one of his lesser works or if he really is this below-average a writer. Regardless, he should fire his editor who for some unknown reason allowed a novel to be published with a nearly endless stream of "he said" and "she said" on every page. You can even hear Wheaton begin to sigh at points after reciting "he said" nearly a dozen times over the course of 30 seconds. Wheaton continues to impress me with his narration skills, bringing life to a group of characters and making the story enjoyable enough for me to stick around. Fans of ST:TOS should enjoy the references as well as the take on the meaningless deaths of so many characters, but I for one think Scalzi could have approached the same idea in a different way with more success. Regardless, the characters are worth the time, if for no other reason than to hear futuristic space explorers/warriors cursing like modern-day truckers.
95 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-04-13
"Really Funny!" She said.
Scalzi still uses 'said' for nearly every exchange of dialogue, which will drive some people really nuts. It's the elephant in the living room for this book. If you don't zero in on it, you might never notice.
Personally, I LOVED the comedy, speed, and pitch of the banter. The first five hours are a huge laugh, with some earnest drama and important life lessons sprinkled in, from first to last. The star trek references are so very classic. And the dramatic pauses and high school theater way the officers make exchanges, then automatically switch to normal speech when not on point. So funny!
This was my first book with this author, and it had me moving happily on to Android's Dream, Agent to the Stars, Fuzzy Nation, and the Old Man's War series. A great find! Fixation on the word 'said' or no.
92 people found this helpful
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- Bradley
- 04-12-16
Terrible, I don't get the hype.
The last 1/3 of this book is annoying and pointless the story ends 2/3 of the way in. It's mildly interesting, but nothing a third grader couldn't come up with in terms of plot. Don't waste the credit.
13 people found this helpful
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- P. Stover
- 16-09-13
Not his Wheal-house
I love Wil Wheaton reading this book read by a former actor on Star Trek is kind of amazing. His delivery of some of the deadpan and laugh out loud lines in this book is excellent.
However his total lack of character voices make some of the dialogue heavy passages really challenging to follow. You end up having to pay careful attention to the "he said she saids" at end of most of the lines. And then you're just tired of hearing the word "said."
There isn't even really a differentiation between the male characters and the one female character which can be incredibly confusing. It doesn't help that some of the character names can be similar to, so you're struggling to catch who said what.
The story itself is a fabulous farce, with really interesting philosophical implications. It was both funny and thought provoking. If you're a fan of Mr. Wheaton's you might be willing to forgive his shortcomings as a narrator, but I might still recommend the text version over the audiobook.
154 people found this helpful
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- Thomas
- 24-03-15
"Is this typical of Scalzi?", the reviewer said.
What would have made Redshirts better?
This is my first Scalzi book, and I thought his dialog was atrocious - a crime against literature. This is a huge problem since it's a very dialog-heavy story. He really needed a strong editor to tell him, "No, you cannot end every single line of dialog in the entire book with 'he/she said'."
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
I can't really discuss the story without spoiling it, but it had a strong hook and twist. Good concept executed well, terrible dialog notwithstanding. Likeable protagonist and supporting characters.
The least interesting aspect was the three codas that followed the main story. I just didn't care.
What didn’t you like about Wil Wheaton’s performance?
Wheaton did not provide a performance, he provided a reading. His clipped monotone was not engaging.
Any additional comments?
I had hoped this would be my gateway into a new author, but this audiobook experience was so tedious I don't think there's any chance I'll be reading any more Scalzi. I was not being hyperbolic above, he ends literally every line of dialog with "so-and-so said." Every. Single. Time. I noticed it about 3 minutes into the book, and it grated on me like nails on a chalkboard for the rest of the book. Combined with Wheaton's zero-effort narration, it took me about 3 months to make it through this 13-ish hour audiobook. I'm not really sure how or why I finished at all, honestly.
50 people found this helpful
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- Cristina Hatfield
- 10-12-12
Quite an enjoyable read
It's not without its flaws but overall it was certainly worth a credit.
Laugh out loud funny at several points and it prompted me to put several of his other books on my TBR list.
If you know what a Redshirt is, then you'll probably enjoy this book.
If you're a fan of Wil Wheaton, then you'll probably enjoy this book.
If you know that you are likely to be distracted to the point of RageQuit by the overuse of a word, then I wouldn't recommend this. The only nitpicky negative critique I have about this book is that is a dialogue heavy book and the word "said" is used to the point of annoyance.
Regardless of that, it is a fun book and I enjoyed it.
80 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 21-09-13
He said. She said. He Said. She said. They said...
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
No.!
Though I have always found John Scalazi's humor and plot lines engaging his use of dialogue in this book so tedious it spoils the whole experience.
The meat and bones of what the characters have to say is fine but the connective tissue of he said's can, at best, be said to occasionally rise to the level of tedious.
The problem might not be so obvious on the printed page but as an audio book the the repetition of "He said"or "She said" as the link between almost every spoken phrase had me cringing in anticipation. If Pavlov had slapped the dog with a wet fish every time he rang the bell I imagine the effect would have been very much the same.
Would you recommend Redshirts to your friends? Why or why not?
No.
Any additional comments?
It's a pity, I really do like the way Scalazi thinks but I just couldn't enjoy this performance.
86 people found this helpful
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- Jim "The Impatient"
- 14-06-13
The real Star Trek
I've watched all the t.v. shows and all the movies, but you got to believe this is the real Star Trek. This is from the view of those thousands of crew members that do the actual work, that take the non-sensible orders from the higher ups and make the ship work.
John Scalzi is the funniest writer out there and with Wil Wheaton they are the best duo to listen to. The book starts out with a sort of grunts by the water cooler feel. The new guy treatment is spot on. So even those who are not sci-fi fans will like the first three hours. The story does take a weirder then I prefer turn and I wish JS could have came up with a better explanation. The story actually ends around five hours and then you get the not so funny Coda's. Coda one is interesting, but goes on too long. Coda one also gets a little nasty with the writers of the original Star Trek. As a Star Trek fan I enjoyed laughing at myself and the show during the story. J.S. seemed to use coda one to say, hey if you were to stupid to figure it out, I think the Star Trek writers were lazy or stupid. Scalzi did not do his homework or he would have known that Gene Roddenberry set out to make a non-violent show. During the pilot, cowboys were the big thing and the network wanted blood or they were not going to air the show. The results were Redshirts getting killed. Coda two gives a serious message, but no answers. Telling someone that can't figure out what to do in life, that they need to get there shit together, does not help. Coda three was sweet and warm.
I gave this five stars and it was the best book I have read this year so far and Wheaton's performance makes listening to it better then reading it. I do believe it would have been even better without the coda's.
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- Jan
- 18-07-19
Lack of creative license
Way too a literal work. Instead of having unique voices/tones for chars Wheaton just repeats "he said" or "X said" for every line of dialogue. Waaaaaaaaay too repetitive. Couldn't get thru that far because it just irked me way too much.
6 people found this helpful