Redshirts by John Scalzi

This book is based on the premise of the Star Trek shows that the Red Shirted guys always get killed on away missions.  In this book, you meet Andy Dahl, a guy who recently left an alien religious order to join Universal Union as a Xenobiologist and a linguist.  While waiting for his friend Jimmy, whose father is the third richest man in the Universe and decided to join Universal Union himself, he runs into Maia Duvall, a former Army grunt who is looking to explore the skies.  They run into Finn and Hester two guys who are being held to make sure they get on the ship without buying more drugs.  Finn is an alternative drug dealer in that he peddles in biologicals that are not illegal but can still get you high.  Hester is someone who is no ones' friend but is Finn's patsy in that he hides the drugs in Hester's footlocker.

The first thing they notice as odd is that the Commander Q'eeng insists on away missions and how they all hear about the other Ensigns that died on away missions in bizarre ways, like by ice sharks, death by falling rock, death by the toxic atmosphere, and death by pulse gun vaporization.  These were all new guys.  And now they're the new guys and low man on the totem pole and therefore expendable. And suddenly when the Captain and the Commander come to Dahl with a ridiculous situation saying that a planet had the plague and they needed a counter-bacterial to fix it and more importantly Lieutenant Kerensky who was down there taking samples and got infected and is dying. He has six hours to come up with a solution.  This is when his colleagues in Xenobiology come out and help him by telling him about the magic box that he needs to put the sample in and that in five and a half hours it will be ready and that when it is to look at the data and find some line of code to show Commander Q'eeng on the bridge that he doesn't get that it's the protein coat or something and the Commander will give an answer and you will say what a wonderful idea that is and get off the bridge as quickly as possible.

He meets the elusive Jenkins who is working on something mysterious and who tells him to stay out of the "Narrative" and off the bridge. He also goes on his first away mission and Kerensky is there hale and hearty less than a week from when he was nearly dead from the plague.  The guy he is with insists on staying with Kerensky because the person Kerensky was with is now dead which was the sacrifice and now it is safe to be with him and you can live.  On this mission, he runs into his friends and finds out that Hester is a pilot. They all end up in a shuttle together and Hester wants to take off, but Dahl won't let him and it's a good thing because Kerensky hasn't left yet and needs a shuttle and is injured. So Kerensky is put into their shuttle and the other shuttle takes the other guy with Kerensky and when they take off their shuttle survives but the other shuttles are taken over by battle bots.

They decide to find Jenkins and get some answers and the answers they get are pretty crazy.  They are told that five years ago their timeline was taken over by a television show that airs sometime between 1948 and 2105. And worse the television show isn't a particularly good one.  To stay safe you need to keep close on away missions to the four of the five main characters who always make it back.  The fifth one, the engineer, is a walking disaster and kills everyone near him.  There are certainly other things to look for too such as decks six through twelve are the ones that are always getting damaged because those are the ones they have sets for.  The bridge is fine to stand on forever until suddenly at a dramatic moment it isn't. And the bridge console is always getting damaged.  Kerensky always gets hurt but revives in time for the next mission.  Things will suddenly start coming out of your mouth and information you didn't know you had will suddenly become apparent to you when it is critical to the show.  Then there are the commercial breaks where suddenly you are yourself again and no one really knows what to do or say for a short while.

Jenkins figures out that the show takes place in 2010 so they go decide to go back in time using the methods that the ship did in one of the episodes. However, they will only have six days and cannot bring anyone back with them or their atoms will dissolve.  So they go back in time to convince the makers of a television show to stop making it and leave them be so they can continue on with their lives in peace.

This is a hilarious book, that won the Hugo Award for best novel, for those who are fans of Star Trek and even for those who have just heard of it.  The characters are funny and surreal and over-the-top.  Because this is a John Scalzi novel you know he's going to take this just a little bit further and he does. He goes all the way and then some.  I really loved this book and every sci-fi geek should read it.  I give it five out of five stars.   

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