I thought it was awesome, for the same reasons I thought Galaxy Quest was awesome. I love trope skewering when it's well done.
Is Scalzi really really clever? This is the first time EVER that I have read characters do the "I get it now--we're in a story!" thing, and not wailed in agony and fought back the urge to throw the book across the room. Redshirts is the only book I can think of that goes there and makes it work. If that isn't clever, what is?
I found the spirited first half more entertaining than the meta let's-go-beg-the-author-to-spare-us second half, and I really thought the first coda should have been as brief as the other two to work, but otherwise I was very very satisfied, and was glad to be able to renew it at the library so I could read it to The Redhead during our coming road trip.
I've read two of the other Hugo nominees, Blackout (super awesome) and 2312 (good, but not really my thing), and don't feel like either of them were cheated. I have Throne of the Crescent Moon checked out right now, and we'll see
( ... )
Of the two I would have voted for crescent moon because yaya awesome fantasy deeply immersed in non western history and mythology, but yeah liked this too, at least the non coda parts I actually read.
Like I said, I haven't yet read that one. Check my November Bookpost at the end of net month for followup...I note that it's the first in a series, so if it's good, we can rejoice that there will be more.
Well, then it isn't such a problem that Redshirts won out over weak competition, is it?
Seriously, I loved both Scalzi and McGuire/Grant's entries, and love Bujold so much that I'm saving her book until the *next* Vor universe book comes out, so that I always have one to look forward to. This is also the first year I even bothered to look up all the Hugo nominees and make an effort to identify their books (Ahmed and Robinson, in particular, were completely new to me), so if YMMV, it's not surprising.
I thought it was awesome, for the same reasons I thought Galaxy Quest was awesome. I love trope skewering when it's well done.
Is Scalzi really really clever? This is the first time EVER that I have read characters do the "I get it now--we're in a story!" thing, and not wailed in agony and fought back the urge to throw the book across the room. Redshirts is the only book I can think of that goes there and makes it work. If that isn't clever, what is?
I found the spirited first half more entertaining than the meta let's-go-beg-the-author-to-spare-us second half, and I really thought the first coda should have been as brief as the other two to work, but otherwise I was very very satisfied, and was glad to be able to renew it at the library so I could read it to The Redhead during our coming road trip.
I've read two of the other Hugo nominees, Blackout (super awesome) and 2312 (good, but not really my thing), and don't feel like either of them were cheated. I have Throne of the Crescent Moon checked out right now, and we'll see ( ... )
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Like I said, I haven't yet read that one. Check my November Bookpost at the end of net month for followup...I note that it's the first in a series, so if it's good, we can rejoice that there will be more.
Reply
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Well, then it isn't such a problem that Redshirts won out over weak competition, is it?
Seriously, I loved both Scalzi and McGuire/Grant's entries, and love Bujold so much that I'm saving her book until the *next* Vor universe book comes out, so that I always have one to look forward to. This is also the first year I even bothered to look up all the Hugo nominees and make an effort to identify their books (Ahmed and Robinson, in particular, were completely new to me), so if YMMV, it's not surprising.
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