20 works of upbeat science fiction to brighten your day
Redshirts (Cover image via Tor Books)
18. Redshirts
Have you ever wondered what life is like for the rank and file in Starfleet? On the television shows, we really only follow the exploits of higher-ranked characters, with a Guinan or Wesley Crusher thrown in for good measure (you may experience varying degrees of “good” with Wesley, however). Rare is the Star Trek or Trek-adjacent show that really spends time with the hoi polloi.
That’s just what Redshirts, the novel by John Scalzi, does. Actually, that’s just the starting conceit of the book. But let’s start at the beginning.
Junior crewmembers of the United Union ship, the Intrepid, are dying at a noticeably fast rate. Risk factors include getting too close to senior officers and going on away missions. Andrew Dahl, an ensign with expertise in xenobiology, picks up on this strange shipwide culture soon after he joins the team.
Occasionally, our central characters and the people around them even seem to lose all free will. They drop their sense of self-preservation and act in ways that seem, shall we say, convenient to a mysterious, unknown narrative. The central characters are deeply aware of this strangeness and try their best to survive.
It doesn’t stop there, however. Our second-string heroes eventually meet Jenkins, a reclusive crewmember who has a strange theory: their world is linked to a poorly-written television show from the past. That’s why characters go all automaton on occasion: they’re serving the Narrative.
The group of junior crewmembers kidnap a senior officer and travel into the past. Once there, they meet their actor doppelgangers and the show’s head writer. They strike a deal with the writer, agreeing to exchange his comatose son with an “extra” who just happens to be the son’s double. Once in the future, the comatose son will be revived by their near-magical future technology.
After some time travel, things are back to a much better state. The ill are revived, the timeline is set straight, and the writers promise to put more effort into their scripts. No more crew deaths as cheap emotional fodder, they say. Even in the past, the realization that fiction is connected to some far future reality creates a deeper sense of connection for all.