Redshirts by John Scalzi

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Redshirts is John Scalzi's Hugo Award-winning novel of the starship ensigns who were expendable...until they started comparing notes.

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Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It's a prestige posting, with the chance to serve on "Away Missions" alongside the starship's famous senior officers.

Life couldn't be better...until Andrew begins to realize that (1) every Away Mission involves a lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship's senior officers always survive these confrontations, and (3) sadly, at least one low-ranking crew member is invariably killed. Unsurprisingly, the savvier crew members belowdecks avoid Away Missions at all costs. Then Andrew stumbles on information that transforms his and his colleagues' understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is...and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

With a new introduction by Mary Robinette Kowal, author of the Hugo-winning The Calculating Stars.

The 2006 John W. Campbell Award went to John Scalzi. He won the Campbell Award for Outstanding New Writer, and his debut novel, Old Man's War, was a Hugo Award finalist for science fiction. The Ghost Brigades, The Android's Dream, and The Last Colony are among his other works. He has received the Hugo Award, the Romantic Times Critics Choice Award for science fiction, the Seiun, the Kurd Lasswitz, and the Geffen awards, among others. His blog, Whatever, is one of the most popular in current science fiction.

Scalzi was born and reared in California and attended the University of Chicago. He and his wife and daughter live in southern Ohio.