Sara's reading log

I am a book hoarder and reader. My main genre is SF, but I also love magic realism, fantasy and general fiction. Favorite authors are Iain M. Banks, Ursula K. LeGuin, Haruki Murakami, José Saramago, Isaac Asimov, Ben Aaronovitch and more. My rating system is based on five stars. I rate books based on my expectations and what a books aims to be. This means that the brilliant 'Fahrenheit 451' gets five stars because I thought it would be good, people said it was good, and it was good, but 'A Closed and Common Orbit' also gets five stars because in its series, in its style, I really enjoyed it and was not disappointed.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

  • Started on: 2013-06-16
  • Finished on: 2013-06-18
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: *****
  • Genre(s): Science Fiction

Ever since this book came out, everybody I know online with even a bit of the same book-taste as me has raved about how much fun it is. So, when I finally found it in a shop (I really dislike buying books online), I couldn’t wait to start reading it.
The book is based on the premise that redshirts, who are security officers and engineers on a starship, die more often than other staff, especially when on a mission with the main staff, like the captain. The redshirts on one ship have caught on to this and try to force the new crew on the ship to go on these mission. A few of this new crew figure it out, and try to find out why redshirts die so easily, in such a movie like way, and why the main crew doesn’t seem too bothered by this.
The book is divided into two or three parts. There is the main story, where they figure out what is going on, and try to fix it. And then there is a (long) epilogue of other viewpoint of the story. I have to say, I enjoyed the first part, the figuring out what was going on the most. But as soon as the ‘truth’ was out, the rest wasn’t as necessary to me, especially the epilogue. But the idea in this book is so original (to me), and so much fun, to me it is still a five-star book.

  • Started on: 2013-06-16
  • Finished on: 2013-06-18
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: *****
  • Genre(s): Science Fiction

Ever since this book came out, everybody I know online with even a bit of the same book-taste as me has raved about how much fun it is. So, when I finally found it in a shop (I really dislike buying books online), I couldn’t wait to start reading it.
The book is based on the premise that redshirts, who are security officers and engineers on a starship, die more often than other staff, especially when on a mission with the main staff, like the captain. The redshirts on one ship have caught on to this and try to force the new crew on the ship to go on these mission. A few of this new crew figure it out, and try to find out why redshirts die so easily, in such a movie like way, and why the main crew doesn’t seem too bothered by this.
The book is divided into two or three parts. There is the main story, where they figure out what is going on, and try to fix it. And then there is a (long) epilogue of other viewpoint of the story. I have to say, I enjoyed the first part, the figuring out what was going on the most. But as soon as the ‘truth’ was out, the rest wasn’t as necessary to me, especially the epilogue. But the idea in this book is so original (to me), and so much fun, to me it is still a five-star book.