So you know how in Star Trek (the Original Series) the main characters were always beaming down to a planet's surface with a random security officer, wearing a red shirt, who would then be killed by the monster of the week to show us how dangerous the situation was? John Scalzi's new novel, Red Shirts, is from the perspective of a squad of just a group of Red Shirts in a similar scifi series, who are realizing that something is afoot with all the mysterious deaths of their colleagues. And then things get meta. And then they get weird. And then there are three lengthly "codas" that delve into the emotional lives of characters who would otherwise be peripheral characters in our main characters story. It all teeters several times on the edge of being just a little too meta, or a little too twee, but manages to surf that line well. I read the whole thing in one sitting, so there's that.

FuzzyCo grade: A-