“John Scalzi is interesting as someone who has built a writing career in these strange days,” Joseph Bottum explains. “He spent a few years writing movie reviews after college before landing, in 1996, a sweet gig at America Online as editor and in-house writer. Laid off in the meltdown of AOL, he took to writing guidebooks for the money and science fiction blog posts for the fame. Or, at least, the dribs of money and the drabs of fame. The blog, called “Whatever,” proved enjoyable for readers—a few years ago, he issued in book form selections entitled Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded—and it successfully established him as a voice to be reckoned with in the field.”
Scalzi’s most recent novel is called Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas
His book Old Man’s War was pretty darn great.
I’ve read Redshirts–it was great! Super funny if you’re familiar with old Star Trek.
I found much to like in the general scenario, plot twists and philosophical dilemmas. But I had a hard time getting past what Lars would call “The Usual Cautions.” I suppose to be accepted by the cultural elites he has to overly sexualize a few scenes and portray the characters nodding tacit approval to a wide range of immorality and perversion. But when I read escapist literature I’d really rather escape from that trash too.