What I'm Reading - Redshirts and The Long Earth

For Christmas my friend Brian gave me a slew of books to read, and now that pilot season is winding down I've finally had time during lunch and after work to starting catching up on the backlog.

The first of the two books, Redshirts is my favorite of the two as it consistently kept my attention throughout and appealed to my zany sense of humor. If you are unfamiliar with the term, "Redshirts" refers to those unfortunate extras in the Star Trek series who always got sent on away missions with primary cast members and invariably met with untimely death. This book takes a look at the life of some such Redshirts in a Star-Trek-like setting. That alone would provide enough fodder for an entertaining read, but then about a third of the way through, the book takes a left turn into crazy town and gets into the real meat and potatoes of the story. 4 out of 5.

The Long Earth, which I just finished last night, was also an interesting story, but it dragged in the middle and the ending was written more as cliffhanger for a potential sequel rather than cleanly wrapping up the book, which left me unsatisfied. And to be perfectly honest I was expecting more from a book co-written by Terry Pratchett (he of Discworld fame).

The story revolves around the discovery of both a seemingly infinite amount of parallel earths and the technology to "step" between them. The primary plot thread follows Joshua Valienté, a natural "Stepper" who can traverse the Long Earth without technological aid, and Lobsang, a computer who claims to be the reincarnated soul of a Tibetan motorcycle repairman.

The idea of accessible earths is very intriguing, as is the speculation as to how humanity would react to such a discovery. I wish they had delved into that a little more or that the adventures of Joshua and Lobsang had been a bit more lively, but I believe there's still enough there to warrant a rental from your local library. 3 out of 5.