Redshirts
Ensign Andrew Dahl — a former seminarian trained in linguistics and xenobiology — has just been assigned to the Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union and the most prestigious posting in the fleet. It should be the making of his career. Instead, Dahl and the four other new ensigns quickly notice that something is badly wrong aboard: every away mission ends in a lethal encounter, the senior officers always walk away, and at least one low-ranking crew member never does. Veteran crew have learned to make themselves scarce whenever Captain Lucius Abernathy, Science Officer Q'eeng or Lieutenant Kerensky come looking for volunteers.
Dahl's search for an explanation leads him to Jenkins, a crewman who long ago retreated into the ship's cargo tunnels and has been quietly keeping records ever since. Jenkins has a theory about why competent officers make idiotic decisions, why the ship's equipment produces a miracle cure at exactly the moment one is needed, and why the deaths always fall on the crew with the least rank and the most colourful backstory. It is a theory Dahl would much prefer not to believe — and acting on it is the only way he and his friends will live out the year.
Published by Tor Books in June 2012 as Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, the book closes with three codas that follow the story's consequences off the ship entirely — to a writer confronting his own choices, to a young man handed an unlooked-for second chance, and to an actress who once played an extra. Redshirts won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the 2013 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
A former seminarian and xenobiology specialist newly assigned to the Intrepid, who works out what is killing the ship's low-ranking crew.
One of the five new ensigns; a security officer with extensive medical experience.
Ensign James "Jimmy" Hanson IV, Dahl's best friend on the engineering staff and heir to one of the largest fortunes in the galaxy.
One of the five new ensigns, notably lacking the elaborate backstory the others carry.
A maintenance specialist aboard the Intrepid with a sideline in illegal narcotics.
The codas serve as distinct, stylistically varied epilogues that shift the focus from the main narrative to the personal aftermath of secondary characters. They provide closure for individuals impacted by the events of the story, exploring themes of grief, memory, and the nature of existence through different narrative formats.
This novel is a standalone work and does not require knowledge of the author's other series or universes to follow the plot.