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First of all, I have ordered the book. I am a Star Trek fan, and a fan of spoofing sci-fi. So this is kind of written with someone like me in mind. There is a "however".

The however is that it lacked in it's writing style. I have never read any other works by Mr. Scalzi, so I am not sure if this is prone to this book or not. I enjoyed the fast pace and the dialogue, though many of the characters seemed monochromatic. By that, I mean that it didn't matter who said what, as long as it was said. The characters lacked depth, except for three emotions: fear, anger, and confusion. I laughed out loud at the unfortunate demise of the disposable away crewmen from the first chapter through the fourth, but I grew no more sympathetic to their demise as the story progressed. I began to wonder if I was laughing because of the author's ideas, or just because he was reminding me of what I was thinking when I watched so many of those original Star Trek episodes.

There was no descriptive nature to the story other than the carnage. What did the characters look like? What did the ship, interior or exterior, look like? The planets, the cave, the space station, the monsters, etc. I'm sure we are all thinking Star Trek, so are we just supposed to filling in the blanks with campy nostalgia? What about body language between characters? I appreciate that the author sees it in his head, but maybe let me in on it too. Subtle or gross, there is always cues given to the reader, rendering juxtaposition or relationship between the characters. That just wasn't there. Using just dialogue is a poor idea to create depth.

It just seemed hurried to get to the bullet points before the reader either bored or figured out the meta, yet singular, premise of the story. Sadly, after reading the story summary and four chapters in, I believe I have reached both.

While I found his writing to lack in imagination, I applaud Mr. Scalzi's premise and his skill at humor. For those reasons, I have ordered the book. I will read it, enjoy it for its merits, and then put it aside. But I will never say it was a great book, nor Mr. Scalzi a great writer whose books I will delve further into.