“Red Dwarf” is a funny science fiction novel about a drunk called Lister. An epic drunk who contrary to real-life drunks is actually a nice guy. One day Lister and friends start drinking in London and eventually wakes up on a moon near Saturn. Shouldn’t be a problem, right? Except he has no money and doesn’t know anybody on the moon.
Lister joins the Space Corps in the hope of one day returning to Earth. He survives an accident in stasis, that kills the rest of the crew of the ship he is on and forces the ship computer to travel 3 million years away from Earth, before waking him up from stasis.
The Good
The book mixes humor and science fiction in a great way. The authors (Rob Grant and Doug Naylor who call themselves Grant Naylor) seem to have a good grasp of the special relativity theory.
The Bad
The story is not very exciting. Okay, I have seen the TV series, but still the book is mostly about Lister and there is not a lot going on. Only at the end do we get a bit of suspense.
The Ugly
The science fiction elements seem pretty tame (by today’s standards).
Conclusion
I like this book, because it’s funny. It is still disappointing when compared to the TV series.
From the Web on April 2, 2013
http://storify.com/inningPalmer/from-the-web-on-april-2-2013
