Celebrities on Reddit

John Scalzi

Science fiction author of Old Man's War and Redshirts

u/scalzi ↗Personal account

How we know it's theirs

His 2017 r/IAmA AMA, posted from this account

We retrieved 15 posts and 50 comments from u/scalzi, dated 2013 to 2026, most often in r/books, r/printSF and r/Scalzi.

Best moment

A redditor posted in r/printSF

Am I the only one who finds Scalzi unfunny?

u/scalzi replied

You're not crazy. Lots of people don't like Redshirts. In fact, all told it's the book of mine that's gotten the largest number of negative reviews, including from major trade venues, including Kirkus (which called it "sophomoric") and Publishers Weekly…

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You're not crazy.

Lots of people don't like Redshirts. In fact, all told it's the book of mine that's gotten the largest number of negative reviews, including from major trade venues, including Kirkus (which called it "sophomoric") and Publishers Weekly. The Amazon one-star reviews are delightful too: "Appalling. Possibly career ending," is one of my favorite summations there. And as this thread itself shows, you are not alone here on Reddit either.

And yet the book was a bestseller, won several awards (including the Locus and Hugo Awards) has been translated into more than a dozen languages and been optioned for a television series on FX. I can also attest that it continues to sell very well over its various formats. It is unquestionably one of the most popular books I've ever written.

How can both things be true?

Leaving aside conspiracy theories, the answer is pretty simple:

Humor is binary.

Excerpt

More moments

A redditor wrote in r/printSF

On “Am I the only one who finds Scalzi unfunny?”

That wasn't funny. AT ALL.

u/scalzi replied

I know. I suck.

A redditor posted in r/isthisAI

New john scalzi book. Is this cover art AI? Has a yellow hue and the faces seem off

u/scalzi replied

Short answer: No. Longer answer: Absolutely fucking not. Even longer answer: The artist is Michael Koelsch, who has been working for decades and who has done covers for other works of mine. If it looks "AI" to you, it's probably…

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Short answer: No.

Longer answer: Absolutely fucking not.

Even longer answer: The artist is Michael Koelsch, who has been working for decades and who has done covers for other works of mine. If it looks "AI" to you, it's probably in large part because his art was taken without his consent for training data, like so many other artists.

I have it as a contract point that all aspects of my books -- cover art, editing, translation, etc -- must be done by humans.

Excerpt

A redditor posted in r/AskMen

How has a woman broken your brain with her appearance?

u/scalzi replied

When I was 24, I was working at a newspaper and was doing a story on a local DJ. At the nighttime event the DJ was working, I was standing around when this woman walks up to me. Now, I…

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When I was 24, I was working at a newspaper and was doing a story on a local DJ. At the nighttime event the DJ was working, I was standing around when this woman walks up to me. Now, I was the film critic at my newspaper and traveled to LA every other weekend to interview movie stars, so this is the working baseline I had when I say the woman approaching me was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen in person in my life. I actually looked behind me to see if there was someone else she was coming to see. There was a wall behind me. So, no.

This was the conversation we had:

Her: I saw you dancing earlier. You and I should dance sometime tonight.

Me (not even trying to be cool): NOW IS GOOD

And we danced.

Reader, I married her. Not that night, but still.

She's still breaking my brain, on a daily basis, 25 years later.