My first real disappointment with anything Scalzi. A clever, clever meta narrative that takes ages to really get going. The characters spend a long time discussing and investigating sci-fi tropes... but as a reader incredibly familiar with them, it's dull and predictable (which I guess is the point, but the payoff just isn't worth it). Then the characters gain agency, and start to take things into their own hands, and - holy crap! - it's like Star Trek IV only funnier and not lame! 
 And then it's over. 
 It must have been obvious how brief and abrupt the ending was, which is why the codas at the end exist. And they're absolutely perfect. Better and even more emotionally effecting than the main story. But I'm just left wanting more and wondering why the brilliance in these codas were left to such a small portion of the book.