Next is Arnold Judas Rimmer BSc, SSc. And BSc SSc stands for Bronze Swimming certificate and Silver Swimming certificate. He’s a total bonehead and Lister’s bunkmate. Rimmer also joined Red Dwarf, hoping that he would become an officer. Yet he has to settle for technician 2^nd class as he constantly fails his astro-navigation exam – once he believed he was a fish and wrote ‘I am a fish’ four hundred times – still, he thinks that it is always Lister’s fault that he fails and is unable to become an officer. Unfortunately for him, life couldn’t get any worse, and yet it does. During the time when Lister is in suspended animation Rimmer, with the rest of the crew, is killed by a Cadmium II radiation blast and is then brought back as a hologram. The poor sucker has to live his life all over again.
 
The third crew member is Cat. A creature who evolved from Lister’s pet cat Frankenstein. A self-centred, self-loving, shallow felis sapien who spends every day trying to be the most coolest hansom guy on board ship. And sleeping is his third favourite thing. With his eccentric fashion style and self-caring nature this kitty cat does not do the W word, believing that it should not cut into his preening time, and has an odd way when it comes to dealing with women. Well that is for a guy who hasn’t even seen a woman.

And then, amongst the humanoids and felis sapian members of Red Dwarf, there is the service mechanoid, Kryten. Well to give him his full name its Kryten 2X4B-523P. And like many of us he doesn’t like his middle name, ‘2X4B, what a jerky middle name’ he cries. This 4000 series mechanoid is a sanitation droid and regularly follows orders, no matter how psychotic or inhumane the order is. Before his arrival on Red Dwarf, Kryten was on the Nova 5 but when it had crash landed killing most of the crew, Kryten spent his time continuing his duties and watching Androids, the silly mechanoid soap opera. Now on board ship he tries to build himself a new life, with the help of Lister, that is.

And joining this fantastic four is Holly, the ships computer. He has an IQ of 6,000, which is the same IQ as 6,000 PE teachers and spends every day trying to devise more and more ingenious ways of keeping everyone on board sane. Not that he is very good at it. After the radiation leak and during the 3 million years that Lister spends in suspended animation, Holly is alone and subsequently becomes computer senile and with that it means a whole lot of chaos ensues.



A Whole Load Of Smeg: The Plot

The book starts 3 million years into the past, on Mimas, one of the moons of Saturn. Lister has woken up from his drunken birthday party without any money or passport and wearing someone else’s clothes. With nothing else to do apart from getting drunk again is to go joy riding on one of the hoppers, this is where Lister unintentionally meets the man who would become his bunkmate on Red Dwarf, Arnold Rimmer, after being stuck on the moon for six months and 793 million miles away from Earth there is nothing left to do but sign up to the Space Corps. And so he does. His idea of getting on board an Earth-bound spacecraft was pure genius, the problem is, Lister unwittingly finds himself on the JMC vessel ‘Red Dwarf’ bound for the outer reaches of the solar system. Not ideal really.

Lister’s time on Red Dwarf was not easy as not only is he the lowest rank on board ship, he also has to share his quarters with none other than that of bonehead Rimmer himself. Rimmer, a man obsessed in becoming an officer, recently failed his latest astro-navigation exam by saying he was a fish four hundred times, what a complete smeghead. Lister’s life on board ship would change though as he soon found his love – Kristine Kochanski. Kochanski was a bright, intelligent and beautiful navigation officer, Lister on the other hand was a curry eating beer drinking space bum and after three weeks of dating, Kochanski ended it. Despite this he is determined to win her back but with the discovery of his pet cat ‘Frankenstein’, Lister is put into suspended animation and therefore survives the accident whereby the entire crew are killed.
 
It is now three million years into the future, the crew are dead killed by a radiation leak. Only Lister is the last human being alive, his cat and her kittens were safely sealed in the hold and over the three million years they have evolved into a humanoid lifeform. Holly, the ships computer, has gone computer senile after spending three million years all by himself, but never less he has a job to do and that is keeping Lister sane. Not that he is good at doing it. Rimmer is brought back as a hologram and their journey back to Earth begins. They break the light barrier and come face to face with future echoes, find a sanitation droid named Kryten who served on the Nova 5 until it crash landed and killed the crew; they meet Einstein, Archimedes, God and Norman Wisdom and not only that they get stuck inside the Total Immersion Videogame (TIV) Better Than Life.
 
Better Than Life brings all your fantasies and desires to life, the game is so good that it can kill you. The game takes them back to Earth whereby they live out a life of their own desire, Lister spends his time running a small shop and going home to his wife Kochanski but the odd thing is that it is always Christmas Eve. Rimmer somehow spends a life of luxury while the Cat fantasises living in a castle and claiming he is the king of coolness. However, after realising they are in the game they now must figure out how to leave, can Kryten save them from the game or will it lead to them all being stuck in the game? You will have to find out, won’t you.

‘Alone in a godless meaningless lifeless universe, still you’ve got to laugh, haven’t you’: Style and Genre

The style in which Grant Naylor has used is pretty standard, the use of small chapters and dividing the book into three separate parts makes it easy reading. Although there is three parts to the book, all of them flow from each other and that is what makes this book work. Grant Naylor’s use of humorous language and out of this world sci-fi words brings a whole new dimension to the book; unlike other science fiction books, Red Dwarf is unique in that it follows a group of stranded humanoid lifeforms in deep space who are trying to find their way home. And just like the TV series it ends on a cliff-hanger, a deliberate choice so that readers would pick up the next book to find out what happened next. Genius.
 
Red Dwarf is a classic science fiction series, everything you expect in a space adventure novel you get with Red Dwarf. But Grant Naylor’s decision, like the TV series with the same name, to include humour in the storyline and the characters make it different from other sci-fi books. The way in which both genres are intertwined within the book make it a great read and while some references and certain language may not be understood or appropriate for some readers, it is nether less a classic sci-fi novel with a bit of humour thrown in for good measure.



A book that will keep you sane for the next three million years

Without a doubt Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers is a book that is packed with humour and a great story that is out of this world. With its central storyline of a group of stranded misfits trying to find their way back home there’s no doubt that this motley crew will cause havoc across the universe. If you love reading sci-fi and want to laugh until your hologromatic H falls off, then this book will be right up your street; however, tread with caution cause like the TIV Better Than Life you may find yourselves stuck within its pages and unable to get out. Like me, who loves the TV series, will love the Red Dwarf books, but if you do decide to jump into another dimension I would recommend that you read the books first before watching the TV series to avoid disappointment.

Happy Reading Guys!