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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What a book !!
Love it. The story, the style, the characters .. everything had meaning.
A science-fiction murder-mystery on the surface but it is so much more. There is philosophy and sociology, ethics - how will humanity transform when cloning and mind transfer become accessible ?
I loved the little flashbacks that painted a complex society changed by cloning and also slowly unravelling bits and pieces about our main characters.
This is one of my top 3 books of this year reading list.
Love it. The story, the style, the characters .. everything had meaning.
A science-fiction murder-mystery on the surface but it is so much more. There is philosophy and sociology, ethics - how will humanity transform when cloning and mind transfer become accessible ?
I loved the little flashbacks that painted a complex society changed by cloning and also slowly unravelling bits and pieces about our main characters.
This is one of my top 3 books of this year reading list.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Brilliant premise, but an incredibly horrible execution. Six clones tasked to supervise a sleeper ship awake in the aftermath of several grisly murders -- their previously cloned selves. The novel thus asks: What happened to their previous selves? Who is to blame? How will they find out?
Six Wakes unravels the mystery slowly by showing the characters interacting, then revealing their pasts via flashback chapters (which was hidden as every clone is a condemned criminal working aboard), which further added complexity to the murders; you begin to realize that everyone has a potential motive due to various scandals in their previous lives. This was an interesting technique, and it really could have made the novel.
Unfortunately... everything else about it just doesn't work, rendering said technique moot. The most grating part of Six Wakes are the characters. None of them feel like a clone with an intellect and personality spanning several centuries, and instead each and every one feels like a freshman at their first college party. They're immature, far too quippy and either take things way too lightly, or way too seriously! One character would go 'grrrrr this guy is super fishy let's kill him now' and later on when one of them has potentially murdery vibes, another might go, 'nah they're innocent, don't be so quick to judge'! It breaks any sense of tension and for the most part, I was rolling my eyes, wondering when someone was going to get a wedgie. That's honestly how it felt; not a murder mystery set in space, more like a cheap B-film with dumb college kids getting stalked by some mysterious monster... except the monster is really inside you all along! Spooky.
With regards to worldbuilding, there wasn't really anything interesting as well, beyond two bits: Lyfe -- the basic glop thingamajig that's used to create organic structures, ranging from food to clone bodies -- and the consequences of legalized cloning plus personality transfer. The latter would have been an incredibly fantastic theme to explore, but it's basically a backdrop to the events unfolding in Six Wakes, namely in the flashback chapters. I genuinely think those were much more interesting than the main story itself. The payoff to the murder mystery isn't very fun either, the answer is massively unsatisfying and amounted to 'it's always the nerd'.
To conclude, I'm not entirely certain how this was a Hugo nominee, as I don't really think there's much in the way of redeeming quality to justify its inclusion. This needed several more edits at least, maybe an entire rework to really do that premise justice. If you want a good sci-fi novel that won the Hugos, The Calculating Stars is a good start. If you want good sci-fi that uses spaceships and the isolation of space to explore interesting themes within an enclosed human community, The Dark Beyond the Stars is fantastic. If you're looking for a simple horror sci-fi premise that gets you going, I enjoyed Ship of Fools. But I can't recommend this at all.
Six Wakes unravels the mystery slowly by showing the characters interacting, then revealing their pasts via flashback chapters (which was hidden as every clone is a condemned criminal working aboard), which further added complexity to the murders; you begin to realize that everyone has a potential motive due to various scandals in their previous lives. This was an interesting technique, and it really could have made the novel.
Unfortunately... everything else about it just doesn't work, rendering said technique moot. The most grating part of Six Wakes are the characters. None of them feel like a clone with an intellect and personality spanning several centuries, and instead each and every one feels like a freshman at their first college party. They're immature, far too quippy and either take things way too lightly, or way too seriously! One character would go 'grrrrr this guy is super fishy let's kill him now' and later on when one of them has potentially murdery vibes, another might go, 'nah they're innocent, don't be so quick to judge'! It breaks any sense of tension and for the most part, I was rolling my eyes, wondering when someone was going to get a wedgie. That's honestly how it felt; not a murder mystery set in space, more like a cheap B-film with dumb college kids getting stalked by some mysterious monster... except the monster is really inside you all along! Spooky.
With regards to worldbuilding, there wasn't really anything interesting as well, beyond two bits: Lyfe -- the basic glop thingamajig that's used to create organic structures, ranging from food to clone bodies -- and the consequences of legalized cloning plus personality transfer. The latter would have been an incredibly fantastic theme to explore, but it's basically a backdrop to the events unfolding in Six Wakes, namely in the flashback chapters. I genuinely think those were much more interesting than the main story itself. The payoff to the murder mystery isn't very fun either, the answer is massively unsatisfying and amounted to 'it's always the nerd'.
To conclude, I'm not entirely certain how this was a Hugo nominee, as I don't really think there's much in the way of redeeming quality to justify its inclusion. This needed several more edits at least, maybe an entire rework to really do that premise justice. If you want a good sci-fi novel that won the Hugos, The Calculating Stars is a good start. If you want good sci-fi that uses spaceships and the isolation of space to explore interesting themes within an enclosed human community, The Dark Beyond the Stars is fantastic. If you're looking for a simple horror sci-fi premise that gets you going, I enjoyed Ship of Fools. But I can't recommend this at all.
Hell that was a fun story. I enjoyed it so much. A closed room mystery on a spaceship full of clones that have all just been murdered. Damn. Juicy.
It wasn't perfect, but it was damn entertaining.
There was something off about the characters interactions. It just didn't feel 100% believable. Cloned human with hundreds of cumulative years of life experience I feel wouldn't react like this. Not juvenile, just off. BUT it wasn't a big enough issue that I stopped reading.
This would make an excellent TV series. 7 episodes, one per character, and one to explain how it all happened.
It wasn't perfect, but it was damn entertaining.
There was something off about the characters interactions. It just didn't feel 100% believable. Cloned human with hundreds of cumulative years of life experience I feel wouldn't react like this. Not juvenile, just off. BUT it wasn't a big enough issue that I stopped reading.
This would make an excellent TV series. 7 episodes, one per character, and one to explain how it all happened.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Amazing read, got me back into enjoying SF! A refreshing take on the clone trope.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a page-turning murder mystery with lots of really fascinating takes on clone sci-fi. I loved all the clone elements -- truly cool explorations of how clone tech could intersect with pesky philosophy around mortality and morality. Having all the characters be clones with twisty backstories made it clusterfucky in a fun way.
However, the cast felt very Obamacore-diverse, which grated on me. The prose was very utilitarian, and at times clunky. Maria was totally over-powered, but I still had a soft spot for her. I suspected the main suspect from pretty early on, which wasn't a bad thing, but I found the ending that ultimately met him to be totally unsatisfactory:why would a bunch of clones who just spent maaany pages coming to terms with some ethics and ultimately deciding to liberate the "AI" in the ship decide to subject another person to the same fate...? While Paul deserved a terrible fate, that decision undermined all the character growth around understanding the humanity in others imo. If not for the ending I might have rated this slightly higher. Still, a really quick read if you want something sci-fi and murder mystery that you don't have to ponder too much.
However, the cast felt very Obamacore-diverse, which grated on me. The prose was very utilitarian, and at times clunky. Maria was totally over-powered, but I still had a soft spot for her. I suspected the main suspect from pretty early on, which wasn't a bad thing, but I found the ending that ultimately met him to be totally unsatisfactory: