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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Much stronger than her later book the Midsolar Murders. Lafferty is very good at writing drama and suspense, more so than comedy I think.
Maria wakes up in a cloning vat, which has happened many times to her before, but this time the room is a gore show of her previous body. And the bodies of the rest of the crew. A six-member crew tasked with shepherding thousands of humans and clones to a new world, they're also all felons who will be granted a new start on said new world - provided they get there. In the name of fairness, none of them knows the others crimes.
With their memories lagging from 25 years before these murders, they need to figure out what happened to themselves and the ship before the murderer strikes again.
The characters were all fascinating and the closed room mystery setting kept it moving quickly. Really enjoyed this one.
Maria wakes up in a cloning vat, which has happened many times to her before, but this time the room is a gore show of her previous body. And the bodies of the rest of the crew. A six-member crew tasked with shepherding thousands of humans and clones to a new world, they're also all felons who will be granted a new start on said new world - provided they get there. In the name of fairness, none of them knows the others crimes.
With their memories lagging from 25 years before these murders, they need to figure out what happened to themselves and the ship before the murderer strikes again.
The characters were all fascinating and the closed room mystery setting kept it moving quickly. Really enjoyed this one.
[book: And Then There Were None] vibes but in SPACE. so freaking cool.
[ned stark voice] review is coming
[ned stark voice] review is coming
Meh. This is a book that started off strong but got steadily more boring as it went along, which is clearly a minority view, but for me, the more that was revealed the less interesting it was.
I was also bothered by the fact that everything 2-300 years in the future was only the slightly modified version of today. Moon cities, cloning, generation ships, but it was all very much Right Now otherwise, and a vision of the future without much vision, to me.
The first 200 pages were good enough that I read them quickly and then I was deep enough in to finish, but I can't recommend this highly. It's fine, though.
I was also bothered by the fact that everything 2-300 years in the future was only the slightly modified version of today. Moon cities, cloning, generation ships, but it was all very much Right Now otherwise, and a vision of the future without much vision, to me.
The first 200 pages were good enough that I read them quickly and then I was deep enough in to finish, but I can't recommend this highly. It's fine, though.
In memory of the recently departed, I would call this almost Wolfian for its obsessions with time, memory, and the thoughtful potential that science fiction enjoys above other genres - technological change, interstellar travel, and dynamic human action. However, as a murder mystery without too much mystery, this substitutes action for heavy servings of schadenfreude and pop philosophy. Lafferty is good at moving between narrative frames, but I was more interested in the plot that wasn't there - the forward movement of the ship and its passengers - than I was in the characterological dilemmas that Six Wakes revels in. There's much here to enjoy but around 2/3rds of the way through I was eager to conclude the book, having seen too much of the ending to want to stick around for the denouement. Your mileage may vary, of course, and this is technically competent and compelling on its own terms.
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
(I accidentally deleted this book of my "read" list. Whoops.)
A crew of misfits, now clones, wake up to find their dead bodies floating in zero gravity and long stretches of their memories lost. If that's not an exciting yet horrifying start to a book, I don't know what else is.
The worldbuilding, especially the cloning intrigue, personality hacking, and philosophy behind expendable lives, really stood out to me without getting too lost in pseudoscientific jargon. For example, "yadokari" means "hermit crab" in Japanese, but in the context of Six Wakes, it means a personality created by the editing or deleting of memories illegally implanted in someone. It's a person hiding within a person, which is fascinating!
I appreciate that the book has flashbacks to the characters' past, but it's paced in a way where it adds to the narrative of current events instead of bogging it down. I also appreciate the fact that the women characters aren't sexualized if at all, and any romance between the characters is saved mostly near the end of the book.
I took a few points off the review because while Six Wakes was enjoyable for me, there were a few passages that relied heavily on adverbs. Alternative wording could serve said passages better, but it's just a minor nitpick.
A crew of misfits, now clones, wake up to find their dead bodies floating in zero gravity and long stretches of their memories lost. If that's not an exciting yet horrifying start to a book, I don't know what else is.
The worldbuilding, especially the cloning intrigue, personality hacking, and philosophy behind expendable lives, really stood out to me without getting too lost in pseudoscientific jargon. For example, "yadokari" means "hermit crab" in Japanese, but in the context of Six Wakes, it means a personality created by the editing or deleting of memories illegally implanted in someone. It's a person hiding within a person, which is fascinating!
I appreciate that the book has flashbacks to the characters' past, but it's paced in a way where it adds to the narrative of current events instead of bogging it down. I also appreciate the fact that the women characters aren't sexualized if at all, and any romance between the characters is saved mostly near the end of the book.
I took a few points off the review because while Six Wakes was enjoyable for me, there were a few passages that relied heavily on adverbs. Alternative wording could serve said passages better, but it's just a minor nitpick.
Murder mystery about clones in a generation shop. Best example of Sci Fi... everybody has been affected by cloning in an interesting way which directly affects the main plot
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have mixed feelings on this book, so here's the break-down:
Pros:
- great premise
- great setting
- satisfying ending
Cons:
- flat one-dimensional characters
- pacing issues, too much flashbacks and characters sitting around doing nothing breaks up the pace of the book unfortunately.
- the prose is not good, it isn't always clear who is talking in the book and it has some weird grammatical mistakes in it, some personal pronouns which don't match the character. It all made this book hard to read at times.
- some very convenient plottwists which helps our heroes happen a bit too often.
So it's three stars for me.
Pros:
- great premise
- great setting
- satisfying ending
Cons:
- flat one-dimensional characters
- pacing issues, too much flashbacks and characters sitting around doing nothing breaks up the pace of the book unfortunately.
- the prose is not good, it isn't always clear who is talking in the book and it has some weird grammatical mistakes in it, some personal pronouns which don't match the character. It all made this book hard to read at times.
- some very convenient plottwists which helps our heroes happen a bit too often.
So it's three stars for me.