In 'Six Wakes', Mur Lafferty uses a murder mystery, set on a Generation ship to explore the issues of personhood, of sentience and self awareness, whilst weaving in the problems of criminal action, of blame, of forgiveness and redemption and also of revenge. A pretty heavy load for a genre novel.
And it does this with aplomb and precision, using the tropes of the classic murder mystery story.
Six clones, assisted by IAN, an AI, crew the 'Dormire', a Generation ship taking the hopes and dreams of cryofrozen colonists to the new world of Artemis. The technology of cloning has allowed a type of 'serial immortality', making clones ideal as generation ship crew. If a crew member dies, then a new version is decanted, imprinted with the 'mindmap' of its predecessor, and the voyage continues. Back on Earth, cloning remains controversial, and clones are subject to strict legal restrictions, introduced after the traumatic 'clone riots'. Oh, and the clones of the crew are all convicted criminals, who have agreed to expiate their crimes by crewing the 'Dormire'. What you may ask, could possibly go wrong?
The story begins for the reader in the cloning bay. All of the crew are dead, killed by one of their crewmates. They have just been hatched into new bodies. The AI is malfunctioning, and the resurrected crew finds that they have no memories of the voyage, their mindmaps dating to the beginning of the voyage. Who has done this, and why has it been done?
Lafferty leads us through the maze, leaking leads and clues in time honoured murder mystery manner. We learn the backstory and history of each crew member, gradually uncovering their conflicts and secrets, until the big reveal, where all of the suspects gather together in the putative Drawing Room, whilst they unpick the mystery.
It is a smart, clever and well made story. Eligible for the 2018 Hugo Award, and a worthy contender.
And it does this with aplomb and precision, using the tropes of the classic murder mystery story.
Six clones, assisted by IAN, an AI, crew the 'Dormire', a Generation ship taking the hopes and dreams of cryofrozen colonists to the new world of Artemis. The technology of cloning has allowed a type of 'serial immortality', making clones ideal as generation ship crew. If a crew member dies, then a new version is decanted, imprinted with the 'mindmap' of its predecessor, and the voyage continues. Back on Earth, cloning remains controversial, and clones are subject to strict legal restrictions, introduced after the traumatic 'clone riots'. Oh, and the clones of the crew are all convicted criminals, who have agreed to expiate their crimes by crewing the 'Dormire'. What you may ask, could possibly go wrong?
The story begins for the reader in the cloning bay. All of the crew are dead, killed by one of their crewmates. They have just been hatched into new bodies. The AI is malfunctioning, and the resurrected crew finds that they have no memories of the voyage, their mindmaps dating to the beginning of the voyage. Who has done this, and why has it been done?
Lafferty leads us through the maze, leaking leads and clues in time honoured murder mystery manner. We learn the backstory and history of each crew member, gradually uncovering their conflicts and secrets, until the big reveal, where all of the suspects gather together in the putative Drawing Room, whilst they unpick the mystery.
It is a smart, clever and well made story. Eligible for the 2018 Hugo Award, and a worthy contender.