Book Review: Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

Six Wakes
by Mur Lafferty (e-Book)

This 2017 science novel by Mur Lafferty was a nominee for both the Nebula Award (selected by fellow genre writers) and the Hugo Award (selected by fans of the genre), though it did not win either. It was also a finalist for the British Science Fiction Association Award and the Philip K. Dick award. Although clearly a science fiction novel for its settings, technology and character types, it is also a mystery/thriller.

 

Six Wakes takes place in a futuristic setting where cloning has become commonplace, and those who choose to be cloned can have their memories and identity downloaded into the new adult body. In space, six crew members of a deep-space transport vessel all wake up in newly cloned bodies, with only partial memories from their previous iterations downloaded into the new bodies. There’s a major gap in their timeline, and they quickly discover that five of their six previous bodies died in violent and unexplained ways (and the sixth is in a coma). The race is on to figure out what happened to their previous versions, and see if they can rebuild the technology on their ship that would allow them to grow their own next batch of clones — otherwise they’re all now trapped in their current bodies facing permanent death, one or more of them is apparently a violent killer, and the gaps in their memories mean they have no idea who to trust…not even themselves.

 

Six Wakes is a mind-bending thriller, with six extremely different characters, who don’t seem to get along well with each other, which causes some interesting friction. The science fiction and mystery elements merge effectively, and you’ll be on the edge of your seat with anticipation as you wait to see what the next twist in the story will be. I have yet to read a Mur Lafferty story I’ve been disappointed with.

 

( official Six Wakes page on the official Mur Lafferty web site )

(The libraries only have this in e-book format at this time.)

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Public Service — Bennett Martin Public Library

 

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