Station Eternity - Mur Lafferty

Mur Lafferty has been on my list of writers to watch since her Six Wakes, a tale of clones, murder and people at their best (and worst) blew me away a year or two ago. She's done other work, including top-tier podcasting, a Star Wars novelisation, and has a couple of complete series under her belt, in different brackets. Which is to say, it seems like Lafferty can write anything, and write it well.

Which brings us to Station Eternity. On the surface this is an intriguing sci-fi murder mystery, which takes human fish out of water Mallory and Xan, and asks them to find a killer in an entirely alien space, in a milieu filled with walking rock people, sentient wasps, and all sorts of other people who are still coming to terms with the idea that humans are sentient, and not just walking bags of squishy noise. They have a smattering of clues, they can think fast on their feet, and they'd better, because it's entirely possible their lives are on the line. And their secrets, which might be worse. I say on the surface it's this. It's also this  in the detail as well. The central mystery and mayhem and murder ticks along with the precision of a swiss watch, if the watch were filled with misdirection, outright lies, dark pasts, and more than a splash of blood. It's beautifully designed to keep the reader guessing, while giving them just enough information that it doesn't feel like they're guessing blindly. This is a story aware of history, deftly weaving strands of Poirot and Midsomer Murders into a broader tapestry of science fiction. 

It is, however, also a book about connection. About the way humans, or people in general, reach out to those around them and try to make something of it. Reach past loneliness and selfishness and grief to put a little light in the universe. Mallory and Xan are most of the humans on the sentient Eternity, but that doesn't seem to slow them down, as they both live in separately splendid isolation, but also build up connections in the weft of things, looking to aliens to have a common understanding that some humans might struggle with. This is a story about the way people can connect to each other, for good or ill. And that is, of course, rather convenient in a murder mystery. Everyone is a suspect. Everyone is connected. There's always a story. 

I must confess to having a soft spot for Mallory, a woman who has spent her life running away from connections. Mostly because everywhere she goes, someone seems to get murdered. Not, in a lovely nod to Cabot Cove, by Mallory. But she's always on the scene when someone turns up dead, and she's always solving the murder well before the police arrive. Now she's on Eternity, where people seem less prone to dropping dead wherever she goes. Mallory is tough and fragile at once, resting on assumptions of how things are, bathed in her own tragedy, while still kicking the traces. And well she might, because it's possible the situation on Eternity, where she feels she can live safely, is about to be upended. In any case, Mallory is a fun protagonist. Thoughtful, sometimes brittle or abrupt, she's always working to do the right thing, if she can work out what it is, while shouldering and walking past her own trauma. She's vulnerable and tough and open and a mask all at once, and so a joy to read.

The same is true of the story itself, which I very much shan't spoil. But it starts big, and only gets bigger as the Catherine Wheel of Consequences begins to spin/. As Mallory investigates, and uncovers secrets in unlikely places, even her own heart. It's a mystery that had me turning to over in my mind trying to figure it out, and grinning with every revelation as the mystery, slowly unlocked. This is a good sci-fi book, a good mystery book, and a great blend of the two, and perfect for fans of both. Do yourself a favour and check it out.