Friday, July 17, 2020

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty


They awake slowly.  All six of the crew of the Dormire are clones and they have been recloned after dying.  Why would all six of the crew have died at once?  As they awake, they realize that all of their former beings have been murdered but who did it?

Their mission is to transport humans in suspended animation to a new planet with more resources as Earth continues to be depleted.  The crew are all clones with a criminal past.  No one except the captain has access to the files outlining the crimes each individual has committed.  And IAN, the AI running the ship, has been damaged.

The crew consists of these individuals.  Katrina is the captain.  Her second in command is Wolfgang, who is in charge of security.  Joanna is the crew doctor.  Hiro is a navigator while Paul is also an engineer and is there to work on various systems that have errors.  Maria is the cook and general errand helper who cleans and does whatever is needed to keep things moving.

Now they must work together to figure out who killed all of their previous bodies and who is still trying to kill them.  They are working in the dark without IAN's help to remember things or give them files to make their jobs easier.  As the killer strikes again, the crisis becomes more timely.  Which of them is the killer and can the others stop them before all is lost?

This novel was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Best Novel Award in 2018.  It is an interesting premise and in order for the mystery to be solved, the reader must learn about how the clones came to be created, the rules governing their existence and what they are allowed to do.  As each individual's backstory is told, the shadowy reach of an individual they all have in common is seen.  This book is recommended for readers of science fiction.

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