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The Midsolar Murders #1
Station Eternity
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Science Fiction (2022)Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove her to live on an alien space station, but her problems still follow her in this witty, self-aware novel that puts a speculative spin on murder mysteries, from the Hugo-nominated author of Six Wakes.
From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet...and markedly devoid of homicide.
But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime—and fast—or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board…
From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet...and markedly devoid of homicide.
But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime—and fast—or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board…
457 pages, Paperback
First published October 4, 2022
About the author
Mur Lafferty
111 books1,681 followersNOTE- Goodreads mail is NOT a good way to get in touch with me. I don't get notifications of questions and I'm rarely here. Please contact me via my website, murverse.com.
Mur Lafferty is the author of Solo: A Star Wars Story and the Hugo and Nebula nominated novel Six Wakes, The Shambling Guides series, and several self pubbed novels and novellas, including the award winning Afterlife series. She is the host of the Hugo-winning podcast Ditch Diggers, and the long-running I Should Be Writing. She is the recipient of the John Campbell Award for best new writer, the Manly Wade Wellman Award, the Best Fancast Hugo Award, and joined the Podcast Hall of Fame in 2015, its inaugural year.
Mur Lafferty is the author of Solo: A Star Wars Story and the Hugo and Nebula nominated novel Six Wakes, The Shambling Guides series, and several self pubbed novels and novellas, including the award winning Afterlife series. She is the host of the Hugo-winning podcast Ditch Diggers, and the long-running I Should Be Writing. She is the recipient of the John Campbell Award for best new writer, the Manly Wade Wellman Award, the Best Fancast Hugo Award, and joined the Podcast Hall of Fame in 2015, its inaugural year.
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November 12, 2023
Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty
It's not too far into the future and Earth has had First Contact which leads humans to meeting several species, all who are more advanced and less "watery" than humans. Most of these species can have a symbiotic relationship with another species and even their space ships are alive. It seems that these new beings can come and go to our planet but humans aren't allowed the same freedom, probably because they are less advanced than the other species.
Since she was young, murders have happened around Mallory Viridian. She's connected to them in some way, and she is the only one who can solve them. This gives her a not so good reputation and after about the fourteenth murder she escapes to an alien space station where she will be the only one of two humans (oops, make that one of three humans). Still, being so far away from earth, with just three humans but lots of other species, will give Mallory peace and probably prevent more murders from happening.
But when a human shuttle almost arrives at the space station, threatening to ruin Mallory's almost exile from humans, the space station, the shuttle, and Mallory's life explode into chaos. What ensures was extremely hard for me to follow, especially since we see things from a lot different POVs. Beings, whose names we have come to know through Mallory or other characters, aren't called by their names by characters that don't know them and I would get very confused about who was being discussed. I'd also get confused when certain beings were talking to each other. Yes, there are communications problems between the less advanced humans, the other beings, and the translation modules but I do wish things weren't so confusing for me.
Amongst the chaos, distrust, the murder of the non human "host" of the ship, and a lot of other death, I had trouble connecting to the characters. I did best with the humans since I could usually understand what they were talking about except that each of them seemed to have one or more secrets so they weren't forthcoming about their pasts and their motivations. Overall, this seems to be a murderous bunch and no one is safe, especially since the station is in the process of having a mental and physical breakdown. This murder mystery is just too complex and chaotic for me to understand very well.
Pub Oct 4, 2022
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group/Ace and NetGalley for this ARC.
It's not too far into the future and Earth has had First Contact which leads humans to meeting several species, all who are more advanced and less "watery" than humans. Most of these species can have a symbiotic relationship with another species and even their space ships are alive. It seems that these new beings can come and go to our planet but humans aren't allowed the same freedom, probably because they are less advanced than the other species.
Since she was young, murders have happened around Mallory Viridian. She's connected to them in some way, and she is the only one who can solve them. This gives her a not so good reputation and after about the fourteenth murder she escapes to an alien space station where she will be the only one of two humans (oops, make that one of three humans). Still, being so far away from earth, with just three humans but lots of other species, will give Mallory peace and probably prevent more murders from happening.
But when a human shuttle almost arrives at the space station, threatening to ruin Mallory's almost exile from humans, the space station, the shuttle, and Mallory's life explode into chaos. What ensures was extremely hard for me to follow, especially since we see things from a lot different POVs. Beings, whose names we have come to know through Mallory or other characters, aren't called by their names by characters that don't know them and I would get very confused about who was being discussed. I'd also get confused when certain beings were talking to each other. Yes, there are communications problems between the less advanced humans, the other beings, and the translation modules but I do wish things weren't so confusing for me.
Amongst the chaos, distrust, the murder of the non human "host" of the ship, and a lot of other death, I had trouble connecting to the characters. I did best with the humans since I could usually understand what they were talking about except that each of them seemed to have one or more secrets so they weren't forthcoming about their pasts and their motivations. Overall, this seems to be a murderous bunch and no one is safe, especially since the station is in the process of having a mental and physical breakdown. This murder mystery is just too complex and chaotic for me to understand very well.
Pub Oct 4, 2022
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group/Ace and NetGalley for this ARC.
October 5, 2022
Super-cool premise, super-soft execution.
Good memories of Lafferty's Six Wakes led me to requesting Station Eternity. Sadly, time seems to have increased ambition without accompanying skill.Six Wakes was a fun, locked-room--of sorts--in-space mystery. I had forgotten that it had multiple viewpoints and multiple shifts in time, but the narrative complexity was contained by the limited number of people and the convention of the locked room. When I stalled out on Station and went back to read my review for Six Wakes, I realized Lafferty has hung on to her multiple viewpoints and multiple time shifts, only this time, there's nothing to help her organize her story. There's some interesting stuff here, there really is, but it's concealed by almost impenetrable storytelling and marred by inattention to detail.
Station Eternity starts on the living space station Eternity. The murder-magnet Mallory is one of three humans aboard, and the one the narrative uses as the center. The first five chapters are hers (that pesky third-person limited omniscient again) and although it goes back and forth in time, it does provide an anchor for building a world with aliens. Chapter six starts including other viewpoints, but it's not neatly circumscribed by chapter, so it starts to get a little messy. When a shuttle containing the second-ever group of humans is inbound for the space station, Mallory and the other humans start to panic. A murder happens, and given the build-up, I expected the story to be about the murder, but strangely, it became more and more peripheral to events both current and past.
Narrative includes two different alien views, but they are sloppy as all get-out. I'd give one a 'C' for actually feeling alien, and the other a solid 'D' for developmental teenager. Alien? Nope. The characterization is notable for breaks according to what the story needs, not for species congruency--we're told they live millennia and move slowly, but they're always moving quickly, making rapid decisions and even operating as hospital staff. "So telling you to hurry is equivalent to telling a human to fuck off,' Mallory had ventured....That sounds correct, yes,' Stephanie said." Then at the end of the chapter, the being Mallory said that to says to another of her species, "'I suppose you are one, now,' Stephanie allowed. 'But we should hurry.'" So Stephanie just told someone she was her friend AND to fuck off? Do explain.
Unfortunately, dialogue can't save it character either. There's a lot of, "as you know, John, the aliens only..." type of dialogue that sounds super-contrived. Some of it is just plain odd: "And then Xan replied, saying the phrase that he would regret for the rest of his life: 'Yeah, thanks.'" Spoiler: he doesn't.
What did I like? Hmm. I like the attempt at something more sophisticated--the fractal viewpoints, the past timelines with events leading to the present--but Lafferty just doesn't have the writing chops to pull it off. It was honestly a chore to read, and that's with me being generally well-disposed to space-murder-shenanigans-aliens.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the advanced reader copy. Clearly, all opinions are my own.
Good memories of Lafferty's Six Wakes led me to requesting Station Eternity. Sadly, time seems to have increased ambition without accompanying skill.Six Wakes was a fun, locked-room--of sorts--in-space mystery. I had forgotten that it had multiple viewpoints and multiple shifts in time, but the narrative complexity was contained by the limited number of people and the convention of the locked room. When I stalled out on Station and went back to read my review for Six Wakes, I realized Lafferty has hung on to her multiple viewpoints and multiple time shifts, only this time, there's nothing to help her organize her story. There's some interesting stuff here, there really is, but it's concealed by almost impenetrable storytelling and marred by inattention to detail.
Station Eternity starts on the living space station Eternity. The murder-magnet Mallory is one of three humans aboard, and the one the narrative uses as the center. The first five chapters are hers (that pesky third-person limited omniscient again) and although it goes back and forth in time, it does provide an anchor for building a world with aliens. Chapter six starts including other viewpoints, but it's not neatly circumscribed by chapter, so it starts to get a little messy. When a shuttle containing the second-ever group of humans is inbound for the space station, Mallory and the other humans start to panic. A murder happens, and given the build-up, I expected the story to be about the murder, but strangely, it became more and more peripheral to events both current and past.
Narrative includes two different alien views, but they are sloppy as all get-out. I'd give one a 'C' for actually feeling alien, and the other a solid 'D' for developmental teenager. Alien? Nope. The characterization is notable for breaks according to what the story needs, not for species congruency--we're told they live millennia and move slowly, but they're always moving quickly, making rapid decisions and even operating as hospital staff. "So telling you to hurry is equivalent to telling a human to fuck off,' Mallory had ventured....That sounds correct, yes,' Stephanie said." Then at the end of the chapter, the being Mallory said that to says to another of her species, "'I suppose you are one, now,' Stephanie allowed. 'But we should hurry.'" So Stephanie just told someone she was her friend AND to fuck off? Do explain.
Unfortunately, dialogue can't save it character either. There's a lot of, "as you know, John, the aliens only..." type of dialogue that sounds super-contrived. Some of it is just plain odd: "And then Xan replied, saying the phrase that he would regret for the rest of his life: 'Yeah, thanks.'" Spoiler: he doesn't.
What did I like? Hmm. I like the attempt at something more sophisticated--the fractal viewpoints, the past timelines with events leading to the present--but Lafferty just doesn't have the writing chops to pull it off. It was honestly a chore to read, and that's with me being generally well-disposed to space-murder-shenanigans-aliens.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the advanced reader copy. Clearly, all opinions are my own.
January 17, 2022
What a glorious romp. Murder, sentient space stations, and banter. It had everything I wanted.
September 21, 2023
Mur Lafferty infuses
Station Eternity
, the first book in the Midsolar Murders series, with danger, murder, a sentient space station, and a great premise - Everywhere Mallory Viridian goes a murder occurs and she has the insight to solve the case. When she gets the opportunity to take refuge on Station Eternity, she thinks the murders will stop if she is only around aliens. Her life is quiet until a shuttle with humans arrives and havoc ensues.
Mallory has become an amateur detective due to her ability to spot key clues overlooked by the experts. To avoid others as much as possible, she became a writer. She’s lonely, depressed, calm, and serious. She loves details, acts on instinct, and can be impulsive. The large number other characters have varying degrees of depth that is revealed slowly throughout the novel, but are nowhere near as developed as Mallory.
The cross between science fiction and mystery as a premise worked well. The main character was relatable, likeable, and it was easy for me to want Mallory to succeed. What a great first sentence! However, the book quickly goes back and forth in time without notice causing one to feel unsettled and disrupting the flow and pacing. These instances are also from different points of view and only slowly reveal what has happened in the past. Despite this, the plot was interesting and complex. Additionally, the variety of aliens on the space station added to the unique world-building. From size to communication capabilities, there was significant diversity among the extraterrestrials.
It was hard to put the book down because there was always something new happening in this story that piqued my interest. Danger, mystery, and some surprising moments are interspersed throughout it along with some action and red herrings. The last fourth of the novel became more of a true page-turner. There was a surprise or two revealed near the end of the book and the main mystery reaches a satisfying conclusion, but there are several loose ends that could be the basis for book two in the series.
Overall, this novel was entertaining and had great world-building. It highlights family drama, political intrigue, secrets, trust, connections, relationships, and acceptance. Exceptional characters and intense fight scenes made this an entertaining read. If you like science fiction and mysteries, then this may be the series for you. I am looking forward to seeing what happens next in the series.
I purchased a copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date was October 4, 2022. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.
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My 3.48 rounded to 3 stars review is coming soon.
Mallory has become an amateur detective due to her ability to spot key clues overlooked by the experts. To avoid others as much as possible, she became a writer. She’s lonely, depressed, calm, and serious. She loves details, acts on instinct, and can be impulsive. The large number other characters have varying degrees of depth that is revealed slowly throughout the novel, but are nowhere near as developed as Mallory.
The cross between science fiction and mystery as a premise worked well. The main character was relatable, likeable, and it was easy for me to want Mallory to succeed. What a great first sentence! However, the book quickly goes back and forth in time without notice causing one to feel unsettled and disrupting the flow and pacing. These instances are also from different points of view and only slowly reveal what has happened in the past. Despite this, the plot was interesting and complex. Additionally, the variety of aliens on the space station added to the unique world-building. From size to communication capabilities, there was significant diversity among the extraterrestrials.
It was hard to put the book down because there was always something new happening in this story that piqued my interest. Danger, mystery, and some surprising moments are interspersed throughout it along with some action and red herrings. The last fourth of the novel became more of a true page-turner. There was a surprise or two revealed near the end of the book and the main mystery reaches a satisfying conclusion, but there are several loose ends that could be the basis for book two in the series.
Overall, this novel was entertaining and had great world-building. It highlights family drama, political intrigue, secrets, trust, connections, relationships, and acceptance. Exceptional characters and intense fight scenes made this an entertaining read. If you like science fiction and mysteries, then this may be the series for you. I am looking forward to seeing what happens next in the series.
I purchased a copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date was October 4, 2022. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.
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My 3.48 rounded to 3 stars review is coming soon.
Read
December 18, 2023The premise is amazing: the heroine keeps having murders happen around her a la Jessica Fletcher but of course that means everyone either suspects her of being a serial killer or avoids her. So she goes to an isolated space station in the hope of not setting off any murders but inevitably a shuttle arrives full of people to whom she has connections and there is murder.
I loved that, and the way the various people were shown to be interconnected, and the eventual explanations were clever. I found the telling pretty chaotic though--we jump around an awful lot and go into a lot of heads. And the Gneiss aliens in particular were really deus ex machina for me: they pretty much did whatever was required to fix the plot. Lots to like, but I just felt it needed another edit to make it all settle into place for the 'well-oiled machine' feeling I want out of this sort of book. (Also if we ever found out who murdered the symbiont, I completely missed it in the flurry of revelations.)
I loved that, and the way the various people were shown to be interconnected, and the eventual explanations were clever. I found the telling pretty chaotic though--we jump around an awful lot and go into a lot of heads. And the Gneiss aliens in particular were really deus ex machina for me: they pretty much did whatever was required to fix the plot. Lots to like, but I just felt it needed another edit to make it all settle into place for the 'well-oiled machine' feeling I want out of this sort of book. (Also if we ever found out who murdered the symbiont, I completely missed it in the flurry of revelations.)
September 19, 2022
3.0 stars
While this is another sci-fi mystery, like Six Wakes, Eternity Station is very different than the author's previous novel. The tone of this one is much more light and a little absurd.
I struggled a lot with the main character. I don't mind unlikeable characters in thrillers, but I felt like this one annoyed me.
Mostly I wished that there would be more deductive work. This book promised a female Sherlock, but I didn't get those vibes from the book. This was a fine sci fi book, but just not as much to my tastes as I hoped.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
While this is another sci-fi mystery, like Six Wakes, Eternity Station is very different than the author's previous novel. The tone of this one is much more light and a little absurd.
I struggled a lot with the main character. I don't mind unlikeable characters in thrillers, but I felt like this one annoyed me.
Mostly I wished that there would be more deductive work. This book promised a female Sherlock, but I didn't get those vibes from the book. This was a fine sci fi book, but just not as much to my tastes as I hoped.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
Shelved as 'dnf'
October 24, 2022DNF at 32%
This started off well but now it's getting a bit too jumbly for me. I stopped and read a few friends reviews and it doesn't sound like it will straighten out so I am jumping off this ship and drifting off into space.
This started off well but now it's getting a bit too jumbly for me. I stopped and read a few friends reviews and it doesn't sound like it will straighten out so I am jumping off this ship and drifting off into space.
June 4, 2023
*sighs* Don't you just hate it when a story has great potential and then you see it crash and burn? Yeah, me too.
Mallory is somehow a magnet for murders. No, she's not the actual murderer. But it means she has a lot of explaining to do and not many people listening to her. So she ran. Again and again and again. This time, she ran to a space station. A SENTIENT one with a host body.
Before Mallory, there were no humans. Then came a human embassador and now there are more humans supposed to come - which sends Mallory spinning.
Like Cassandra, she keeps warning people and nobody believes her. Until someone very special is killed and there is an incident with the space shuttle resulting in even more deaths.
What could and should have been a nicely quirky whodunnit in space very quickly tangled itself up in one story thread after another until it looked like this:
It was not at all about the murder or the aliens. Instead, we got one dreary, sad or eyeroll-inducing background story after another. Seriously, I keept hinking "I DON'T CARE; MOVE ON" over and over and over.
Then there was the audiobook. I read A LOT of audiobooks because it allows me to multitaks and therefore read more. But the narrator of this book wasn't very good. Either she made ME feel neurotic or it was next to impossible to follow conversations, especially with more than two people, because everyone sounded the fucking same! No difference between male and female characters, and only ONE alien species (amongst a host) had a weird way of talking that set them apart. Sometimes, I noticed we were listening to one of the aliens instead of another human only after the convo was done already.
Equally, it wasn't always immediately clear when we jumped from real-time on the space station after the murder to one of the boring-ass background stories.
When we finally DID get the resolution after convoluting plot developments, it was less than lukewarm. If there had been some awesome worldbuilding and / or characterization, I could have forgiven most of it, maybe, but we didn't really get any of that either.
*sighs*
As I said in the beginning: the outline of the story had some great potential and I got excited, initially. Soon, though, I just didn't give a crap anymore and was almost glad when it was over. :/
Mallory is somehow a magnet for murders. No, she's not the actual murderer. But it means she has a lot of explaining to do and not many people listening to her. So she ran. Again and again and again. This time, she ran to a space station. A SENTIENT one with a host body.
Before Mallory, there were no humans. Then came a human embassador and now there are more humans supposed to come - which sends Mallory spinning.
Like Cassandra, she keeps warning people and nobody believes her. Until someone very special is killed and there is an incident with the space shuttle resulting in even more deaths.
What could and should have been a nicely quirky whodunnit in space very quickly tangled itself up in one story thread after another until it looked like this:
It was not at all about the murder or the aliens. Instead, we got one dreary, sad or eyeroll-inducing background story after another. Seriously, I keept hinking "I DON'T CARE; MOVE ON" over and over and over.
Then there was the audiobook. I read A LOT of audiobooks because it allows me to multitaks and therefore read more. But the narrator of this book wasn't very good. Either she made ME feel neurotic or it was next to impossible to follow conversations, especially with more than two people, because everyone sounded the fucking same! No difference between male and female characters, and only ONE alien species (amongst a host) had a weird way of talking that set them apart. Sometimes, I noticed we were listening to one of the aliens instead of another human only after the convo was done already.
Equally, it wasn't always immediately clear when we jumped from real-time on the space station after the murder to one of the boring-ass background stories.
When we finally DID get the resolution after convoluting plot developments, it was less than lukewarm. If there had been some awesome worldbuilding and / or characterization, I could have forgiven most of it, maybe, but we didn't really get any of that either.
*sighs*
As I said in the beginning: the outline of the story had some great potential and I got excited, initially. Soon, though, I just didn't give a crap anymore and was almost glad when it was over. :/
July 10, 2022
3.5 stars - The conceit of this (an amateur sleuth who finds murder wherever she goes a la Jessica Fletcher or Miss Marple runs away to a space station to avoid any more murders around her) just totally won me over and I think the book mostly delivered on the promise of that premise. If you are a lover of murder mystery and you enjoy a true, hard sci-fi type setting, this will deliver. I do think this is not as strong as Six Wakes, and there was something about... I'm not sure if it's the pacing? I want to say "flow" - the flow of this book made it hard for me to get swept away fully as I normally would in the best mysteries.
Still, I think this cements Mur Lafferty as a writer of highly enjoyable sci-fi mystery, and I would certainly read more in the series were it to continue as the ending suggests
Still, I think this cements Mur Lafferty as a writer of highly enjoyable sci-fi mystery, and I would certainly read more in the series were it to continue as the ending suggests
November 29, 2022
2 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2022/11/25/...
Believe me, it gives me no pleasure to say this, but…what a mess! I came to Station Eternity after having enjoyed Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes even knowing this one will be completely different. I’d thought I was ready for just about anything and yet, nothing could have prepared me for this utter disaster of a book. Not only was the plot all over the place, the storytelling and writing itself was choppy and disorganized which shocked me because this has never been the case in my previous experience with the author’s work.
Our story begins with an introduction to protagonist Mallory Viridian who is currently living in self-imposed exile on Eternity, a sentient alien space station that has only ever allowed a few humans aboard. Mallory had a good reason to leave Earth though. Everywhere she goes, she seems to attract death as people close to her tend to die in bizarre murders, and it got to be so frequent that Mallory has even become something of an expert at solving them. Many of these cases have also gone on to inspire her to write a series of mystery novels that she publishes under a pen name, but at some point, the guilt got to be too much. Mallory figured the only way to put a stop to the murders happening around her was to remove herself from society all together.
But now, Eternity has suddenly and inexplicably decided to allow more humans visitors, which is a problem. So far, aliens on the station haven’t appeared to be affected by her presence, but Mallory feels concern for the humans on the inbound shuttle, fearing that once they arrive, the deaths around her will start up once more. Her only solution is to run away, but before she can even work out a way off station, disaster strikes, sending Eternity into chaos. Just as Mallory feared, the bodies are piling up again—this time both human and alien—and escape is longer an option. Left with no other choice, Mallory will have to work with her friend Xan Morgan and their alien allies to solve the case before they too join the list of casualties.
At first, I was actually really enjoying this book. Sure, it felt like a bit of an oddball, and I could immediately tell this would be nothing like Six Wakes but still, this was the kind of different I didn’t mind at all. I also liked the setting of a sentient space station, and the whole backstory of alien first contact. Basically, the far more advanced coalition of alien races didn’t trust humanity, so they set up Eternity but barred any humans from setting foot on it, save for only a handful of exceptions—one of them being a single human ambassador; another being Xan who had requested asylum; and Mallory, who essentially traded room and board in exchange for being a human test subject for the wasp-like aliens called the Sundry. As you’ve probably already guessed, our protagonist is something of an oddball as well, but at this early stage of the novel I was still willing to give her a chance to win me over.
Everything was going well until the part where the humans arrived, which was supposed to be when things got good. Instead, this was the moment the story began its downward spiral towards catastrophe. The list of POV characters exploded out of control, bringing in side characters that we’ll eventually find out how they are connected to Mallory but the pathways that ultimately get us there were so convoluted and meandering that it ruined the effect. At this point, Station Eternity became less of a mystery and more of just a mishmash of seemingly random stories that killed the story’s pacing and any kind of cogency. It became exhausting being shuffled to one character’s POV to the next especially when I didn’t care about any of them, and whenever we did return to Mallory, I found her personality grating and unpleasant. While the book began with a good sense of humor, I was feeling none of it by the time all these threads came together. In fact, it was almost a relief when the end came in sight; I was just glad the book was over.
Bottom line, I give Station Eternity credit for trying to be fun and outside-the-box, but the execution left a lot to the desired and I’m sorry to say this did not work for me at all. I’ll probably still check out more of Mur Lafferty’s work in the future, but I’m afraid when it comes to this series, I’m calling it quits right here.
Believe me, it gives me no pleasure to say this, but…what a mess! I came to Station Eternity after having enjoyed Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes even knowing this one will be completely different. I’d thought I was ready for just about anything and yet, nothing could have prepared me for this utter disaster of a book. Not only was the plot all over the place, the storytelling and writing itself was choppy and disorganized which shocked me because this has never been the case in my previous experience with the author’s work.
Our story begins with an introduction to protagonist Mallory Viridian who is currently living in self-imposed exile on Eternity, a sentient alien space station that has only ever allowed a few humans aboard. Mallory had a good reason to leave Earth though. Everywhere she goes, she seems to attract death as people close to her tend to die in bizarre murders, and it got to be so frequent that Mallory has even become something of an expert at solving them. Many of these cases have also gone on to inspire her to write a series of mystery novels that she publishes under a pen name, but at some point, the guilt got to be too much. Mallory figured the only way to put a stop to the murders happening around her was to remove herself from society all together.
But now, Eternity has suddenly and inexplicably decided to allow more humans visitors, which is a problem. So far, aliens on the station haven’t appeared to be affected by her presence, but Mallory feels concern for the humans on the inbound shuttle, fearing that once they arrive, the deaths around her will start up once more. Her only solution is to run away, but before she can even work out a way off station, disaster strikes, sending Eternity into chaos. Just as Mallory feared, the bodies are piling up again—this time both human and alien—and escape is longer an option. Left with no other choice, Mallory will have to work with her friend Xan Morgan and their alien allies to solve the case before they too join the list of casualties.
At first, I was actually really enjoying this book. Sure, it felt like a bit of an oddball, and I could immediately tell this would be nothing like Six Wakes but still, this was the kind of different I didn’t mind at all. I also liked the setting of a sentient space station, and the whole backstory of alien first contact. Basically, the far more advanced coalition of alien races didn’t trust humanity, so they set up Eternity but barred any humans from setting foot on it, save for only a handful of exceptions—one of them being a single human ambassador; another being Xan who had requested asylum; and Mallory, who essentially traded room and board in exchange for being a human test subject for the wasp-like aliens called the Sundry. As you’ve probably already guessed, our protagonist is something of an oddball as well, but at this early stage of the novel I was still willing to give her a chance to win me over.
Everything was going well until the part where the humans arrived, which was supposed to be when things got good. Instead, this was the moment the story began its downward spiral towards catastrophe. The list of POV characters exploded out of control, bringing in side characters that we’ll eventually find out how they are connected to Mallory but the pathways that ultimately get us there were so convoluted and meandering that it ruined the effect. At this point, Station Eternity became less of a mystery and more of just a mishmash of seemingly random stories that killed the story’s pacing and any kind of cogency. It became exhausting being shuffled to one character’s POV to the next especially when I didn’t care about any of them, and whenever we did return to Mallory, I found her personality grating and unpleasant. While the book began with a good sense of humor, I was feeling none of it by the time all these threads came together. In fact, it was almost a relief when the end came in sight; I was just glad the book was over.
Bottom line, I give Station Eternity credit for trying to be fun and outside-the-box, but the execution left a lot to the desired and I’m sorry to say this did not work for me at all. I’ll probably still check out more of Mur Lafferty’s work in the future, but I’m afraid when it comes to this series, I’m calling it quits right here.
November 5, 2022
This had the advantage of being a cozy mystery set on a space station. It's seriously my perfect dream blend story. Mysteries set in space... YES, PLEASE! Mysteries set on space stations... TAKE MY MONEY! TAKE IT RIGHT NOW!
This was more like a 3.5 and totally gets points for not being a story I wanted to put down in the final third. It was very slow with a lot of backstory in the middle third which I admit lost points for being tedious. Not that there weren't helpful clues and decent character building but the momentum was very slow. I liked the world-building and the different aliens. This also got points for the murder happening before or at the 20% mark. Mallory was a good protagonist. I pulled for her even when she was trying. Xan, Phineas, Tina, Calliope, Mrs. Brown and Stephanie were great supporting characters. The wrap-up was very good and all the connections connected and there were quite a few mystery threads going on here. I look forward to the next installment and hope that now that so much backstory of the mains is out of the way, it will be a tighter telling.
Recommended.
This was more like a 3.5 and totally gets points for not being a story I wanted to put down in the final third. It was very slow with a lot of backstory in the middle third which I admit lost points for being tedious. Not that there weren't helpful clues and decent character building but the momentum was very slow. I liked the world-building and the different aliens. This also got points for the murder happening before or at the 20% mark. Mallory was a good protagonist. I pulled for her even when she was trying. Xan, Phineas, Tina, Calliope, Mrs. Brown and Stephanie were great supporting characters. The wrap-up was very good and all the connections connected and there were quite a few mystery threads going on here. I look forward to the next installment and hope that now that so much backstory of the mains is out of the way, it will be a tighter telling.
Recommended.
October 18, 2022
Ahoy there me mateys! I really enjoyed some of the author’s work in the past so I was excited to read this murder mystery set aboard the Eternity space station. Supposedly this be the first book of a series. I wish I would have known that before picking it up. Though I am not sure if that would have completely helped. I really don’t get all the four and five star reviews.
This book had a fun premise in that Mallory Viridian, a human, seems to be a magnet for death. Where she goes, it seems someone gets murdered. So she spends a lot of time avoiding people and hopes that by fleeing to the space station, where there is only one other human, she can finally relax. I really enjoyed the set-up and how she gets to Station Eternity. I liked the ridiculous human diplomat. I also enjoyed the different aliens on the station itself.
Sadly once the other humans are scheduled to come to the station and murders begin, the plot began to be beyond strange. I did enjoy the effects of the unhappy space station. I did enjoy learning how all the humans related to Mallory. I also liked the side characters of the feisty grandmother, the rapper, and the rock princess. I did not enjoy any of the murder mystery. Mallory does not actually seem to do any sleuthing. Also most events seemed to be either completely nonsensical or contradictory. This book was a choppy mess.
I am not sure exactly where the plot is supposed to go in the next book. Curiosity may lead me to reading the next book but the expectations for it have been lowered substantially. Just know that pretty much everyone disagreed with me and loved this. Arrr!
This book had a fun premise in that Mallory Viridian, a human, seems to be a magnet for death. Where she goes, it seems someone gets murdered. So she spends a lot of time avoiding people and hopes that by fleeing to the space station, where there is only one other human, she can finally relax. I really enjoyed the set-up and how she gets to Station Eternity. I liked the ridiculous human diplomat. I also enjoyed the different aliens on the station itself.
Sadly once the other humans are scheduled to come to the station and murders begin, the plot began to be beyond strange. I did enjoy the effects of the unhappy space station. I did enjoy learning how all the humans related to Mallory. I also liked the side characters of the feisty grandmother, the rapper, and the rock princess. I did not enjoy any of the murder mystery. Mallory does not actually seem to do any sleuthing. Also most events seemed to be either completely nonsensical or contradictory. This book was a choppy mess.
I am not sure exactly where the plot is supposed to go in the next book. Curiosity may lead me to reading the next book but the expectations for it have been lowered substantially. Just know that pretty much everyone disagreed with me and loved this. Arrr!
October 17, 2022
The elevator pitch of "Murder She Wrote" meets "Babylon 5" pretty much sums it up. The main character, Mallory Viridian, is one of only a few humans aboard the alien living space station Eternity, and she's there for very good reasons. While she was on Earth she seemed to attract bizarre murders wherever she went; murders where she was then the best person to solve them. This wreaked havoc on her social and professional life, to the extent where she's fled from humanity. But now humanity is coming to the station, and with it, exactly the sort of trouble that she came to avoid.
I loved the setup for this, with the lamp-shading of the amateur detective's situation. I also thought that the aliens and alien space station were brilliantly setup as well. Where I thought it was let down was the huge number of viewpoint characters and unconnected jumps back in time for backstory. It didn't feel organic at all, and left long passages of the book where we weren't following our "main" characters. A lot of it just felt like unnecessary chaff that could have been better handled with cleverer exposition techniques.
I think I liked the idea and story better than the execution of it. 3.5 stars which I'll round up.
I loved the setup for this, with the lamp-shading of the amateur detective's situation. I also thought that the aliens and alien space station were brilliantly setup as well. Where I thought it was let down was the huge number of viewpoint characters and unconnected jumps back in time for backstory. It didn't feel organic at all, and left long passages of the book where we weren't following our "main" characters. A lot of it just felt like unnecessary chaff that could have been better handled with cleverer exposition techniques.
I think I liked the idea and story better than the execution of it. 3.5 stars which I'll round up.
September 13, 2022
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Berkeley Publishing Group in exchange for a review.
Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve, which is easily the least interesting aspect of this book. There was a lot I disliked about this in the beginning; chapters from Mallory's perspective concerned with her discovery of humans coming to the space station she chose to live on because of its lack of humans, her antagonistic relationship with the hungover human ambassador, the "surprise" revelation of a third, secret human on board Station Eternity. When Lafferty started introducing several alternate perspectives I figured all was lost, but the veer away from Mallory's woes for a while was what made this enjoyable in the end. Multiple disparate threads from a dozen humans and aliens came together in an absurd, chaotic tangle and the last half of this book worked quite well for me.
Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve, which is easily the least interesting aspect of this book. There was a lot I disliked about this in the beginning; chapters from Mallory's perspective concerned with her discovery of humans coming to the space station she chose to live on because of its lack of humans, her antagonistic relationship with the hungover human ambassador, the "surprise" revelation of a third, secret human on board Station Eternity. When Lafferty started introducing several alternate perspectives I figured all was lost, but the veer away from Mallory's woes for a while was what made this enjoyable in the end. Multiple disparate threads from a dozen humans and aliens came together in an absurd, chaotic tangle and the last half of this book worked quite well for me.
October 30, 2022
Library | In desperate need of another editing job, and serious tightening up. | The ideas here are great, but this book just is not good. No human character speaks or interacts the way actual humans do (but they're great at stilted exposition and unrealistic dialogue that demonstrates their two-dimensional "personality" traits). No alien speaks or interacts any differently than the humans do. All the mystery is created by characters specifically acknowledging that they are hiding things, or by the narrative saying "she was the only person alive who knew what had happened that day" and then moving to a different scene. That's not creating dramatic tension or building to a reveal, that's being unable to write transitions. The "traumatic" or "wounding" backgrounds for a lot of the characters are neither. The presentation of racism is a very 'what a white person thinks racism feels like for the victim' perspective. Too long, way overstuffed, too many side characters that we spend too much time with, at the halfway point I was so bored that I took a few hours to read a whole different novel, just to cleanse my palate. Every note in the story is weighted the same, whether it's plotted betrayal between species, murder, or thefts that happened decades prior on earth, which means nothing feels important. And I always wonder about authors who write literally every character as selfish pricks. Every single one is convinced their problem is more important than any other, even when they can see and have been told that the station could explode around them at any moment. They still act like jerks and focus on old petty grudges. Makes me wonder what kind of friends the author has, that it didn't occur to her that not every sentient being in the universe is an asshole out to get payback for imagined slights.
Sigh. Second star only because I pushed through to the end in hopes of getting an answer to the only part that interested me: why murder happens around Mallory.
Sigh. Second star only because I pushed through to the end in hopes of getting an answer to the only part that interested me: why murder happens around Mallory.
March 5, 2023
3.5 stars
Overall, it was an interesting, slightly odd sci fi. We have a sentient space station home to many aliens and three humans. Mallory is a murder magnet (cool idea!) who fled to the station to avoid other humans. With the impending arrival of the first human tourists, she’s panicking.
The beginning of the book is all Mallory’s POV, then it suddenly switches frequently between a dozen characters, some human and some alien. It’s a bit dizzying and a little confusing. But the aliens are interesting, the mystery is compelling, and the characters are realistic.
Language: Frequent strong language
Sexual Content: None
Violence/Gore: Several murders, moderate gore
Harm to Animals:
Harm to Children:
Other (Triggers):
Overall, it was an interesting, slightly odd sci fi. We have a sentient space station home to many aliens and three humans. Mallory is a murder magnet (cool idea!) who fled to the station to avoid other humans. With the impending arrival of the first human tourists, she’s panicking.
The beginning of the book is all Mallory’s POV, then it suddenly switches frequently between a dozen characters, some human and some alien. It’s a bit dizzying and a little confusing. But the aliens are interesting, the mystery is compelling, and the characters are realistic.
Language: Frequent strong language
Sexual Content: None
Violence/Gore: Several murders, moderate gore
Harm to Animals:
Harm to Children:
Other (Triggers):
March 15, 2024
Lots happening in this book, it isn't a bad book, quite opposite entertaining and I enjoyed reading it, my only issue was that it only touched the characters on the surface.
There were too many of them and I couldn't get that relatability I most of the time can feel with the characters of the story. It is not that they were not likable, It's just how everything was written.
There were too many of them and I couldn't get that relatability I most of the time can feel with the characters of the story. It is not that they were not likable, It's just how everything was written.
October 3, 2022
Review coming soon.
October 17, 2022
3.5*
Station Eternity sounded exactly like my kind of story, combining scifi with murder mysteries. The reality was somewhat different. Let me explain.
On one hand, all I wanted was indeed here, with a satisfying resolution not only to the crime(s) but also to the question regarding Mallory and her propensity to being present when murders occur. The problem was in the execution. For instance, the first third of the book is seen through Mallory’s eyes, but when events come to a crucial point, we are thrown into other characters’ perceptions, which was very unsettling. This in turn was exacerbated by the continual flashbacks. The result was confusing and broke the narration too much, making it hard to carry on. I must admit I nearly DNF. I can’t help thinking that if the narration had been kept, from the beginning, from Mallory, Xan, and one of the aliens, it would have worked much better, and other means of exposition would have brought forward the relevant data needed for the ‘solution’. Ultimately, I am pleased I persevered because it was a good story with some great characters.
A sequel has been announced and I shall give it a try, hoping that the problematic elements are ironed out.
Station Eternity sounded exactly like my kind of story, combining scifi with murder mysteries. The reality was somewhat different. Let me explain.
On one hand, all I wanted was indeed here, with a satisfying resolution not only to the crime(s) but also to the question regarding Mallory and her propensity to being present when murders occur. The problem was in the execution. For instance, the first third of the book is seen through Mallory’s eyes, but when events come to a crucial point, we are thrown into other characters’ perceptions, which was very unsettling. This in turn was exacerbated by the continual flashbacks. The result was confusing and broke the narration too much, making it hard to carry on. I must admit I nearly DNF. I can’t help thinking that if the narration had been kept, from the beginning, from Mallory, Xan, and one of the aliens, it would have worked much better, and other means of exposition would have brought forward the relevant data needed for the ‘solution’. Ultimately, I am pleased I persevered because it was a good story with some great characters.
A sequel has been announced and I shall give it a try, hoping that the problematic elements are ironed out.
![Profile Image for laurel [the suspected bibliophile].](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1645808644i/7494844._UX200_CR0,6,200,200_.jpg)
September 22, 2022
This is Jessica Fletcher in Space.
Which is great, if you like Murder, She Wrote, but since my wife has been in a recent rewatch of that show while I read this book, I'm reminded of my longstanding theory that Jessica was a cunning serial killer all along. I mean, just stumbling into murders? How many people have died in your upper middle class small town?
This is a book of connections and coincidences, which was fun to read, but until the humans arrived on station I was about to DNF this book because it just took so. damn. long to get to the point. Mallory acted more like a woman born in the 20th century (she is embarrassed about her period) and less a Gen Alpha child.
Xan, the other main character, was an accidentally AWOL soldier who'd been at an on-base party (also...in the 2040s we're still in Afghanistan? Back to Afghanistan? I dunno), had fled the party after the host was stabbed and died in his arms. Being the main murder suspect (but not the murderer) and in possession of some other things, he'd been picked up by aliens in their ship and taken back to Station Eternity where he was semi-stuck.
There were other characters, and the book was casually queer (warning: a trans character is deadnamed, but the name is used in the past tense when his brother is telling him why their parents chose that name), but overall it just felt so dragging in that first half that even when I was enjoying the rest I couldn't shake the feeling of annoyance. Which is petty, but those were my thoughts.
Also, I was annoyed by the minor details of military stuff that were wrong. The author did a lot of research into military structure and how things worked (and some points hit hard because they were so, so true), but there were small things like dismissals (which was corrected to the right discharge later in the text but not there and I just???) and who is called a superior officer that made me wonder if a military person had read this beforehand, but again I think someone must have because of the parts that were so accurate. Also, the big bad human thing ended up being not relevant at all, after being hyped into the story so much (I'm sure that be addressed in the future books?).
My thoughts are clearly all over the place on this one. Holy telling vs showing, Batman!
I loved Mrs. Brown. I wanted more Lovely. I wanted more Stephanie and Tina—and for these delightful side characters to be a bit more fleshed out. I felt for Phineas. Ren's murderer though...I was wondering about their motivations. We got a POV from Ren's murderer, but it didn't give any clues to violence? I dunno.
Four stars for the second half, two stars for the first, average to three. Overall: I think this will appeal to a lot of people and that I'm just being overly judgmental.
I received an ARC from NetGalley
Which is great, if you like Murder, She Wrote, but since my wife has been in a recent rewatch of that show while I read this book, I'm reminded of my longstanding theory that Jessica was a cunning serial killer all along. I mean, just stumbling into murders? How many people have died in your upper middle class small town?
This is a book of connections and coincidences, which was fun to read, but until the humans arrived on station I was about to DNF this book because it just took so. damn. long to get to the point. Mallory acted more like a woman born in the 20th century (she is embarrassed about her period) and less a Gen Alpha child.
Xan, the other main character, was an accidentally AWOL soldier who'd been at an on-base party (also...in the 2040s we're still in Afghanistan? Back to Afghanistan? I dunno), had fled the party after the host was stabbed and died in his arms. Being the main murder suspect (but not the murderer) and in possession of some other things, he'd been picked up by aliens in their ship and taken back to Station Eternity where he was semi-stuck.
There were other characters, and the book was casually queer (warning: a trans character is deadnamed, but the name is used in the past tense when his brother is telling him why their parents chose that name), but overall it just felt so dragging in that first half that even when I was enjoying the rest I couldn't shake the feeling of annoyance. Which is petty, but those were my thoughts.
Also, I was annoyed by the minor details of military stuff that were wrong. The author did a lot of research into military structure and how things worked (and some points hit hard because they were so, so true), but there were small things like dismissals (which was corrected to the right discharge later in the text but not there and I just???) and who is called a superior officer that made me wonder if a military person had read this beforehand, but again I think someone must have because of the parts that were so accurate. Also, the big bad human thing ended up being not relevant at all, after being hyped into the story so much (I'm sure that be addressed in the future books?).
My thoughts are clearly all over the place on this one. Holy telling vs showing, Batman!
I loved Mrs. Brown. I wanted more Lovely. I wanted more Stephanie and Tina—and for these delightful side characters to be a bit more fleshed out. I felt for Phineas. Ren's murderer though...I was wondering about their motivations. We got a POV from Ren's murderer, but it didn't give any clues to violence? I dunno.
Four stars for the second half, two stars for the first, average to three. Overall: I think this will appeal to a lot of people and that I'm just being overly judgmental.
I received an ARC from NetGalley
January 21, 2024
This is a good science fiction/mystery novel, more in the tradition of Hercule Poirot than Daneel Olivaw. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Six Wakes, but it had an excellent plot and an interesting setting, and I enjoyed the denouement very much. The first section centers on the detective Mallory and drags on at a very slow pace, and then a whole lot of characters are dumped suddenly into the mix and the viewpoints shift quite rapidly. Some of the characters have very similar "voices" and it all gets a bit hard to keep straight until the home stretch. I enjoyed the read, though I wish it had been perhaps a hundred pages shorter, and admired the way the science fictional bits were tied in to the mystery. I'll look forward to reading Mallory's next case.
November 20, 2023
This was so bonkers I don't even know how I'm going to write a review of it. I will definitely read the second one.
October 12, 2022
I wanted to like this one... and the first few chapters made me think I would. A scifi take on Jessica Fletcher, with a touch of Dirk Gently? Absolutely, please and thank you. The flashback scene where she investigated a death at a birthday party was exactly what I hoped for.
Sadly, nothing else was. The premise fell apart almost immediately. The murder mystery was basically thrown out in exchange for long flashbacks and backstories, most of which happened with little warning or roadsigns to mark the time had shifted.
The book was far, FAR too long and overstuffed. If it had been kept a lot simpler, it might have been salvageable. As is, I likely won't bother with future installments in the series.
Sadly, nothing else was. The premise fell apart almost immediately. The murder mystery was basically thrown out in exchange for long flashbacks and backstories, most of which happened with little warning or roadsigns to mark the time had shifted.
The book was far, FAR too long and overstuffed. If it had been kept a lot simpler, it might have been salvageable. As is, I likely won't bother with future installments in the series.
October 6, 2022
Mallory Viridian's Holistic Detective Agency
At about the halfway point, I found myself thinking, "I have read this before. Not exactly this, but something in this same style, where everything that happens is a massive coincidence, and everyone you meet is someone who was important in your past life..." My first thought was Les Miserables, but it wasn't quite that. And then I thought, Magic Realism: Cien años de soledad, La Casa de los Espiritus. That was closer. And then I got it: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams. And that is clearly the right answer, as indicated by this dedication,
(The mention of the electric monk shows that Dirk Gently is one of the books Lafferty has in mind.) Dirk Gently walks the world through a blizzard of extraordinary, totally implausible coincidence. He solves crimes by wandering around doing whatever he wants to do regardless of what the crime is, expecting that the solution will, in some entirely implausible way, fall into his hands. Which it always does. (There is a very funny scene somewhere in the two novels where he shouts at the universe, "Stop it!" The universe, of course, ignores him.) To enjoy a Dirk Gently book, you have to stop expecting anything to be plausible or even make sense and embrace the Weird.
Station Eternity is like the Dirk Gently novels, with Mallory Viridian standing in for Dirk Gently. Mallory, in addition to being beset by weird coincidences, is surrounded by murders. They always happen when she's around. She has the same sort of directionless investigating style as Dirk gently, "As usual, she didn’t know what she was looking for, but she knew she would when she found it." Nothing in the story really makes sense. For instance, the aliens are no more realistic or well-thought-out than Adams' Haggunenons or Hooloovoos (hyperintelligent shades of the color blue). It's all an absurd hodgepodge, and you have to let it take you to enjoy Station Eternity.
Unfortunately, Lafferty is not as good at this as Adams. She does not, for instance, have Adams's extraordinary versatility with word-play. (Well, who does?) In the end, Lafferty explains more than Adams, and when the book ends and you've read the epilogs, most of the plot has been explained. My advice, take it or leave it, is to not try very hard to understand what's happening or what happened. In the end, it doesn't ultimately make a great deal of sense. Just let it wash over you and enjoy it. I did.
Blog review.
At about the halfway point, I found myself thinking, "I have read this before. Not exactly this, but something in this same style, where everything that happens is a massive coincidence, and everyone you meet is someone who was important in your past life..." My first thought was Les Miserables, but it wasn't quite that. And then I thought, Magic Realism: Cien años de soledad, La Casa de los Espiritus. That was closer. And then I got it: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams. And that is clearly the right answer, as indicated by this dedication,
To Douglas Adams, who will never know the impression he made on so many writers, and Alasdair Stuart, who is the world’s best electric monk.
(The mention of the electric monk shows that Dirk Gently is one of the books Lafferty has in mind.) Dirk Gently walks the world through a blizzard of extraordinary, totally implausible coincidence. He solves crimes by wandering around doing whatever he wants to do regardless of what the crime is, expecting that the solution will, in some entirely implausible way, fall into his hands. Which it always does. (There is a very funny scene somewhere in the two novels where he shouts at the universe, "Stop it!" The universe, of course, ignores him.) To enjoy a Dirk Gently book, you have to stop expecting anything to be plausible or even make sense and embrace the Weird.
Station Eternity is like the Dirk Gently novels, with Mallory Viridian standing in for Dirk Gently. Mallory, in addition to being beset by weird coincidences, is surrounded by murders. They always happen when she's around. She has the same sort of directionless investigating style as Dirk gently, "As usual, she didn’t know what she was looking for, but she knew she would when she found it." Nothing in the story really makes sense. For instance, the aliens are no more realistic or well-thought-out than Adams' Haggunenons or Hooloovoos (hyperintelligent shades of the color blue). It's all an absurd hodgepodge, and you have to let it take you to enjoy Station Eternity.
Unfortunately, Lafferty is not as good at this as Adams. She does not, for instance, have Adams's extraordinary versatility with word-play. (Well, who does?) In the end, Lafferty explains more than Adams, and when the book ends and you've read the epilogs, most of the plot has been explained. My advice, take it or leave it, is to not try very hard to understand what's happening or what happened. In the end, it doesn't ultimately make a great deal of sense. Just let it wash over you and enjoy it. I did.
Blog review.
February 6, 2023
There are bad books. There are books that just aren't for me. But this is the biggest train wreck of a book in recent memory. By which I mean, it actually starts out really well with a lot of promise because turning into disaster.
Mallory constantly finds herself caught up in murder cases, just like other classic amateur detectives in Murder, She Wrote or Miss Marple. Except the author gives this a a darker twist: it would actually suck to know that every few months someone around you will get murdered! Your boyfriends would freak out and dump you. Your friends wouldn't want to be around you, in case they became your next case. Luckily (?) for Mallory, humans have recently made First Contact with aliens and she requests asylum on a nearby alien space station. Her reasoning is that if she's not around any other humans, then no one will get murdered.
Obviously this is stupid and makes no sense: why would her "ability" be limited to humans? Needless to say, a few months after living on the space station, somebody gets murdered....
This is 7th book I've read now from crimereads.com's end of year "best" lists. The experiment hasn't gone well: clearly I have very different tastes from the editors there and I think I need to cut this experiment short.
The first six chapters establish most of this and are entirely from Mallory's POV. Then the murder happens and the book goes off the rails. For the next half of the book we get introduced to a half dozen or so new characters who all get POV chapters and we are treated to their pointless backstories. Somehow most of them are connected to Mallory and/or her friend on the station, Xan. The actual murder gets dropped from the plot almost entirely. Indeed, it becomes secondary to everything else that happens for the rest of the book. The murder isn't even a mystery in any sense of the word since it is immediately obvious who did it. There aren't even any red herrings. Everyone thinks that guy did it.
Since the murder is open and shut, the book introduces a bunch of other plot lines to try to keep us interested. There's suddenly this whole thing involving the rock people aliens. And another one involving the wasp people aliens. And a few others.
It was honestly pretty confusing but also...boring? Like I care if Xan reconciles with his brother? Or if Stephanie transforms into a spaceship and gets off the station?
There's also just a bunch of laughable stuff. There's eventually an explanation given for why Mallory seems to always be around murders. And it is stupid. A shuttle, the first shuttle ever from Earth!, arrives. And on it are a half-dozen people who are connected to Mallory and/or Xan. There isn't even an attempt to explain this staggering coincidence except a few of them "won lottery tickets". One of them is even
By the end I wasn't hate reading exactly. That would imply this book was able to generate any emotion more powerful than vague annoyance in its readers. I was 50 pages from the end and considered stopping there, that's how lackluster it was.
Mallory constantly finds herself caught up in murder cases, just like other classic amateur detectives in Murder, She Wrote or Miss Marple. Except the author gives this a a darker twist: it would actually suck to know that every few months someone around you will get murdered! Your boyfriends would freak out and dump you. Your friends wouldn't want to be around you, in case they became your next case. Luckily (?) for Mallory, humans have recently made First Contact with aliens and she requests asylum on a nearby alien space station. Her reasoning is that if she's not around any other humans, then no one will get murdered.
Obviously this is stupid and makes no sense: why would her "ability" be limited to humans? Needless to say, a few months after living on the space station, somebody gets murdered....
This is 7th book I've read now from crimereads.com's end of year "best" lists. The experiment hasn't gone well: clearly I have very different tastes from the editors there and I think I need to cut this experiment short.
The first six chapters establish most of this and are entirely from Mallory's POV. Then the murder happens and the book goes off the rails. For the next half of the book we get introduced to a half dozen or so new characters who all get POV chapters and we are treated to their pointless backstories. Somehow most of them are connected to Mallory and/or her friend on the station, Xan. The actual murder gets dropped from the plot almost entirely. Indeed, it becomes secondary to everything else that happens for the rest of the book. The murder isn't even a mystery in any sense of the word since it is immediately obvious who did it. There aren't even any red herrings. Everyone thinks that guy did it.
Since the murder is open and shut, the book introduces a bunch of other plot lines to try to keep us interested. There's suddenly this whole thing involving the rock people aliens. And another one involving the wasp people aliens. And a few others.
It was honestly pretty confusing but also...boring? Like I care if Xan reconciles with his brother? Or if Stephanie transforms into a spaceship and gets off the station?
There's also just a bunch of laughable stuff. There's eventually an explanation given for why Mallory seems to always be around murders. And it is stupid. A shuttle, the first shuttle ever from Earth!, arrives. And on it are a half-dozen people who are connected to Mallory and/or Xan. There isn't even an attempt to explain this staggering coincidence except a few of them "won lottery tickets". One of them is even
By the end I wasn't hate reading exactly. That would imply this book was able to generate any emotion more powerful than vague annoyance in its readers. I was 50 pages from the end and considered stopping there, that's how lackluster it was.
October 15, 2022
Audiobook Review Re-read
I enjoyed reading this one, but not half so much as I enjoyed listening in to Sarah Mollo-Christensen do a stellar narration job. Sarah Mollo-Christensen brought the world of the book, the characters even the unique aliens to life. I was engaged from the get-go by her storytelling and didn't even mind Malory's issues so much because of her narration. I love how she interpreted the tone and emotion, pacing and voices of the story.
But, I didn't feel much different about the story as a whole- that is to say, I loved it and want more- so I'll let my original review stand below.
Resisting a murder mystery set on a sentient, alien space station was well-nigh impossible. I had to snatch up the book and follow along as a murder magnet woman who left earth to get away from murder happening every which way she turned, a man with a mysterious reason for hiding on station, and their odd assortment of alien buddies work against the clock to get answers before Eternity solves the problem permanently.
Station Eternity presents one of my favorite genre mash-ups with sci-fi and mystery. New to me author, Mur Lafferty didn’t chintz on the backdrop and details of the unique alien environment and alien characters she created. The feel of the book made it easy for a reader to engage with the story and the worldbuilding even when the book took its sweet time getting to the good stuff.
The story opens with Mallory discovering that the station she has made her home has decided to bring more humans aboard. And, Mal is in a dither because the whole point to moving to Eternity was to get away from people. Since her childhood, she has been around when people are murdered and when she was old enough to pay attention, she’s had a gift for solving the murders though, like the Greek mythological Cassandra, the authorities that be don’t take her seriously or they do and don’t want her solving crimes because they half-way suspect she perpetrated them. So, when she got the chance to get away, she did and now she wants to run again, but her human friend Xan who is also one of the three humans aboard Eternity won’t take her in a ship and get her away. He’s acting mysterious and even moreso when all hell breaks loose because Eternity’s symbiont is killed and the inbound earth shuttle is attacked. Mallory is the only one with the special skills to get answers before Eternity takes matters in hand- and nobody wants that to happen.
Station Eternity grabbed my attention from the get-go with the writing style, descriptions of station life, aliens living there, and even how the humans came to be involved. I was intrigued by Mallory’s murder issue and Xan’s mysteries. However, it took me a fair bit of time to warm up to Mallory. She’s fixated on her past and her ‘murder’ problem so much that it’s a weary repeated thing in her head and her conversation. This is why the way the book did flashbacks to bring the reader up to speed on each new character and mingled it with the present situation was a relief rather than a distraction.
But, before I make you think I hated it, there was so much about this one to enjoy. Xan gave Mallory a proverbial boot up the bum and she resented it even though it did get her off herself and on track. Okay, I found the flashbacks distracting, but I can’t argue that they were needed to give the reader a chance to see what was really going on. This one story was complex with several moving parts. As Mal noted, she and Xan had many connections on the inbound shuttle and each of those needed to be explored along with their existing connections already on the station before the mysteries all started to come together and make sense.
By the time it concluded, I wanted more. I was happy to realize this is a first in series and she has a backlist. It was a slow-build thriller and a complex sci-fi world that jived well together and I can definitely recommend it as a gateway book for sci-fi fans to mystery or vice versa, but definitely for those who already loved the combo.
I rec'd an eARC from Berkley via NetGalley to read in exchange for an honest review.
My full review will post at The Reading Frenzy Oct 13.
I enjoyed reading this one, but not half so much as I enjoyed listening in to Sarah Mollo-Christensen do a stellar narration job. Sarah Mollo-Christensen brought the world of the book, the characters even the unique aliens to life. I was engaged from the get-go by her storytelling and didn't even mind Malory's issues so much because of her narration. I love how she interpreted the tone and emotion, pacing and voices of the story.
But, I didn't feel much different about the story as a whole- that is to say, I loved it and want more- so I'll let my original review stand below.
Resisting a murder mystery set on a sentient, alien space station was well-nigh impossible. I had to snatch up the book and follow along as a murder magnet woman who left earth to get away from murder happening every which way she turned, a man with a mysterious reason for hiding on station, and their odd assortment of alien buddies work against the clock to get answers before Eternity solves the problem permanently.
Station Eternity presents one of my favorite genre mash-ups with sci-fi and mystery. New to me author, Mur Lafferty didn’t chintz on the backdrop and details of the unique alien environment and alien characters she created. The feel of the book made it easy for a reader to engage with the story and the worldbuilding even when the book took its sweet time getting to the good stuff.
The story opens with Mallory discovering that the station she has made her home has decided to bring more humans aboard. And, Mal is in a dither because the whole point to moving to Eternity was to get away from people. Since her childhood, she has been around when people are murdered and when she was old enough to pay attention, she’s had a gift for solving the murders though, like the Greek mythological Cassandra, the authorities that be don’t take her seriously or they do and don’t want her solving crimes because they half-way suspect she perpetrated them. So, when she got the chance to get away, she did and now she wants to run again, but her human friend Xan who is also one of the three humans aboard Eternity won’t take her in a ship and get her away. He’s acting mysterious and even moreso when all hell breaks loose because Eternity’s symbiont is killed and the inbound earth shuttle is attacked. Mallory is the only one with the special skills to get answers before Eternity takes matters in hand- and nobody wants that to happen.
Station Eternity grabbed my attention from the get-go with the writing style, descriptions of station life, aliens living there, and even how the humans came to be involved. I was intrigued by Mallory’s murder issue and Xan’s mysteries. However, it took me a fair bit of time to warm up to Mallory. She’s fixated on her past and her ‘murder’ problem so much that it’s a weary repeated thing in her head and her conversation. This is why the way the book did flashbacks to bring the reader up to speed on each new character and mingled it with the present situation was a relief rather than a distraction.
But, before I make you think I hated it, there was so much about this one to enjoy. Xan gave Mallory a proverbial boot up the bum and she resented it even though it did get her off herself and on track. Okay, I found the flashbacks distracting, but I can’t argue that they were needed to give the reader a chance to see what was really going on. This one story was complex with several moving parts. As Mal noted, she and Xan had many connections on the inbound shuttle and each of those needed to be explored along with their existing connections already on the station before the mysteries all started to come together and make sense.
By the time it concluded, I wanted more. I was happy to realize this is a first in series and she has a backlist. It was a slow-build thriller and a complex sci-fi world that jived well together and I can definitely recommend it as a gateway book for sci-fi fans to mystery or vice versa, but definitely for those who already loved the combo.
I rec'd an eARC from Berkley via NetGalley to read in exchange for an honest review.
My full review will post at The Reading Frenzy Oct 13.
May 9, 2023
There is so many issues with the book per se, more than the story.
I thought the story was fun and had a great time with it, but if it wasn't for that I would have dnf because the inconsistencies (and I'm never the type of reader who purposely looks for them) were getting out of hand that for a moment I believed they would actually amount to something else (as in it was bc the characters were unreliable, or they were hiding and lying).
There is also so much repetition of like the same line/paragraph/scene, felt like Lafferty wasn't sure where in the book to put that line and then forgot to remove the other one. It made no sense. If it wanted to create parallels or whatever it was kinda cheap and didn't work.
but that's the thing, the story was so fun that I still want to read other books in this universe lol
I do have to say I hate Xan, he was an asshole to Mallory over EVERYTHING it made me crazy being in her mind and him being such a nasty bitch.
I thought the story was fun and had a great time with it, but if it wasn't for that I would have dnf because the inconsistencies (and I'm never the type of reader who purposely looks for them) were getting out of hand that for a moment I believed they would actually amount to something else (as in it was bc the characters were unreliable, or they were hiding and lying).
There is also so much repetition of like the same line/paragraph/scene, felt like Lafferty wasn't sure where in the book to put that line and then forgot to remove the other one. It made no sense. If it wanted to create parallels or whatever it was kinda cheap and didn't work.
but that's the thing, the story was so fun that I still want to read other books in this universe lol
I do have to say I hate Xan, he was an asshole to Mallory over EVERYTHING it made me crazy being in her mind and him being such a nasty bitch.
October 10, 2022
The nitty-gritty: Crazy connections, cool aliens and plenty of mystery make this series starter a fun but convoluted romp through space.
“There are many, many things at play. You will never understand every single one.”
That quote pretty much sums up this book. I’m not sure I’ve ever used the phrase “cuckoo bananas” in a book review, but there’s a first for everything! Station Eternity is cuckoo bananas, and I mean that in a good way. I’ll admit it took me a good half of the book to get into the story—there are multiple characters’ perspectives and timelines and overall a lot going on—but once I got into the rhythm, it was hard to put the book down. Station Eternity isn’t anything like Lafferty’s previous novel, Six Wakes, so do adjust your expectations if you’re a fan of that book (like I am).
Mallory Viridian thinks of herself as a “murder magnet.” Over the years, she has found herself right in the middle of various murders, which seem to happen whenever she’s in the vicinity. She’s also become quite adept at solving these murders, although on the flip side she’s often a suspect herself because of her proximity to the murder scene. All this stress has forced her off planet Earth and into space—which might seem like a radicle move, but for Mallory it’s been a lifesaver for her mental health. With only two other humans on Station Eternity—a sentient space station populated by five different species of aliens—Mallory thinks she has finally found a place to relax.
Until she gets word that there’s a shuttle full of humans on the way from Earth. Which means it’s only a matter of time before someone dies.
So let’s start with the good, and there’s a lot of it. Station Eternity has the feel of a cozy mystery for the most part. The overall tone of the story is light and humorous. Yes, there are murders and death and violence, but it’s all very low key. The story takes place on a living space station and revolves around a large cast of characters, most of whom are aliens of one type or another. Each character, no matter how small, is given an interesting backstory. At times I wasn’t sure why the author was going into so much detail, but later in the story as all the different threads come together, it begins to make sense. Sprinkled in among the murder mystery is plenty of humor, some dark and some silly, but I ended up enjoying the lighter tone.
And for a story with lots of characters, I was pleased that I found some to love. I liked Mallory a lot. She’s such a quirky person and her situation is almost comical—believing she’s a catalyst for murder. She’s taken her strange experiences and turned them into autobiographical fiction, writing a series of murder mysteries called the Charlotte Queen mysteries. Her life on Station Eternity is interesting too. She’s made a deal with an alien species called the Sundry, wasp-like creatures who pay Mallory in exchange for studying her physiology. Then there’s Xan Morgan, who is hiding on Station Eternity to avoid—you guessed it—being charged for murder, after being in the wrong place at the wrong time at a party (of course Mallory was there as well!). Xan has an awesome backstory, which involves his time in the military, where he met one of my very favorite characters, Calliope Oh, a feisty, no nonsense Korean girl who could easily star in her own novel.
As luck would have it, Calliope is one of the humans on the shuttle, having been recruited by the military to bring Xan back home. Other humans on board include Xan’s brother Phineas, a famous rap star, Mallory’s Aunt Kathy, a horrible, manipulative woman, and Mrs. Brown and her granddaughter Lovely, a talented violin player who lost a finger in a fight and fears she’ll never play her instrument again. As disparate as all these characters seem, Lafferty connects them in surprising ways, and those connections are what make this intricate plot so fascinating.
We also meet several aliens on the space station, like Stephanie, a giant rock-like creature called a Gneiss. The Gneiss were my favorite alien species, but I won’t tell you why because it’s a big spoiler. Let’s just say their species has the ability to evolve into something else, and it was pretty cool. In fact, many of the world building elements were fresh and exciting. It was interesting to see a colony where most of the residents are aliens, and humans are the minority. Mallory and Xan have to fit themselves into Station Eternity’s world, learning to eat food that isn’t made for humans or trying to sit in Gneiss-sized furniture. Most of these scenes are done for laughs, though, as the author doesn’t seem to take herself too seriously.
But although I had a lot of fun with Station Eternity, the story is often a jumble of characters and action sequences that don’t always mesh together. Lafferty has some great ideas, but it felt like she threw every single one of them into this story, making it chaotic and confusing at times. There’s also a lot of set-up, and as I mentioned before, it took me a while to figure out who all the players were, why they knew each other, and what they were doing on Station Eternity.
Still, by the time the story ramps up to the thrilling finale, I was fully invested. Not everyone survives to the end, although the author throws in some very cool twists that made me feel better about those deaths. This is the first in the series, and although I’m not sure what Lafferty has in store for her characters in the next book, I’m definitely on board to find out.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
“There are many, many things at play. You will never understand every single one.”
That quote pretty much sums up this book. I’m not sure I’ve ever used the phrase “cuckoo bananas” in a book review, but there’s a first for everything! Station Eternity is cuckoo bananas, and I mean that in a good way. I’ll admit it took me a good half of the book to get into the story—there are multiple characters’ perspectives and timelines and overall a lot going on—but once I got into the rhythm, it was hard to put the book down. Station Eternity isn’t anything like Lafferty’s previous novel, Six Wakes, so do adjust your expectations if you’re a fan of that book (like I am).
Mallory Viridian thinks of herself as a “murder magnet.” Over the years, she has found herself right in the middle of various murders, which seem to happen whenever she’s in the vicinity. She’s also become quite adept at solving these murders, although on the flip side she’s often a suspect herself because of her proximity to the murder scene. All this stress has forced her off planet Earth and into space—which might seem like a radicle move, but for Mallory it’s been a lifesaver for her mental health. With only two other humans on Station Eternity—a sentient space station populated by five different species of aliens—Mallory thinks she has finally found a place to relax.
Until she gets word that there’s a shuttle full of humans on the way from Earth. Which means it’s only a matter of time before someone dies.
So let’s start with the good, and there’s a lot of it. Station Eternity has the feel of a cozy mystery for the most part. The overall tone of the story is light and humorous. Yes, there are murders and death and violence, but it’s all very low key. The story takes place on a living space station and revolves around a large cast of characters, most of whom are aliens of one type or another. Each character, no matter how small, is given an interesting backstory. At times I wasn’t sure why the author was going into so much detail, but later in the story as all the different threads come together, it begins to make sense. Sprinkled in among the murder mystery is plenty of humor, some dark and some silly, but I ended up enjoying the lighter tone.
And for a story with lots of characters, I was pleased that I found some to love. I liked Mallory a lot. She’s such a quirky person and her situation is almost comical—believing she’s a catalyst for murder. She’s taken her strange experiences and turned them into autobiographical fiction, writing a series of murder mysteries called the Charlotte Queen mysteries. Her life on Station Eternity is interesting too. She’s made a deal with an alien species called the Sundry, wasp-like creatures who pay Mallory in exchange for studying her physiology. Then there’s Xan Morgan, who is hiding on Station Eternity to avoid—you guessed it—being charged for murder, after being in the wrong place at the wrong time at a party (of course Mallory was there as well!). Xan has an awesome backstory, which involves his time in the military, where he met one of my very favorite characters, Calliope Oh, a feisty, no nonsense Korean girl who could easily star in her own novel.
As luck would have it, Calliope is one of the humans on the shuttle, having been recruited by the military to bring Xan back home. Other humans on board include Xan’s brother Phineas, a famous rap star, Mallory’s Aunt Kathy, a horrible, manipulative woman, and Mrs. Brown and her granddaughter Lovely, a talented violin player who lost a finger in a fight and fears she’ll never play her instrument again. As disparate as all these characters seem, Lafferty connects them in surprising ways, and those connections are what make this intricate plot so fascinating.
We also meet several aliens on the space station, like Stephanie, a giant rock-like creature called a Gneiss. The Gneiss were my favorite alien species, but I won’t tell you why because it’s a big spoiler. Let’s just say their species has the ability to evolve into something else, and it was pretty cool. In fact, many of the world building elements were fresh and exciting. It was interesting to see a colony where most of the residents are aliens, and humans are the minority. Mallory and Xan have to fit themselves into Station Eternity’s world, learning to eat food that isn’t made for humans or trying to sit in Gneiss-sized furniture. Most of these scenes are done for laughs, though, as the author doesn’t seem to take herself too seriously.
But although I had a lot of fun with Station Eternity, the story is often a jumble of characters and action sequences that don’t always mesh together. Lafferty has some great ideas, but it felt like she threw every single one of them into this story, making it chaotic and confusing at times. There’s also a lot of set-up, and as I mentioned before, it took me a while to figure out who all the players were, why they knew each other, and what they were doing on Station Eternity.
Still, by the time the story ramps up to the thrilling finale, I was fully invested. Not everyone survives to the end, although the author throws in some very cool twists that made me feel better about those deaths. This is the first in the series, and although I’m not sure what Lafferty has in store for her characters in the next book, I’m definitely on board to find out.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
June 30, 2023
DNF 13%
Начинается в стиле ироничного детектива, где убийства (все во флешбеках) слетаются на простушку героиню, как мухи на мед.
К сожалению, мало юмора, саспенса или хоть каких-то мозгов, поэтому вместо иронии получается кринж.
За 13% мы обсудили литературу, увидели устройство космических кофеен и позалипали на ах! такого симпатичного мужчину с резными скулами.
Скучно.
Начинается в стиле ироничного детектива, где убийства (все во флешбеках) слетаются на простушку героиню, как мухи на мед.
К сожалению, мало юмора, саспенса или хоть каких-то мозгов, поэтому вместо иронии получается кринж.
За 13% мы обсудили литературу, увидели устройство космических кофеен и позалипали на ах! такого симпатичного мужчину с резными скулами.
Скучно.
May 18, 2022
I tried nothing more than to get engaged with this book. I sincerely can't put my finger on what I didn't love about it, because every part of it I feel like I should have really loved it. The writing was strong, the characters were interesting (even if the lead was a bit exhausting at times), and the concept was really fun. That said I couldn't get into this, it took me forever to finish reading and it felt like something was missing.
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