Friday, 5 June 2026 04:50 pm
Book Review: Six Wakes
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deckardcanineI chose Mur Lafferty's novel partly because there's no better time to read a clearly dark story than right after a kid-friendly comedy. Several others are on my shelf, but I wanted to prioritize one of my latest gifts for a change.
By the 23rd century, engineers can create and update an accurate "mindmap" and upload it to a clone after the cloned person dies. From clones' perspective, they suddenly wake up in 20-year-old forms once again. Controversial as the practice is, it has become pretty common -- and borderline necessary for the Dormire, a ship transporting thousands of mostly comatose colonists to a planet about 400 years away.
In 2493, clones of all six Dormire crew members awaken at the same time. Evidence suggests murder and suicide or succumbing to wounds. The murderer was almost certainly one of the crew. Of course, none of them remember who or why. In fact, from the look of the corpses, their mindmaps are about 25 years out of date.
Lest you think the killing spontaneous, there's also been extensive sabotage. Head computer IAN is offline and later can't recover key data. The cloning tech is broken, so the crew can't afford to die again any time soon. The installed food printer produces only poison. And the ship is veering off course. Over the next few days, the crew must resolve many issues while hoping to prevent a repetition.
It's worth noting that all six have criminal records, with only IAN and a desire for a clean slate to keep them in line. They have not shared their backstories (not at the time of their latest premortem memories, anyway), but we get plenty of flashbacks. I know what you're thinking: "Only six people on an important mission, and none are trustworthy?" Well, a project this expensive has to cut corners somewhere, right?
High time I introduced them. Captain Katrina is quite irritable under the circumstances, as is Luna-born security officer Wolfgang. Navigator Hiro injects gallows humor in order to stay sane, to the consternation of doctor Joanna. Standoffish engineer Paul has the worst PTSD. And Maria's hidden talents are wasted on assigned cooking and janitorial duties. This being a whodunnit with three male and three female suspects, I had to think of Clue -- and less seriously, Friends.
The back cover implies that Maria is the protagonist, but all six spend quite a while in the third-person limited spotlight. Even IAN gets a few brief POV portions. That summary's not as misleading as the front cover, showing a human in deep space without a ship or suit, which never happens. Add some comprehension-slowing typos and I think I'll pass on Orbit Books if I ever get published.
You may have noticed the titular pun: both funereal and awakening senses. Actually, the book is divided into six acts designated "wakes," and they're not each for a different crew member. Chapter titles tend to be initially curious as well.
When I told my mom about the starting premises, she commented that it sounded like a video game, with multiple lives and saves. Sure enough, Lafferty cites the roguelike FTL game as inspiration. Along with the widespread perception that teleportation in Star Trek amounts to getting killed in one place and copied in another.
While I get the appeal, I for one would not take the cloning option. Even a perfect copy of me is only that; from my standpoint, I'd be dead with or without him. I'm not zealous enough to presume clones soulless, but they're certainly not the same souls as before, or having multiple clones active at the same time would be impossible rather than just illegal.
Indeed, clones are not granted equal rights. They don't have it nearly as bad as in Never Let Me Go, but they are forcibly sterilized, leading me to wonder which path to "immortality" wins out in the long term. Even they tend to reserve "human" for non-clones, despite no difference in appearance, behavior, or genetics. If I read the laws (mostly presented up front) right, you could be cloned without your knowledge or consent and then legally executed just for not being the latest in line.
I'm not surprised to learn that Lafferty is nonreligious. Her claim that the Catholic Church would allow a female pope among other changes struck me laughable, until I realized how far-fetched the whole setup was. Regardless, she doesn't preach a certain way to view cloning and other aspects of advanced genetic "hacking." Characters on both sides can be rotten. The important thing is that she brings up lots of good questions. For instance, what would it feel like to cheapen death so much? Should even lifelong disease cures be banned because the technology gets misused, or does the ban just move the practice underground and thus ensure worse misuse?
Despite its flaws, SW is hard to put down, right from the start. The plot keeps thickening, and the mystery's resolution makes sense in retrospect. Pessimism didn't stop me from caring about the cast. Tho basically unfilmable, it's the best kind of book to my mind: the kind that makes me want to write something similar. But not too alike. I'm not that big on cloning.
For my next read, I'm thinking North Is the Night by Emily Rath. I considered it before, but I wanted to wait for a warmer month.
By the 23rd century, engineers can create and update an accurate "mindmap" and upload it to a clone after the cloned person dies. From clones' perspective, they suddenly wake up in 20-year-old forms once again. Controversial as the practice is, it has become pretty common -- and borderline necessary for the Dormire, a ship transporting thousands of mostly comatose colonists to a planet about 400 years away.
In 2493, clones of all six Dormire crew members awaken at the same time. Evidence suggests murder and suicide or succumbing to wounds. The murderer was almost certainly one of the crew. Of course, none of them remember who or why. In fact, from the look of the corpses, their mindmaps are about 25 years out of date.
Lest you think the killing spontaneous, there's also been extensive sabotage. Head computer IAN is offline and later can't recover key data. The cloning tech is broken, so the crew can't afford to die again any time soon. The installed food printer produces only poison. And the ship is veering off course. Over the next few days, the crew must resolve many issues while hoping to prevent a repetition.
It's worth noting that all six have criminal records, with only IAN and a desire for a clean slate to keep them in line. They have not shared their backstories (not at the time of their latest premortem memories, anyway), but we get plenty of flashbacks. I know what you're thinking: "Only six people on an important mission, and none are trustworthy?" Well, a project this expensive has to cut corners somewhere, right?
High time I introduced them. Captain Katrina is quite irritable under the circumstances, as is Luna-born security officer Wolfgang. Navigator Hiro injects gallows humor in order to stay sane, to the consternation of doctor Joanna. Standoffish engineer Paul has the worst PTSD. And Maria's hidden talents are wasted on assigned cooking and janitorial duties. This being a whodunnit with three male and three female suspects, I had to think of Clue -- and less seriously, Friends.
The back cover implies that Maria is the protagonist, but all six spend quite a while in the third-person limited spotlight. Even IAN gets a few brief POV portions. That summary's not as misleading as the front cover, showing a human in deep space without a ship or suit, which never happens. Add some comprehension-slowing typos and I think I'll pass on Orbit Books if I ever get published.
You may have noticed the titular pun: both funereal and awakening senses. Actually, the book is divided into six acts designated "wakes," and they're not each for a different crew member. Chapter titles tend to be initially curious as well.
When I told my mom about the starting premises, she commented that it sounded like a video game, with multiple lives and saves. Sure enough, Lafferty cites the roguelike FTL game as inspiration. Along with the widespread perception that teleportation in Star Trek amounts to getting killed in one place and copied in another.
While I get the appeal, I for one would not take the cloning option. Even a perfect copy of me is only that; from my standpoint, I'd be dead with or without him. I'm not zealous enough to presume clones soulless, but they're certainly not the same souls as before, or having multiple clones active at the same time would be impossible rather than just illegal.
Indeed, clones are not granted equal rights. They don't have it nearly as bad as in Never Let Me Go, but they are forcibly sterilized, leading me to wonder which path to "immortality" wins out in the long term. Even they tend to reserve "human" for non-clones, despite no difference in appearance, behavior, or genetics. If I read the laws (mostly presented up front) right, you could be cloned without your knowledge or consent and then legally executed just for not being the latest in line.
I'm not surprised to learn that Lafferty is nonreligious. Her claim that the Catholic Church would allow a female pope among other changes struck me laughable, until I realized how far-fetched the whole setup was. Regardless, she doesn't preach a certain way to view cloning and other aspects of advanced genetic "hacking." Characters on both sides can be rotten. The important thing is that she brings up lots of good questions. For instance, what would it feel like to cheapen death so much? Should even lifelong disease cures be banned because the technology gets misused, or does the ban just move the practice underground and thus ensure worse misuse?
Despite its flaws, SW is hard to put down, right from the start. The plot keeps thickening, and the mystery's resolution makes sense in retrospect. Pessimism didn't stop me from caring about the cast. Tho basically unfilmable, it's the best kind of book to my mind: the kind that makes me want to write something similar. But not too alike. I'm not that big on cloning.
For my next read, I'm thinking North Is the Night by Emily Rath. I considered it before, but I wanted to wait for a warmer month.
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