Review: Station Eternity (The Midsolar Murders #1) by Mur Lafferty
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….
I OBTAINED THIS BOOK AT THE LIBRARY.
Review:
Dear Mur Lafferty,
A few years ago I reviewed your SF Mystery “Six Wakes” here at DA and when I saw that you have another mystery out, I decided to check it out from the library. Unfortunately I did not like it nearly as much as I liked “Six Wakes” and I think it is mostly because the resolution disappointed me. As the blurb tells you, our main character had been involved in murders since the time she was very young (and she is still a young woman). I want to make it clear because it is part of the basic premise of the book.
Not only does Mallory have the insight to solve the murders, but somebody eventually dies almost *every time* she goes somewhere, be it a birthday party or any other occasion, location, school, etc. Basically Mallory thinks that she attracts murders. It is obvious that she is not killing anyone, but she is convinced that she has some kind of “curse” on her – if she is close to people, somebody would die. And investigators are not too happy to let her solve the murders that happened near her, even though most of the time, if allowed to do so, she is successful in figuring out who the murderer is.
Even though the book takes place, at most, twenty years or so in the future (the first date noted in the book that I recall was 2034 and I think we are eventually moving further into the decade later in the book), the first contact with Alien races takes place and, as the blurb tells you very precisely, eventually Mallory takes refuge at the alien sentient station. She does not want to see humans nearby, because she thinks she protects them that way, but then once again I invite you to look at the blurb. More humans arrive at the station and murder eventually does happen and it is up to Mallory and her friend or two to investigate it.
I have to say, initially I was *so very intrigued* to find out what was up with Mallory more so than the murder investigation itself, because I was very convinced that she did not kill anyone, so I could not wait to find out what was going on and why people kept dying around her. I was disappointed with the answer. It kind of felt like a coincidence and “that’s it?” answer to me, but opinions may differ on that. Again, I certainly did not set up any expectations, but what I got felt anticlimactic to me.
The murder investigation itself frustrated me. Similar to “Six wakes” the author slowly revealed what happened by giving us back stories and the point of views of multiple characters who arrived on station “Eternity” and who ended up participating in what unfolded one way or another. The problem was that I did not care for most of the participants of this story and their multiple POV I found mostly irritating.
I did like the aliens, most of them were fun. The main character was not a horrible person by all means, but I could not warm up to her till the very end. I think a big part of it was that I did not see how she comes to her conclusions – it seemed like she just had a revelation, it all came to her after questioning people, but I would have wanted to see her solving mysteries after finding clues, if that makes sense.
I also started reading the book hoping against hope that this will be a single book. Alas, Amazon and Good reads disabused me of this motion. A second one will be coming, but most likely not for me.
Grade: C
AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle
I can’t read your review yet, still plowing through my TBR to listen to this book. I’ll be back and look forward to seeing your thoughts.
@Darlynne: I am looking forward to your thoughts as well, if you end up sharing it with us :)
Disappointing, @Sirius! The overall premise seemed so promising. Thanks for the thoughtful review!