Station Eternity. Mur Lafferty. 2022. [October] 457 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: Nobody ever believed murders "just happened" around Mallory Viridian. Not at first, anyway. Before 2032, she figured out she was an unlucky kid in that she'd been adjacent to two deaths, at separate times. In college, she witnessed four murders (unrelated) and, this time, helped solved them. She began to worry after she solved her third and fourth cases: two unrelated murders while on a college trip. She wasn't trained in crime scene investigation and she wasn't even a big fan of mystery novels.
Premise/plot: Wanting to escape humanity all together, Mallory Viridian has found "her place" on a sentient space station [named Eternity]. She's one of three humans aboard. [One is the official human ambassador. The second is a stowaway, of sorts; someone not "on record" as being on the station.] But their lives are turned upside down the day they learn that a shuttle of HUMANS are coming to the station. Honestly, Mallory thought she was done running, and Xan is a wanted person back on Earth. It seems that even the space station itself [or is it herself? himself?] is against the shuttle of humans once she [he? it?] mentally connects with those aboard. Soon Mallory has her BIGGEST case to solve yet.
My thoughts: I was hooked from the start. I was. Past tense. This one was so interesting and unique at the start. The premise was being worked out beautifully. However, at a certain point--perhaps the halfway point? perhaps earlier or later--everything began to spin out of control. I'm not saying that other readers will agree that this one falls apart and doesn't live up to the promising premise. But for me, once the narration started including anyone and everyone--instead of being just Mallory or Xan--and the plot began playing around with time--in that we not only were changing narrators but also flashing back and forth in time. It was just a little much. The chapter titles hinted--subtly, too subtly--what the chapter was about. One could try to deduce *when* in time it was and perhaps who was speaking. But more often than not, it was just a bit messy.
I loved the idea of an amateur "detective" in space solving crime. I also really appreciated the reference to BABYLON 5. But overall, it didn't live up to the awesomeness of the premise--in my opinion.
© 2022 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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