Six Wakes

The thing I loved most about this book was I couldn't predict it!
I've been reading adult level books since I was very young, and I've taken a lot of writing classes. Most stories follow very set patterns and even when I turn most of my brain off for a book, if the author has done a decent job of it, I know where things are headed. Which isn't to say I dislike the journey—it's just rare for me to be surprised.

But Mur Lafferty blends timelines and character POVs with such a deft touch into a plotline where the… show more.

This book takes everything amazing about the mystery genre and transposes it into an endlessly fascinating, well-developed sci-fi world. I was captivated by the web of interconnected plot lines, told from the perspectives of rich and multi-faceted characters throughout the entire story.

Specifically, the fact that all of their seemingly disconnected backstories converge to form the real picture of the story was masterfully done. Furthermore, the final reveal of the story was quite literally the only plot twist in fiction that has given me a verbal “oh my god” moment.

It was a massive inspiration for me and led to… show more.

I’m drawn to this futuristic murder mystery because it lays out the rules of the “created world” and invites the reader to solve it. A murderer and a limited number of suspects/victims are all confined on a spaceship.

I love the setup, and I was immersed from the start.

This was one of my favorite SF books from the last five years. Cloning technology has reached the point where a new body can be grown and brain info transmitted, enabling lengthy travels to explore other star systems. Six crew members aboard one of the ships wake up to find their previous bodies murdered.

The novel weaves together science fiction and murder mystery (a whodunit) while exploring ethical and philosophical themes of cloning and identity. The characters are well done, most of them have some secrets, and the plot is imaginative and complex. The confined setting aboard a spaceship heightens… show more.

I was hooked on this locked room mystery from the opening premise: six newly minted clones awake on a generation ship and must solve their own murders.

The rest of the story did not disappoint, taking me on a crash course through the history, ethics, and sociological implications of cloning, a technology that in this future society has made many people functionally immortal.

I love a satisfying mystery, especially one with strong sci-fi underpinnings, so this really hit the spot for me.

In Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes, a crew of clones opens their eyes aboard the spaceship Dormire headed away from Earth to find their previous versions floating around dead. Not just dead, but murdered. There’s nowhere to go and each and every one of them could be the killer. That’s a premise that could have gone in a dark direction but Lafferty keeps it light, much of the story propelled by lively dialogue as the clones go about keeping the spaceship on course while zeroing in on the killer in their midst. Weighty questions about the ethics of cloning alternate… show more.

Six Wakes begins at a very similar jumping-off point to my own book—colonization mission, immortality through cloning and mind-mapping, things spinning rapidly off the rails—but it then takes off in a wildly different direction. This book is a head-hopping murder mystery, with the fun twist that, because all the characters are clones whose memories are decades out of date, even the murderer doesn’t know who did it. I tend to really admire books that I could never write myself, and this one definitely fits that description. It feels like every chapter presents a new plot twist, but somehow Lafferty… show more.

What's better than a locked room mystery? How about a locked room mystery set aboard a spaceship transporting thousands of sleeping colonists to a distant world? A crew of clones wakes up midway through a long journey only to discover that their former selves have been murdered, and they have to solve their own murders when they are also the only suspects. One review called Six Wakes a cross between Clue and The Thing and, honestly, I can't think of a better way to describe it. It's a delightful puzzle of a story with elements of horror, a rich cast… show more.