Six Wakes is probably best described as a very high-intrigue, but relatively slow burn sci-fi mystery that combines elements of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. The story starts with a group of newly awakened clones on a generation ship who all wake up to discover that their previous selves have been murdered all in the same timeframe and they have to find out who's responsible before it happens again.

Most of this book reminded me so strongly of And Then There Were None in terms of characterization and writing style. As someone who absolutely loves that story, it was really fun to see a version of that kind of storytelling in a more sci-fi context. It's not really the plot I'm talking about here but more the distance from the characters, the frequent change in perspective and the feeling that none of these POVs are particularly reliable or "good" people. And Lafferty also brings in themes of clones and how technology like that would affect society and perceptions of death, religion and sacrifice.

For the first 80% of the book, I was completely hooked and loved getting all of the hints that are dropped about the various characters' back stories and motivations and could not put it down. Like I said, this reminded me a lot of Christie's style and I ate it up. Unfortunately, I really don't think Lafferty delivered on the promise of themes that are touched on earlier in the book or in the resolution of the murder mystery. For those that haven't read it, I'll just say that there's a lot of convenience involved in the ending and many, many unanswered questions.

For those who have read it (or don't care about spoilers) and are fine with a lot of ranting: That ending was ridiculous. I cannot believe how hand wavey it got with Maria suddenly becoming Magic Programmer who can program away all problems ever experienced. I also loathe that it's terrible that Maria hacked people's memories or turned them into AI but suddenly we're cool with making the murderer be the new AI because they killed people. Conveniently ignoring that every person involved has killed people, I guess? Very much unlike And Then There Were None, it felt like all of these asshole characters faced zero consequences for their decisions and are suddenly supposed to be sympathetic? And the plan is to just run off to the planet that may or may not exist and just hope that the person who bears the world's longest grudges and has almost unlimited resources at her disposal somehow doesn't get wind of them not dying? I don't normally mind ambiguous endings but that was absurd.

Overall, this book was a big disappointment for me. I loved the majority of it so much that I don't feel right giving it less than 3 stars but this going to be an example for me in the future of a book that doesn't deliver on what I loved in the set-up. I bought Station Eternity earlier this year so I'll give Lafferty another chance before I decide whether her style is just not for me but I'll make sure to keep my expectations in check this time around.

"Like reading a mystery from Moriarty's POV not Watson"

http://youtu.be/4o9nr_j6Vw8