Book Review: Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty
Science Fiction/Mystery: Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty
I am quickly becoming a fan of Mur Lafferty’s writing. Six Wakes completely justifies my fandom. I do have a complaint about the book, though. It might get me fired. I’m sure she didn’t mean to put me in a bad position, but I started reading the book and before I knew it the clock said 1:00 a.m. As much as I would love to work in my dream job of professional reader and grandchild taxi driver, I do have to go to my day job and be productive. This book kept me up far too late.
Technology has developed to the point where one can make a neural map of a mind and capture everything: memories, attitudes, tastes, desires. It has also developed cloning, cloning so perfect that the clones are essentially human. Make a neural map of someone near the end of their life, clone a young, virile body from their DNA, pop that neural map into the clone’s head, and for all intents and purposes the person has a new lease on life. To prevent clones from overrunning society, some strict rules were put in place. Only one clone of an individual could exist at a time. If a clone went missing, a new clone could not be made until death was confirmed. Tampering with a neural map was forbidden. Clones who committed suicide could not be recloned.
On a spaceship far from Earth, Maria wakes up to a gruesome sight. The cloning room on the ship has become an abattoir. Most of the crew is floating, dead, stabbed, with blood and other human remnants everywhere. Maria, though, can’t remember any of it. Her most recent memories are from right after they boarded the ship. As the other clones wake up, they notice that the bodies are much older, showing signs of at least 25 years of aging. They are used to awakening in new and younger bodies. They are not used to losing 25 years of their lives.
With only six crew members, it is quickly apparent that one of them was responsible. But who? Was it the captain, a volatile war criminal and assassin? The security chief who also had a past full of killing? As it turns out, all six of them have a criminal past and most of them have been murderers. Any of them could have done it, but which one did the killing and why?
With few forensic tools, no recent memories, and no one left who can explain the carnage, the crew tries to solve the mystery and figure out who killed them–hopefully before they are killed again.
Six Wakes raises a number of questions. Perhaps none of them are as compelling as the question, “What is a human?” Can clones be human? Do clones have a soul? Can a society survive when one set of people lives and dies as people always have, but another set has essentially discovered eternal life?
Those are not easy questions to answer, and although they are not questions that are immediately relevant, they are questions worth asking. As we discover more and more creatures that can do “human” things like use tools or learn languages, as we realize that even plants communicate with each other, we have to begin to question how we have treated the world. Could it be that we share this planet with other species that are intelligent, sentient, and worthy of our respect? We had better decide quickly, or we may all be the killers of Spaceship Earth.
Book Review: Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty