Six Wakes

I really enjoyed this book. It was a bookclub read and I was intrigued to see how differently some people reacted to the mystery and storytelling style.

A positive for me was the way in which each character was flawed, yet relatable - they all had made mistake or had a negative personality trait - yet each was presented as human and worthy of sympathy. Other readers surprised me by feeling the exact opposite and disliking the regular flashback chapters that revealed the character's backstories. I actually thought this was handled very well and, once I caught on to the structure, looked forward to each flashback as pieces of the jigsaw.

Something that was both a positive and a negative is Ms Lafferty's writing style. To me it is eminently readable and just flows. It almost feels fairy-tale in its smoothness. My mental image of the story was very much one of brightly coloured animation. Her writing style lends itself to a social story, but very much not Hard SF. If you are trying to figure out the science behind things, I suggest leaving your brain at the door or you'll get a headache. I just had to firmly tell myself that there had obviously been a huge revelation in our understanding of science at some point, so nothing works the way we think it does...then it was all OK.

A negative for me was that several “surprises” seemed to have flashing neon signs on them long in advance - to the extent that I was sure that they were red herrings the murderer, the nature of the ships AI and, above all, the use of the large 3D printer as a cloning device...dood, they make such a big deal out of the fact it can print a pig...with every last detail of the organs...what do think is going to happen?. It very much surprised me that some other readers found these same points rather too much of a surprise.

So I think this book presents itself differently to different people. I found it an enjoyable, interesting story well told with its greatest strength being the interesting and relatable characters. Put it this way, I immediately picked up another book by the same author - that should tell you what you need to know.