Shelf Care: Murder in Space!

Welcome to Shelf Care, where I review three books related by a theme. These aren't necessarily the latest releases, but are hopefully books you can't believe you missed.This column's theme: Murder in Space! Tales of untimely demise in a science fiction setting, all with some unexpected twists and curated to provide the perspectives of the committer, observer, and victim. So if you’re looking for science fiction that addresses death without getting too heavy about it, try any of the following:So if you likeSmartass RobotsUncovering mysteriesPlanetary explorationBooks by John ScalziYou might likeAll Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha WellsWhere the murder happens: right there in the title.OverviewA standard security robot begins developing unusual behavior way beyond watching a soap opera called Sanctuary Moon and identifying as “Murderbot” while a planetary exploration mission is threatened.Sample passage

“It calls itself ‘Murderbot,’” Gurathin said.I opened my eyes and looked at him; I couldn’t stop myself. From their expressions I knew everything I felt was showing on my face, and I hate that. I grated out, “That was private.”The silence was longer this time.Then Volescu said, “Gurathin, you wanted to know how it spends its time. That was what you were originally looking for in the logs. Tell them.”Mensah lifted her brows. “Well?”Gurathin hesitated. “It’s downloaded seven hundred hours of entertainment programming since we landed. Mostly serials. Mostly something called Sanctuary Moon.” He shook his head, dismissing it. “It’s probably using it to encode data for the company. It can’t be watching it, not in that volume; we’d notice.”I snorted. He underestimated me.Ratthi said, “The one where the colony’s solicitor killed the terraforming supervisor who was the secondary donor for her implanted baby?”Again, I couldn’t help it. I said, “She didn’t kill him, that’s a fucking lie.”Ratthi turned to Mensah. “It’s watching it.”Her expression fascinated, Pin-Lee asked, “But how did you hack your own governor module?”“All the company equipment is the same.” I got a download once that included all the specs for company systems. Stuck in a cubicle with nothing to do, I used it to work out the codes for the governor module.Gurathin looked stubborn, but didn’t say anything. I figured that was all he had, now it was my turn. I said, “You’re wrong. HubSystem let you read my log, it let you find out about the hacked governor module. This is part of the sabotage. It wants you to stop trusting me because I’m trying to keep you alive.”Gurathin said, “We don’t have to trust you. We just have to keep you immobilized.”Right, funny thing about that. “That won’t work.”“And why is that?”I rolled off the table, grabbed Gurathin by the throat and pinned him to the wall. It was fast, too fast for them to react. I gave them a second to realize what had happened, to gasp, and for Volescu to make a little eek noise. I said, “Because HubSystem lied to you when it told you I was immobilized.”Gurathin was red, but not as red as he would have been if I’d started applying pressure. Before anyone else could move, Mensah said, calm and even, “SecUnit, I’d appreciate it if you put Gurathin down, please.”She’s a really good commander. I’m going to hack her file and put that in. If she’d gotten angry, shouted, let the others panic, I don’t know what would have happened.

TakeawayIt’s easy to see why Martha Wells has written a ton of these Murderbot novels. The writing is light with a protagonist that doesn’t take themselves too seriously, yet fast paced and engaging as Murderbot has to help the expedition survive long enough to figure out what’s really happening on this planet that they’re exploring. If you liked the sample passage above, there’s a lot more of it in All Systems RedOr if you likeScience fiction murder mysteriesThe tone of Martha Wells Murderbot novelsVery competent female detectivesTrope aware science fiction.You might likeStation Eternity, by Mur LaffertyWhere the murder happens: everywhere the protagonist goes.OverviewMurder seems to always follow Mallory Viridian, and she thought she’d finally outrun it by hiding among aliens on a living space station. Until other humans showed up, that is.Sample passage

NOBODY EVER BELIEVED murders “just happened” around Mallory Viridian.Not at first, anyway.Before 2032, she figured 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 solve 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. Still, she was the only one to spot that the key clue to the murder of a room service waiter was not the shotgun, but a tacky, wet popsicle stick.Despite this solve, the detectives were not impressed.“I would have found it eventually,” Detective Kelly Brady had barked, his cheeks still pink from being teased by a beat cop about the popsicle stick.Even the investigators who accepted her help in solving cases didn’t believe Mallory had done this before. She was twenty-two, a college dropout, and a civilian. What did she know about a murder investigation?After she’d solved five cases, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation started getting interested in her.

TakeawayI think Station Eternity might have been inspired by the Murder, She Wrote trope of “everywhere this woman goes, people die. What’s the obvious conclusion? Jessica Fletcher is a serial killer.”, because everywhere Mallory goes, people do die, and she’s the one solving the crimes with a competency that is downright disturbing. She knows this looks very contrived, and law enforcement is absolutely watching her, so in this, both the characters and the reader are on the same page. Hiding out on a space station among aliens seems to have stopped the killings that have followed her since childhood, but that all goes wrong when the sentient station allows more humans on board for reasons known only to it, and things progress from there. I really liked the concept and the execution, and eventual payoff that explains why she is the way she is, and the resolution of the station-wide crisis. While there is a second book in the series coming out soon, Station Eternity is a self-contained story, so if you’re looking for science fiction with a lighter tone that covers some new ground you’ll want to check this out.Or if you likeDo oversCloningBooks by Alan Dean Foster and John ScalziThe ship of TheseusDuncan Jones’ MoonYou might likeMickey 7, by Edward AshtonWhere the murder happens: to the narrator. Repeatedly.OverviewThere’s only supposed to be one clone on a new colony world, but when Mickey 7 is mistakenly reported as dead, he has to work up a plan to avoid getting put down with his restored-from-backup Mickey 8Sample passage

HERE’S A THOUGHT experiment for you: Imagine you found out that when you go to sleep at night, you don’t just go to sleep. You die. You die, and someone else wakes up in your place the next morning. He’s got all your memories. He’s got all your hopes and dreams and fears and wishes. He thinks he’s you, and all your friends and loved ones do too. He’s not you, though, and you’re not the guy who went to sleep the night before. You’ve only existed since this morning, and you will cease to exist when you close your eyes tonight. Ask yourself—would it make any practical difference in your life? Is there any way that you could even tell?Replace “go to sleep” with “get crushed, or vaporized, or set on fire” and you’ve pretty much got my life. Trouble in the reactor core? I’m on it. Need to test a sketchy new vaccine? I’m your guy. Need to know if the bathtub absinthe you cooked up is poisonous? I’ll get a glass, you bastards. If I die, you can always make another me.The upside of all that dying is that I really am a shitty kind of immortal. I don’t just remember what Mickey1 did. I remember being him. Well, all but the last few minutes of being him, anyway. He—I—died after a hull breach during transit. Mickey2 woke up a few hours later, sure as shit that he was thirty-one years old and had been born back on Midgard. And who knows? Maybe he was. Maybe that was the original Mickey Barnes looking out through his eyes. How could you tell? And maybe if I lie down on the floor of this cavern, close my eyes, and pop my seals, I’ll wake up tomorrow morning as Mickey8.Somehow, though, I doubt it.Nasha and Berto might not be able to tell the difference, but deep down on some level below reason, I’m pretty sure I’d know I was dead.

TakeawayMickey 7 does a successful job of digging in to all the issues that come up with having backups of yourself. As the new colony’s ‘expendible’ he’s put in the most life-threatening situations since, if he dies, they’ll just print out a new body and restore him from his last backup. Things go off the rails once he unexpectedly survives an encounter with the planet’s native species and has to juggle both his new version, Mickey 8, and not being found out lest he be recycled. Ashton adds depth to the story by exploring the dark(er?) sides of the history of cloning in this universe, and how it’s lead up to the only-one-copy-at-a time rule that Mickey 7 is trying to skirt. It’s a bit of a slow start, but really picks up once the plot thread involving the planet’s original inhabitants start to come to the front. While there is a second book in the series, things are wrapped up neatly by the end of this one. So if you’re looking for a quick read with a few interesting takes on a science fiction mainstay, give Mickey 7 a read.So, what else should have been on this list. Leave your comments below or on the Sweatpants & Coffee Facebook page, and stay tuned for my next column.