Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

Published by Ace on October 4, 2022

After aliens made First Contact with humans, they allowed three humans to visit Station Eternity. One is Adrian Casserly-Berry, the ambassador from Earth, chosen not by humans but by the aliens. He happened to be the first human they met.

The second is Mallory Viridian, who doesn’t want anything to do with other humans because people tend to die in her presence. Why Mallory is a murder magnet is explained late in the novel. The explanation isn’t particularly convincing, but it is better than offering no explanation for a series of amazing coincidences. After all, the willingness to suspend disbelief in unlikely explanations is a condition that science fiction demands of its readers.

The third is Alexander “Xan” Morgan, a former member of the military who was assigned to mortuary duty. Xan has claimed asylum on the station, where he was apparently taken by accident after he either killed someone or avoided being killed. The military believes he went AWOL and various parts of the government want him back or dead.

Several alien species inhabit the station. Members of a prominent species appear to be made from rock. Others look like they are covered with bark. Some resemble wasps. They all consider themselves superior to humans and they’re probably right. The station is sentient, as are the alien shuttles, but the station needs to be in a symbiotic relationship with a member of a different species to function. An alien named Ren has bonded with the station. The station loses its mind when Ren is murdered.

Fortuitously, Mallory’s talent is the intuitive investigation of murders. Since so many murders occur when she is nearby, the talent comes in handy. Her distaste for being around murder victims and their killers explains why she prefers a nearly human-free station to life on Earth. Unfortunately for her but to the reader’s benefit, other humans arrive on a shuttle during a moment of crisis. Some of them are connected to the humans who are already on the station.

Mallory’s aunt Kathy is one of the station newcomers. She’s hoping to bring Mallory home. The reader knows that Mallory isn’t going anywhere until she solves Ren’s murder.

Calliope Oh is ex-military, having briefly served with Xan. They share a shameful secret. Oh is a civilian because her approach to military service was more creative than the military could stomach. She’s recruited as a military contractor for a mission that involves Xan.

Xan’s brother Phineas is a gay trans rapper who performs as Salty Fatts. He’s recruited to accompany Oh, but he needs to talk to Xan anyway about Xan’s recent inheritance.

Lovely Brown played the violin until she lost a finger in a knife fight. Her grandmother wins a trip for two to the space station. She brings Lovely in the hope that alien technology will restore the missing finger, although she also has an ulterior motive for making the trip.

During the first half of the novel, the story pauses frequently to tell the reader the backstory of every significant human character. It is fortunate that the backstories are interesting because the plot doesn’t really get underway until the backstories have all been established. Once it starts rolling, it combines action with so many seemingly random events that readers might need a flowchart to keep track of the plot and the relationships between the characters.

While the human characters are well developed, the aliens are standard fare. Life on Earth is largely neglected, apart from some references to fear of aliens. The plot includes so many twists and turns that the reader might become lost. On several occasions, I asked myself “why did that happen?” Maybe those questions were answered by the novel’s end, but I asked the question too many times to be certain that the story resolved my uncertainties.

Although I did not solve the murder mystery, I stopped trying long before the reveal. In fact, I often forgot that a murder mystery was driving the plot. The story entertains despite its maddening lack of focus. The characters kept me engaged even when I felt in danger of losing the plot.

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