Review: Six Wakes

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I dislike disliking things. Honestly, I wished everything was good. It's not, we know this, but I somehow hope that every book, movie, and album is good in some way. That's the best way to describe how I feel about this book. I want to like it, but it's not good enough for me to justify any kind of stamp of approval. I can't even say this book is only mediocre as it's good in some elements but bad in completely different others.

The reason I felt bad about disliking this book is because it actually has a brain in it. Much of the book, at least in terms of world-building, is smart and thought out. It's everything else about it that just kind of sucks. It takes the Heinlein question of "What if (clones)?" and runs through its logical paces. The problem is that the story isn't well constructed and is mostly vapid on a creative level.

The plot is supposed to be a murder mystery but the author doesn't seem to know how to write one. This is clear in its lack of focus on the actual plot and tends to make up less interesting subplots to pad out what is already a book that is below average in length. It kind of sort of all connects at the end, but the ending feels uninspired and unearned. The structure might have worked as a fictional memoir or other less thriller-derived plot. It's like someone showed up to a Halloween party dressed as Santa Clause. They got the idea but missed the point.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the book is its tone. It's kind of the same problem I had with the "Murderbot Dairies". A flat uninterested tone that could have been engaging if it wasn't also so tiresome. Here, the tone is fairly nonchalant about everything. The problem is that I can't tell if it's supposed to be the point or if it's just bad writing. And if you can't tell if something is done purposely or if it's just bad, always put your money on it being bad.

This book is smart but badly written on almost every metric. And I like smart books, they tend to be my favorite kind, which left me struggling to determine how I felt. I want to like it, but it's just not good. Not even remotely.

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