Station Eternity

By: Mur Lafferty

Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove her to live on an alien space station, but her problems still follow her in this witty, self-aware novel that puts a speculative spin on murder mysteries, from the Hugo-nominated author of Six Wakes.

From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet…and markedly devoid of homicide.

But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime—and fast—or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board….

Don't regret listening to it, should have read it.

The story is interesting, I enjoyed the many different points of view and flashbacks which gave the book a lot of textures and plot points all running to the finish line together. I wish there was a little more in way of the mystery trope but I didn't see the ending coming which is fun for me since I read a lot and tend to guess (often not correctly) the ending in a book. I think there's a lot for the series to grow into. Unfortunately the narration for this main character was distracting and breathy. I don't think I could be friends with the main character if she indeed sounded like that all the time, a bit too damsel in distress for me. Fun and worth listening to if you are busy doing chores or walking dogs though!

Annoying intonation

I like the story but have stopped listening because the narration is not my cup of tea. The narrator’s voice is whiny and their intonation of at least half of the sentences is identical, which makes it sound robotic. I couldn’t focus on the plot because the voice was too distracting.

So Good!

This was my first time reading Mur Lafferty and I'm now a big fan. Interesting and complex characters, nice pace, sweet plot revelations, and my favorite theme - interspeceies relations! Also love that while love was a theme, it was not a "love story".

Murder in space among aliens

Mur Lafferty's Station Eternity is a murder mystery set mainly on an alien space station. The main character, Mallory has a skill for solving murders which is convenient because they seem to always occur around her. She has managed to wrangle her way onto an alien space station to get away from Earth. There are only two other humans on the station, an Earth ambassador and another human receiving sanctuary. The whole background is related through a series of disjointed flashbacks that change the interpretation of subsequent actions. Humans seems unique among intelligent life as the only species without an accompanying symbiont. All hell breaks loose when a shuttle from Earth with many humans suffers an attack at the same time the station's AI symbiont is murdered.

While the premise is interesting, the frequent flashbacks hop around extensively with each vignette twisting the interpretation of previous flashbacks. There's some worn out cliches with the US military developing a weapon against all aliens. At the same time, the aliens are just bizarre with familial issues like any dysfunctional Earth family. The long setup to arrange the passenger manifest on the shuttle has the feel of a Hollywood murder mystery where the station is like a castle on a dark and stormy night.

The narration is well done, although the aliens don't seem alien relative to the humans. Pacing is uneven due to the frequent and sudden flashbacks.

Very Enjoyable

Nice world building, believable characters, coherent story line - well done all the way around.