Six Ways To Kill Your Clone

[redheadedfemme]

3 of 5 stars

After finishing this book and thinking about it for a bit, I decided I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. This book is, as so many people have already stated, a closed-door, locked-room murder mystery: one of our six characters (which actually turns out to be seven) is the killer, and the fun, if you want to call it that, is figuring out who that is.

Unfortunately, I'm not especially fond of murder mysteries, and as such I did not pay attention to, or particularly care about, the various clues and red herrings. The setting, the worldbuilding and the characters intrigued me far more than the actual mystery. This book takes place on a generation ship run by clones, outbound from Earth on a four-hundred-year-long journey. There are many good things about it, particularly the characterization: the characters are sharply drawn, their backgrounds fully explored, their motivations believable. The mystery is not as convoluted as you might expect, and the layers of the onion are slowly, and expertly, pulled back to reveal how all the pieces fit together. (How's that for today's mixed metaphor?) I'm not sure the book sticks the landing; the story seems to come to a vague, formless stop, with something that might lead to a sequel or might not.

The main problem I had with the story is the severe suspension of disbelief required for some of the tech, specifically the cloning and mindmapping techniques. I know this book takes place several hundred years in the future, but even so, I don't think some of this stuff is feasible, now or ever. Of course, FTL and time travel isn't feasible either, and yet many good books have been written around these concepts. Obviously, one's enjoyment of the book will depend on what the individual reader can tolerate. So: I liked this to a point, but I'm not gung-ho about it.