TV Review: Orphan Black Echoes

A fast-paced melodrama replaces the intellectual puzzle box of the original series.

Orphan Black Echoes is a sequel to the 2013 hit series Orphan Black starring Tatiana Maslany. Maslany received an Emmy Award for her clever portrayal of several characters on the show. The original series follows an ordinary woman, Sarah Manning, who suddenly encounters multiple versions of women who look just like her. The women discover that they are clones and that much their lives and relationships are not what they seem. They band together to solve the mystery of who they are while trying to protect the very different lives they have built for themselves. The first two seasons of the original Orphan Black presented an innovative type of television series: a fascinating combination of police procedural, psychological thriller, sci-fi puzzle box, and found-family introspection, with Tatiana Maslany simultaneously portraying streetwise Sarah; uptight soccer mom, Alison; hippie scientist Cosima, and quirky, violent Helena, among others.

Orphan Black Echoes takes place initially in 2050. The new show is the story of Lucy, a woman who wakes up in a lab, not remembering who she is, what year it is, or anything about her past. The pilot episode begins with Lucy in a faux homelike setting where she awakens feeling disoriented. A kind doctor (Keeley Hawes) asks questions to get Lucy oriented and tells Lucy she’s had a “procedure” which is why she can’t remember. The doctor is deliberately vague about what the procedure was. Despite the doctor’s gentle voice and attempts to be calming, Lucy quickly gets frustrated by her brain fog and devolves into shouting things, like “why can’t I remember?” and smashing lamps. We soon find out that she is in a giant lab where humans are 3-D printed to create organs needed for transplants. Lucy is handed a photograph of a young child and asked if she can remember the child. Although she can’t, the question lets us know that this is not Lucy’s first rodeo as 3-D print / clone. Lucy manages to make her escape and the story fast-forwards two years to 2052, where she is living an idyllic life with a kind single dad, Jack (Avan Jogia) and his deaf, school-aged daughter, Charlie (Zariella Langford). If you are a fan of the original show, this sweet setting immediately sparks suspicions that there is more happening than appears. As expected, the people in the big, science lab come for her, putting her happy, found-family setting at risk and nudging her to finally solve the mystery of who she is.

Echoes is fast paced and entertaining but it lacks the thoughtful, puzzle box approach of its predecessor and lacks the mesmerizing acting by Tatiana Maslany which defined the original show. Echoes is much more of an in-your-face show. There is no subtlety and there are very few twists and surprises. For the most part, it is an adventure / chase film focused on a character with whom the audience has not yet truly connected but, hopefully, at least identifies with enough to stay interested between the dramatic scene breaks.

Unlike Sarah’s streetwise cleverness and deception in the original series, Lucy gravitates to impulsive, emotional responses. In the first episode, when Lucy cannot remember who she is or where she is, she immediately starts breaking things in the room and then takes off. Later in the show she takes a child hostage and holds a gun to the child’s head before kidnapping her. Despite a few opportunities for obligatory moments of kindness with her boyfriend’s hearing impaired daughter, Krystin Ritter’s Lucy is portrayed overall as unstable, impulsive, and violent. The intensity is appealing but the effect is ultimately a completely different type of show from the original Orphan Black.

The audience is also given repeated, melodramatically vague flashbacks to feed the tension in the story: a knife dipped in blood; memories of neon pink liquid on Lucy’s hands or on her face as she emerges, baptism-like, from a pool of pink goo that represents her creation (or recreation). The visuals are cliché but still fun. The antagonists also get a bit of screen time, clarifying the business, science, and social motivations behind Lucy’s creation.

The early seasons of the original Orphan Black explored different forms of feminism manifested through the various lives of the clones as they support each other. In contrast, Orphan Black Echoes, feels more like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, an exploration of an artificially created person searching for meaning and self-determination while fighting against its creator. It’s an interesting concept delivered in an action drama package. Orphan Back Echoes is not as clever as the original series but it is entertaining enough to pass the time when you need an adventure.

--

The Math

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10

Highlights:

• Questionable protagonist
• Cliché elements
• Entertaining action but not groundbreaking

POSTED BY: Ann Michelle Harris – Multitasking, fiction writing Trekkie currently dreaming of her next beach vacation.

Nanoreview: They Cloned Tyrone isn't too far from how things are in real life

You'll laugh about it, then think it over, then realize with a shudder that it wasn't joking

The pitch-perfect Blaxploitation homage in the new Netflix film They Cloned Tyrone is so hilariously over the top, so absurdly far-fetched, that you may miss the realism just beneath the surface. It's not science fiction to say that US government agencies have repeatedly treated Black people as disposable and interchangeable. It's not science fiction to say that the US has had a murky relationship with medical ethics, especially with Black patients. It's not science fiction to say that a segment of WASP leaders sincerely believe that they have already built the common ground for interracial peace and the only step needed is for Black people to agree to it. When you consider all those details, They Cloned Tyrone proceeds almost like a documentary.

The best satire is that which shows us exactly what the problem looks like, maybe through a funhouse lens, but still recognizable. The film's trio of lead characters are comical exaggerations of overused stereotypes, but it is their distorted irrealism that frees the story to make its points more openly, to engage in the Black cultural practice known as real talk. A serious documentary about the benefits that WASP society derives from enforcing the status quo in depressed neighborhoods would barely be noticed. But a speculative farce with world-class actors, sharp dialogues, unafraid hyperviolence, expert direction, and an aesthetic sense heightened all the way to the top of Jamie Foxx's afro? Now that's how you get audiences to pay attention.

Partly due to the references to Blaxploitation cinema, the look and feel of this movie exists in a curious limbo where audio casettes and funk music coexist with smartphones and Bitcoin scams. Set aside the props, and the story might as well be happening in the 1970s or tomorrow, cleverly signaling how little has truly changed. This effect is achieved with loving attention to detail in costume design, set design, and cinematography. Of particular note is the protagonist played by John Boyega, a meticulously crafted performance that makes you forget that the actor's natural accent is British.

Lies that tell a truth, as Alan Moore called the narrative art. The movie's ridiculously freakish premise is part of the point: even in such unbelievable circumstances, the message still rings true, and it does because it comes from a place of honesty, from deep familiarity with the damage that the American Way of Life™ does to Black communities. It may be about fake people, but They Cloned Tyrone is the type of art that can't be faked.

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10.

POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.

'Exception' raises questions about humanity's right to live

This existential drama unfolds at both the individual and the civilizational level

A story can be written about the worth of humanity in which cloned bodies with copied memories ask themselves pointy questions about the authenticity of their identities and the consequences of reversible death. Also, a story can be written about the worth of humanity in which a space colonization project sends the last surviving members of our species to another planet and we need to weigh our survival against the fragility of an alien ecosystem. Either of those choices could address such heavy issues as our place in the universe, our sense of importance, our responsibility to other living creatures, and the dangers of hubris.

The fact that the new Netflix production Exception goes for both approaches at the same time and weaves them into parallel thematic threads speaks to the ambition of series creator and screenwriter Hirotaka Adachi. While cloning is a fertile topic for a discussion of personal dignity, and space colonization offers a comparable opportunity to explore collective dignity, a story that takes cloned characters and puts them in the middle of a space colonization plot is a potent combination and an authorial statement that promises a multifaceted view of the issue.

This is a daunting task for a limited series of just eight episodes, but Exception fulfills this mission admirably. The plot is presented through what one might call bifocal lenses: at the micro level, we have the story of a botched cloning that results in a bizarre creature of hideous appearance that gives rise to doubts about its humanity and, therefore, its inherent worth; at the macro level, we have a political disagreement over the moral acceptability of invading an intact biosphere to settle the human species and refound civilization. The later reveal that one of these problems gave rise to the other closes the circle of this subtle but effective narrative experiment.

Although these questions have been a staple of science fiction for a long time, Exception manages to make them feel fresh while still leaving them without a definitive answer. The botched clone is alternately treated like a wild animal, a mere inconvenience, a defective copy, an abomination, a funhouse mirror, and a travel companion. The four protagonists have long debates about what to do with it, and the rounds of arguments and counter-arguments force them to reevaluate their own status as living beings. In a closed environment with finite resources and high tension, should someone's right to exist depend on their ability to contribute work? Are replicas of human beings in a position to judge the quality of an allegedly bad replica? Is the worth of a clone measured by its fidelity to the supposed original? If it's a trivially easy procedure to unmake and remake clones, is death an effective punishment?

As the story progresses, its scope expands and we're faced with new and equally thought-provoking problems: in a universe with other forms of life, is humanity's survival a moral absolute? Is it honest of us to reserve to ourselves the answering of that question? Do our past crimes against nature factor in that moral calculation? Should other species fear humanity?

One twist that complicates this topic in an even thornier direction is the backstory that explains that humans left Earth because robots took over it. The unspoken implication is that at least one other culture has already judged it's more deserving of life than us. Before the protagonists can even formulate a rebuttal to that challenge, the show presents them with a harder one: does nonintelligent life also get a say on how much value our survival should have?

How we answer the micro problem informs which answers are possible to the macro one. It won't do to assert human dominion over the nonhuman when the line between the two gets so blurred that we can no longer decide who gets to redraw it. The protagonists cling to a sense of humanity that has been fabricated for them, with aspirations and attachments not uniquely their own, and with a material existence made possible only through technology, which means that any redefinition of "human" they construct in order to justify their self-esteem and their personhood must automatically apply to the defective copy as well, and once that threshold is crossed, human primacy is left without a logical foundation.

The plot resolves by offering an answer but recognizing that it cannot be objectively true. Our survival must prevail, but that tells us very little if we are the ones affirming that value. Of course team human will cheer for team human: we can make no other choice (at least none that preserves our ability to make choices), and no one else can do it for us (because whoever tries to decide our worth immediately violates our worth). The question is not for others to get involved in, but we cannot be trusted to be impartial. The situation is thus rendered exposed: we can never know what humanity is outside of what humans believe about it. What Exception proposes, given the impossibility of an absolute pronouncement, is a plea for epistemic humility. If we must judge ourselves (and it is inescapable that we must), let us not forget that we are biased. If our species must exist (and as long we are in charge of the question, the question is already moot), let us be neither ashamed nor proud. We are precious to ourselves and redundant to the universe; the fatal error is to get those two confused.

Exception handles its subject matter with surprising depth for its short runtime, but the ending is so fitting that nothing more needs to be added, a reassuring demonstration that a self-contained series that knows when it has said all it has to say is still possible in the streaming era. The animation style is, admittedly, an acquired taste, but it doesn't distract from the arguments going on in each episode. The gory horror is not too shocking, and never self-indulgent. This is primarily a science fiction of ideas, a birefringent look at the contact surfaces between humans and beyond humans, and at the circumstances that can turn that contact into violence.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10.

Bonuses: +1 for expertly creating and maintaining thematic resonance.

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10.

POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.

Interview: Sue Burke, Author of Immunity Index

photo by Daniel Lewis

Sue Burke is an author and translator who has lived in Madrid and Milwaukee, and currently resides in Chicago. Her newest novel, Immunity Index, comes out on May 4th.  She is also the author of the novels Semiosis and Interference,  her short stories and non-fiction articles have appeared in Asimov's, Clarksworld, Slate, Tor.com, Supersonic, and elsewhere, and she has translated multiple novels and short stories from Spanish to English. Along with many translators and linguists, her dream is to talk with aliens. 

Her forthcoming novel, Immunity Index, takes place in the not so distant future on Earth, yet much of what happens feels like it could have happened in the last year: a pandemic that leads to uncertainty and chaos, scientists racing for information, political protests, and people realizing that anything can be weaponized.  And since Burke writes science fiction, there are also secret sisters, a woolly mammoth, and a whole population of clones who are sick of being treated like second class citizens.  If you're a fan of Orphan Black and What Happened to Monday, you'll likely enjoy Immunity Index.

Burke was kind enough to chat with me about where she got the ideas for this novel, how to stay safe when you've just found your secret siblings, that the customer is not always right, her hopes for the future, and that even megafauna get hangry from time to time.  To learn more about Burke and her fiction, translation, and non-fiction, visit her website at sueburke.site, or follow her on twitter at @SueBurkeSpain.

Let's get to the interview!

NOAF: What can you tell us about your new novel Immunity Index? What's the elevator pitch?

Sue Burke: The United States is on the verge of a mutiny, human clones are second-class citizens, and three young women discover they are clones and sisters. When a sudden epidemic produces chaos, a scientist begins to unravel what’s really happening. Each of the women must fight to survive. One is an essential worker who hates her job, one is a rebellious college student, and one is caring for a genetically engineered woolly mammoth doomed by the chaos. Amid the mutiny and epidemic, their quest for freedom will lead them to each other. 

NOAF: Secret sisters, a geneticist studying illegal technology, and a deadly virus. What inspired this story, and how did all those elements get into the story?

SB: The initial central question of the story is identity. What makes us the same and different? Some of it is genetics, and some of it is life experiences. What makes those differences stand out? People show their true nature in a disaster. Because the story is about genetics, I brought more genetics and more disaster into it. The elements posed a lot of questions, and the story resulted from one set of answers.

NOAF: When the three women meet each other and realize everything they have in common, how do they react to learning who they are? Are they surprised? Had any of them been suspecting this truth? Is there any sisterly bonding that happens?

SB: The women manage to find out about each other well before they meet, but as a kind of sisterly bonding, they also don’t contact each other to keep each other safe. I don’t want to say much more and give away the plot.

Each one reacts differently, though, because they are different people. Life prepares all of us to deal with surprises in different ways. The same thing that seems like a disaster to one person can be an opportunity to another. What if you had a sister you never knew about? Your reaction would depend on everything that has happened to you so far.

NOAF: Who was your favorite character to write? What made that person so interesting to you?

SB: One of the sisters works in customer service, and I’ve done that too. She must be subservient and pleasant to all the customers all the time … until, in the chaos, she can finally speak her mind. She says things that I and every customer service worker have always wanted to say.

NOAF: I hear there is a woolly mammoth in this book? Tell me more!

SB: Two words: charismatic megafauna. These are the big animals that we love to love, like tigers, elephants, whales, and gorillas. What could be bigger and more lovable than a six-ton hairy mammoth? I realized that I could bring one back, at least in fiction, so I did. But I had to be honest about it. This would be a demanding, cranky beast that would eat everything in sight, need constant care, and do poorly in captivity. Still, he captures the heart of one of the sisters, and eventually, she gets to ride him!

NOAF: What is your writing process like? Do you plot everything out ahead of time, or do you just start writing and see where the story goes?

SB: Many writers praise the creative, organic exhilaration of “pantsing” or writing by the seat of their pants without an outline, uncovering the story as they go along. So, I thought, I’ll give it a try. It didn’t work for me. My first draft was limp and only half as long as it needed to be. Nine complete re-writes later, I had the final version of Immunity Index. And I learned a lesson. Planning saves time and trouble for me, although maybe not for other writers; whatever works is the right method for you. Now I’ve gone back to my old ways. I use an outline detailed enough to serve as a roadmap, and I discover a lot of interesting sights and stops along the way.

NOAF: You were recently at the virtual Capricon41 Science Fiction convention, and you hosted a few panels. On your blog, you mentioned that the theme of the convention was “Creating the Future We Want”. What is the future that you want? What do you hope to see in the next 5 years, the next 20? 

SB: I would like a quiet future. Slow but sure, we work through our problems. We make decisions that save us from dramatic disaster. People get opportunity, equity, and a chance to be their best and to lead good, productive lives. We bring climate change to a halt, and we live more lightly on the Earth.

I don’t actually expect this to happen, though, at least not in the next five to twenty years. Instead, I hope for noise — good noise, to paraphrase the late Senator John Lewis. Most of all, as we create this future, I don’t want to leave anyone out. We’ve done that in the past, and we’re living amid the wreckage.

NOAF: Thanks so much Sue!

POSTED BY: Andrea Johnson lives in Michigan with her husband and too many books. She can be found on twitter, @redhead5318 , where she posts about books, food, and assorted nerdery. 

Microreview [Book]: Defekt by Nino Cipri

 A story that juggles so much, so inventively, with impressive clarity.

Defekt is the most enjoyably bubbly book I’ve read exploring the burden of shackles. Not literal shackles, but ones that can extend to life as a retail worker or a one of self-doubt. Those shackles siphon your time at the expense of empty praise from apathetic bosses, or it hamstrings the growth of your relationships. But Defekt shows that being unshackled and free is a possibility and is only deceptively difficult. With just a prompt and some effort for self-growth, you can see that you are your biggest enemy, and once you understand that, you become your biggest friend. And what makes this novella most impressive is that these themes aren’t explored in hallmark-card-cheesiness, but through an inventive, twisty story full of clones, animated objects, and wormholes, that’s always compelling.

Defekt is the sequel to Nino Cipri's Hugo-nominated novella Finna, but is accessible to those who haven't read its predecessor, as even though it takes place in a familiar setting, it follows completely different characters In Defekt, Derek is an employee at LitenVärld, always following his instructions to the letter, never letting his bosses down. But then Derek starts feeling off, taking his first sick day. As consequence, his boss sends him to work inventory at night. During that shift, he stumbles upon animated objects and four people who appear to be clones of him, tasked with dealing with the animated objects—defective products. Wormholes, romance, and heart-pounding action ensues.

Derek is a terrific character in his own right. His personality, despite its rigidity, doesn’t lend itself to a monotone, uninteresting voice, because his care for others in the story exudes heartwarming, upbeat warmth. Nino Cipri has made a really interesting choice by not making the clones exactly like Derek, but as their own distinct, fully-formed individuals. There are quirks and features that are synonymous amongst all of them, but their personalities are fluid, whether it be their gender identity or chunks of their worldview. This makes later romantic relationships between some of them un-creepy because Defekt makes it clear that these people aren’t the same at all—it’s way less like romancing themselves and more like romancing someone different who possesses certain qualities they enjoy.

Character identities aren’t the only thing that’s fluid—the writing is, too. Defekt struck the right balance of explaining enough to orient me in the world and characters, without overburdening the story in description. It’s on the longer side of a novella length and absolutely earns its word count, moving with pep, surprising reveals, and skillfully conceived weird humor. Even the beginning, which is largely absent of fantastical imagery and heart-pounding action is engaging because the oppressive but strangely amusing setting of LitenVärld is richly drawn and peppered with characters who act in ways that spotlight the stores rigidity and soul-sucking effect on its employees, imbuing the story with internal roiling and strife that still infuses it with energy. The energy always exists in the novella—just in different ways.

Capturing one life in a story is hard enough. But to capture many clones in a fleshed-out manner that highlight facets of the protagonist, while deviating into fully-formed individuals seems impossible, but Defekt does it. It’s a writerly feat that lends itself to the themes of being unshackled both in work and personally. Because not only does it tell its readers to think and act expansively, but its writing is aptly expansive, too, championing a well-trodden theme in a way that’s unique, and most importantly, grand.

The Math

Baseline Score: 8/10

Bonuses: +1 For finding moments of hilarity amidst all the plot threads.

Nerd Coefficient: 9/10

Cipri, Nino. Defekt [Tordotcom, 2021].

POSTED BY: Sean Dowie - Screenwriter, editor, lover of all books that make him nod his head and say, "Neat!"

Microreview [Book]: The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

The Echo Wife showcases clones that don't feel like bland copies but vibrant anomalies. 

Flaws are often inherited. Those who make and/or raise children push forward their strengths and weaknesses, partly preforming who they are. It’s an endless echo that is heard from generation to generation and burrows itself deep into one's psyche. That burrowing can prompt people to commit misdeeds that scar their children, as their monstrosities migrate to kin. But The Echo Wife proffers that while some might always hear that echo and be tempted to mimic it back, they have the choice to resist it. Because they are not clones of what came before, but wholly different people with nuances of their own.

If The Echo Wife just tackled that theme, it would already be a powerful novel, but it’s more than that. Sarah Gailey writes with exacting prose to deliver an engaging story with a wide web of threads and ideas, all coming together in a way that should please both readers of mind-bending sci-fi and popular thrillers. It balances incisive character moments, the ramifications of cloning, and twists that should still pack a punch whether you predict them or not.

I will give a brief, withholding synopsis because I want to avoid spoilers. Evelyn is a researcher designing clones. She’s also dealing with her husband, Nathan’s affair and separation. Things become thornier when she realizes the woman he’s in a relationship with, named Martine, is a clone of herself—only, parts of the clone have deviated from Evelyn's personality to turn her into Nathan’s ideal woman. And that clone is inexplicably pregnant, a thing that Evelyn thought was a biological impossibility for clones. Murder shortly ensues and complex, highly-charged interactions are offered aplenty.

This is a very insular novel, and that’s a compliment. It’s difficult to deliver a story with such grand ideas, and only center a handful of characters. But The Echo Wife pushes all of the characters to the extreme, as we see the breadth of emotions from them all—some characters who start off rocky methodically transition into steady and vice versa. Whether it’s Martine’s growth of openly expressing a wider array of emotions, even ones that are stigmatized, or Evelyn’s detachment from the parts of her past rotting her insides, every story and character beat is skillfully maneuvered. Only Nathan has a slower character arc, but by the end, there is some development, albeit more miniscule and nuanced.

Nuance is an important word in this book. The Echo Wife posits the flaw of humans to either focus on the macro of people, or just the micros that are pertinent to them. And it pushes its readers to dig deeper for rewards--not only because human connection is most satisfying with genuine bonds and not self-interested ones, but because there are little morsels of information that reveal the novel to be greater than the sum of its part. Missing nuances is unfortunate both in real life and in the reading of this novel.

In some people’s - including Nathan's - head a person as anodyne as possible is ideal. But ideals in the head are often better than reality. Sarah Gailey has highlighted how characters are best when jagged, only willing to smooth over the parts of them that are truly harmful, leaving a lot of roughness behind. For that and many other reasons, The Echo Wife is an excellent novel, and I wouldn’t change much of it even if I could.

The Math

Baseline Score: 8/10

Bonuses: +1 For skillfully following through on all of its plot threads.

Nerd Coefficient: 9/10

POSTED BY: Sean Dowie - Screenwriter, stand-up comedian, lover of all books that make him nod his head and say, "Neat!"

Gailey, Sarah. The Echo Wife [Tor Books, 2021].

Microreview [book]: Six Wakes, by Mur Lafferty

The elevator pitch: A clone murder mystery in space.

The heart of Six Wakes is a murder mystery. With that in mind, I don't want to give too much away because part of the fun in a mystery is seeing if you can solve it before someone else gives you the answers.

Here are the basic facts: There is a single ship headed into deep space on a mission to colonize a new planet. Travel time is such that the six-man crew must be cloned throughout the journey to extend their lifetime. Typically when a clone wakes, it is with all of the previous clone's memories. However, all six crew members wake up, at the same time, missing decades from their memories and surrounded by their floating murdered clones. One of them is the murderer.

Do you have goosebumps yet? I am giddy just thinking about what Mur Lafferty accomplishes with this book.

You see, I grew up watching Law & Order, Murder She Wrote, Perry Mason, the A-Team, etc. and Lafferty has managed to seamlessly join genre and mystery elements into this single volume thriller.

Lafferty sprinkles clues for both the crew and the reader. Because the crew is missing decades worth of memories, they know virtually nothing about each other so the reader experiences the same suspicions as the crew as we all learn backstories and new information is discovered. 

I kept thinking I'd figured it out and then BAM! Lafferty would reveal something new, and with new connections made I'd have to rethink my big Scooby-Doo GOTCHA moment.

I stayed up into the wee hours reading because I just had to know. More than just who the murderer was, I needed to know who each of the characters were and how they'd ended up where they did. Lafferty made me care about them and want to follow them. It is a page-turner of the best kind.

You aren't flying through, skimming passages just to get to the end. You are flying through, soaking up every line wanting more. More of the characters and their world. And when the end final does come there is the satisfaction of finally knowing the 'who dunnit' but also a sadness that you're saying good-bye to this crew you've spent all this time getting to know.

Hands down this will probably be one of my favorite books of 2017. It is a suspense-thriller-scifi-mystery adventure. One might ask, "But Shana, how can a single book possibly be all those things and do them well?" And I would firmly answer you, "Listen up, Mur Lafferty knows how to write, so you better sit back and enjoy the ride." (Side note, in person my answer would involve swearing for emphasis but I am keeping this family friendly.)

If you're looking for a fresh take on clones, scifi/mystery blends, or a fantastic stay-up-all-night-reading experience, you want to pick up Six Wakes.





The Math:
Baseline Assessment: 9/10 Bonuses: +1 Deftly combining scifi/mystery/suspense/thriller
Penalties:  -1 No additional books in this world have been announced (Orbit, if you're reading this, I formally request more please.)
Nerd Coefficient: 9/10 "a fantastic stay-up-all-night-reading experience"
  ***

POSTED BY: Shana DuBois--extreme bibliophile and seeker of raindrops.
Reference: Lafferty, Mur. Six Wakes [Orbit, 2017]
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