Chaos Terminal

The Midsolar Murders #2

by Mur Lafferty

Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, and fled to outer space to avoid it…but when one of the new human arrivals on a space shuttle is murdered, she’s back in the game.

Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, thank you very much. But no matter what she does, people persist in dying around her—and only she seems to be able to solve the crime. After fleeing to an alien space station in hopes that the lack of humans would stop the murders, a serial killer had the nerve to follow her to Station Eternity. (Mallory deduced who the true culprit was that time, too.)

Now the law enforcement agent who hounded Mallory on Earth has come to Station Eternity, along with her teenage crush and his sister, Mallory’s best friend from high school. Mallory doesn’t believe in coincidences, and so she’s not at all surprised when someone in the latest shuttle from Earth is murdered. It’s the story of her life, after all.

Only this time she has more than a killer to deal with. Between her fugitive friends, a new threat arising from the Sundry hivemind, and the alarmingly peculiar behavior of the sentient space station they all call home, even Mallory’s deductive abilities are strained. If she can’t find out what’s going on (and fast), a disaster of intergalactic proportions may occur.…

Genres: Mystery, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Space, Aliens, Mystery Thriller

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 7, 2023

About the author

NOTE- Goodreads mail is NOT a good way to get in touch with me. I don't get notifications of questions and I'm rarely here. Please contact me via my website, murverse.com.

Mur Lafferty is the author of Solo: A Star Wars Story and the Hugo and Nebula nominated novel Six Wakes, The Shambling Guides series, and several self pubbed novels and novellas, including the award winning Afterlife series. She is the host of the Hugo-winning podcast Ditch Diggers, and the long-running I Should Be Writing. She is the recipient of the John Campbell Award for best new writer, the Manly Wade Wellman Award, the Best Fancast Hugo Award, and joined the Podcast Hall of Fame in 2015, its inaugural year.

Reviews

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars - I'm always here for a character driven sci fi mystery, which is definitely what this delivers! Not a standalone, you'll need to read the first book to understand what's going on, but it was good to pick back up with the characters we met there and to also have new character and new elements of the world come in. As the title suggests, there is A LOT going on in this book, and the chaos was honestly kind of stressful to me. It felt like 20 pounds of action in 10 pound bag. So for me, that wasn't my favorite vibe, but respect that it was purposeful authorial choice.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second science fiction/murder mystery novel that features Mallory Viridian. I recommend reading the first one, Station Eternity, before this one because I think you'd be lost without the background. It's another fast-paced and well-written adventure that works well both as a space opera and as a traditional whodunnit. There are some very funny bits (one of the chapters is titled Not My Cat, Not My Rocking Chair, for example), and a very diverse and delightful cast of characters, along with the traditional mystery tropes. Honestly, I suspect almost everyone will figure out who the murderer is pretty quickly, but some of the how and why details were pretty cool. It's fun and entertaining.

[Brenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed in this one. The story bones are good and the plot runs smoothly but... Lafferty writes better than this. It's way too bare bones for my preferences. I would have preferred the book she wrote if she hadn't been rushed to finish by deadline.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Source* Publisher
*Genre* Science Fiction / Mystery
*Rating* 3.5

*Thoughts*

Chaos Terminal, by Mur Lafferty, is the second installment in the authors MidSolar Murders series. Mallory Viridian's talent for solving murders has ruined her life—and even driven her to space—in this speculative take on the classic mystery series. When she was 8, Mallory was stung by an alien species known as Sundry (hive-minded, wasp-like aliens), giving her the ability to be drawn towards pockets of high probability of Murder. Yet, murder has followed her to the sentient space station called Eternity where she is now a reluctant detective helping people find lost items, stolen things, and of course, solving murders.

*Full Review @ Gizmos Reviews*

https://gizmosreviews.blogspot.com/20...

[Shannon Miz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is such a fun, exciting win! We meet back up with Mallory and the gang of the sentient station Eternity just as more humans are headed to the station, only humans and Mallory have not worked out well in the past. She's clearly less than thrilled, but imagine her surprise when, of all the billions of humans who could have arrived on the ship, she happens to know at least half of them. There begins what can only be described as a dark comedy of errors, where folks both human and otherwise are anything but safe.

Honestly, the best part of this series is absolutely the characters. I adore Mallory, but many of the secondary characters are just an absolute riot. Like more Tina, always, please and thank you. But all the characters make even the most dire space catastrophe seem entertaining. I still cannot totally picture what the other species look like, and in my mind, the Gneiss look like bigger and more jovial Whomps from Mario, so do what you will with that. Regardless, they are all great.

Probably not at all what they look like but it's fine. 
Anyway, I think because I loved the characters so much is a big reason of why I loved this second installment equally as much. I cared about what was going to happen to them, basically. And add to it, the journey to get there was entertaining in itself, again, because of the characters. And the stakes are certainly high, don't get me wrong! There was a lot of excitement and dire straights and murder and hijacking and... well I could go on all day, just do yourself a favor and give this series a chance!

Bottom Line: The characters are endlessly endearing and there is plenty of action to go around, so bring on book 3!

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

[Meagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't as invested in this one as the first. For some reason, this one felt a little more lackluster... It was still fun, and the way the lines all come together is satisfying. But throughout the story I got confused a few times, and then I actually figured out who the killer was pretty easily (which is not normal for me). So it was fine, just a fun little mystery but it took a decent amount of attention to keep up.

I both love and hate Tina. Lol

[Jacqueline Langille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing style excellent, twists kept me guessing, the setting and characters are as compelling as in the first book. Could have used a little more line editing to catch repetitive language: my editor brain won't shut up sometimes 🥴. Overall, highly enjoyable. Looking forward to a third book in this exciting series!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much fun! I did this one as an audiobook as well and the audio narrator is great. I felt like this one built on the adventures of the previous book and there was also less of the "creating the setting" because that was done in book one.

Mallory Veridian is the Jessica Fletcher in space, so when a murder has happened, she is able to solve it. But with the influx of new visitors to the space station Eternity - she is finding her usual skills are gone. Definitely recommending if you enjoyed the first book.

[CG · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know if this is intended to be YA, but all of the characters have the socio-emotional maturity of 8th graders, which helps to propel the plot, but is exhausting. It definitely reads like a juvenile to me. Too, there is a lot of backstory and world-building from the first novel that I don't think gets effectively re-capped. I don't think I'll be returning to this universe.

[Amy apple · Rating 2 out of 5]

End of the this series for me.

Had high hopes this would be better but it was not.

The first part of the book felt like a huge recap of the first book which shouldn’t be required or maybe it was just done terribly.

I enjoy the sci fi facts and bits and bobs but the mystery plot component just fell flat for me.

[Denise Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder mystery in space with aliens? Love it!

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title for this one works both ways. There’s plenty of chaos at this terminal, and much of it is terminal. But that’s not exactly a surprise with Mallory Viridian on the case. Even if part of the chaos at Station Eternity happens BECAUSE Mallory Viridian is on the case.

And entirely too much of the rest of it happens because not ALL of Mallory Viridian is on the case. To the point where Mallory isn’t even aware that there’s a case at all until someone literally drags her to the scene of the crime, and Mallory finally figures out that whatever has gone wrong on Station Eternity has gone wrong with her as well.

It’s not actually a surprise that something has gone wrong AROUND Mallory, or even that something has gone wrong WITH Mallory. Mallory is a chaos magnet of the first order, and both of those things are always happening whenever Mallory is around.

Because people always end up dead in Mallory’s vicinity. Not because she’s some kind of serial killer, but because the kind of chaos that Mallory attracts – and is then both blamed for and stuck with solving, not necessarily in that order – is the chaos that surrounds murder. She doesn’t perpetrate it, she doesn’t cause it, but wherever Mallory is, murder happens.

What Mallory is still adjusting to, and the reason that Mallory isn’t initially aware of the problems that the station is having, are directly related to Mallory’s discovery about herself and all those murders in the first book in the Midsolar Murders series, Station Eternity.

Mallory was bitten by a wasp as a child. But it wasn’t a wasp. Mallory was bitten by an advance scout for the Sundry, an alien insect species that either infiltrated Earth or arose there long before First Contact. The Sundry, as a hivemind and as a species, like gathering data and are attracted to chaos because there’s plenty of data to parse in chaotic conditions.

It’s unfortunate for Mallory that the scout that bit her was from a hivemind that was particularly attracted to the chaos around murder investigations, leading to pretty much everything that happens in Mallory’s life afterwards.

Leading Mallory to the isolation of Station Eternity – as a mere four humans aren’t enough to generate the coincidences that lead to Mallory’s brand of murder chaos.

There are, however, plenty of other species living and working aboard the station, including the chameleon-like Phantasmagore and the rocky Gneiss. And the Sundry, who in their love of chaos and data make a specialty of handling the semi-autonomous functions of spaceships and space stations.

But something is wrong with the Sundry aboard Station Eternity – and it’s wrong with Mallory as well. It’s so wrong that when a whole shipload of humans arrives on the Station, Mallory isn’t panicking about the near-certainty of murder in her vicinity. Not even as the coincidences start piling up. Suddenly there are entirely too many humans aboard Eternity, and too many of them know Mallory entirely too well.

It’s only when the bodies start dropping that Mallory finally figures out that the murders aren’t the only thing going wrong on the station, and that she’ll have to solve those murders without her murder-solving mojo – or get it back.

If she can.

Escape Rating B: One of the things that made the first book in this series, Station Eternity, so damn much fun was its relentless pace. From the moment we meet Mallory, the chaos starts swirling, Mallory starts panicking, and the whole thing is off to the races.

But when we get back to Mallory in Chaos Terminal, Mallory is not feeling herself. At all. She thinks it’s some kind of space flu. Whatever it is, she’s so far from firing on all thrusters she isn’t even aware that a huge chunk of what makes Mallory BE Mallory is totally offline.

The story isn’t told from Mallory’s first person perspective, but she is very much the reader’s perspective on events, which means that Mallory being in a complete fog for the first third of the book means that we are as well.

So it’s a third of the way into the story before Mallory’s fog lifts and the real action kicks into gear. At that point, it’s suddenly, thankfully and blissfully gangbusters, but it’s a LONG slog to get there and I very nearly didn’t.

The story, and the mystery, in Chaos Terminal is wrapped around cleaning up the many, many fascinating loose ends that were left laying on the deck of Eternity after the chaotic, nearly cataclysmic events of that first book – especially Mallory’s own, personal loose ends.

Which means that Chaos Terminal is probably not the best place to start the Midsolar Murders because a LOT of this story was set up in that first book. Howsomever, if you got caught up in Mallory’s bloody, madcap situation then, there’s a lot of fun in seeing most of those loose ends get tied up, quite possibly in a series of Gordian Knots, here in this second outing.

In spite of the science fictional setting – which is utterly fascinating – this SF mystery is pretty much character driven. Meaning that if you like Mallory as a character and enjoy her multi-species Scooby Gang, it will probably work for you. I did like Mallory a LOT in Station Eternity, so I came into Chaos Terminal expecting to love it as well. I think it works a bit less well than that first book because Mallory REALLY isn’t herself for that long beginning, and the less polished and/or less likable characters’ rough edges are very much on display while Mallory is getting her act together.

But I do like Mallory Viridian as a character, and as a human perspective on humanity’s first toehold in this near-future, post-First Contact, wider galactic universe. A universe that is not only not centered on humans, but doesn’t even seem to be centered on humanoids, making it every bit as fascinating a character as Mallory herself.

Which means that I absolutely will be back to see who, or what, ends up dead when Mallory’s next investigation/adventure/crisis appears!

Originally published at Reading Reality

[Amy Ashworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second of the Midsolar Murders. The first, Station Eternity, introduced critical plotlines, so you’d better read it first. I enjoyed this second installment; Lafferty’s writing is fun – this comes out in the crazy dramas with aliens aboard the sentient space station Eternity and the voices she gives them. I hate to draw comparisons if it makes people less interested in reading, but I have to say Lafferty could write Marvel scripts, specifically for films starring plant-based lifeforms and aggressive talking rodents.

This story begins with Mallory, the Earthwoman who left Earth to escape from the murders that she uncannily seemed to attract, and Mrs. Brown, the Earthwoman who replaced the former “host” (lots of symbiotic relationships in this series) of station Eternity, meeting outside the scope of the Sundry, hive-minded, wasp-like aliens who have an interesting and complicated connection to Mallory. Mrs. Brown is leaving Eternity aboard her daughter, the spaceship Infinity, to learn more about her role as Eternity’s host. Mallory is tasked with taking care of things while Mrs. Brown is gone, which is a huge ask, considering the chaos that ensued when Eternity’s former host was found murdered.

To complicate things, another shuttle will be arriving from Earth, and Mallory’s job will be to welcome them and act in Mrs. Brown’s stead if anything arises. And Mallory isn’t feeling too well… chills, fever, headache. And the Sundry are acting strange: the silver faction seems to be working with the blue faction of alien wasps instead of fighting with it, as usual.

Next we get reacquainted with Xan Morgan, the 3rd Earth emigré who stowed away aboard Eternity in the first book to avoid arrest. He is Infinity’s host, so as you can imagine, it’s a wrench to let Mrs. Brown leave without him, and he’s spending a lot of time with Ferd (Ferdinand), his Gneiss bartender friend. Gneiss are giant, rock aliens that can take infinite forms as they mature – Ferdinand is a hominid shape, as is princess Tina, although Tina’s form has rocket thrusters!, and their friend Stephanie transformed herself into a spaceship. Gneiss communicate through vibrations, and can do so across the entire space station. The bar is the only place aboard Eternity where Xan and Mallory can get food that doesn’t kill or poison them, even if the drinks resemble lava more than hot coffee.

Xan is looking for some comradeship to get his mind off Infinity, but Ferd is dealing with his own problems: Tina and Stephanie both rocked the Gneiss world by evolving quickly - something that their progenitors don’t countenance because in order to do so, a Gneiss absorbs the life energy of another lifeform, and in both Tina and Stephanie’s cases, the lifeforms they absorbed to transform were recent murder victims…so they’re laying low to avoid a second round of punishment from their mother planet Bromide after the first one ended in gunfire and explosions. Tina hopes to get to the prison planet Bezoar, where she can get support from her subjects.

Mallory has made her way home to rest, and to meet with our final human, the failed Eternity host Adrian, also a failed Earth ambassador, and Mallory considers him a failed human. When he tried to join with Eternity, he was blinded and chaos ensued; the near-death experience mellowed him out a very, teensy little bit. Thanks to some visual tech from Phantasmagore friend Devanshi, Adrian can see with the help of a little drone that follows him around. He notices that she looks bad, but insists Mallory co-host a reception for the humans on the incoming shuttle.

The next thing Mallory knows, she is waking up three days later in the medbay. While she was out of commission, station Eternity became less and less responsive. In the delirium of her fever, Mallory sees a vision of her high school friend Amy Valor shielded by a boy who both attracts and repulses Mallory. When she wakes, she finds the Earth shuttle has already arrived, she’s had some visitors – apparently there are people she knows on the shuttle– and it’s the day of the reception! While Mallory was out, comms went out, as well as other critical ship systems. Tina is stomping around trying to help, but everything is cuckoo.

Surprisingly, Mallory feels none of the dread of murder(s) that normally accompanies her attendance at a gathering. At the party, she meets the new Earth ambassador, former WNBA star Jessica Brass as well as a threesome Mallory knew on Earth: Dr. Amy Valor, her best friend from high school on Eternity studying quantum physics with a scientific contingent from the University of North Carolina sent to study extraterrestrial life; Amy’s twin brother Parker, self-proclaimed bug guy, also with the UNC crew; and North Carolina SBI agent Donald Draughn, the man who made Mallory’s last years on Earth a living hell, ruining her chances to work in law enforcement as a detective.

After meeting the latter three, Mallory bolts, experiencing bizarre, severe anxiety. She looks for information from the Silver Sundry at their hive in the shuttle bay, but instead of getting information, she finds dead silver bodies around their hive and no response. She heads up to the park where the Blue Sundry have their nest and asks them for information, but only hears buzzing. She makes her way back to the party, where she meets Oscar Daye, basketball coach and celebrity gossip website owner, and apparent sleazeball.

The anxious feelings are too much for Mallory, so she leaves Xan to take her place at the reception, where he meets Oscar, Reggie and Dr. Max Valor-Cole, all three part of the UNC group but linked to Amy and Parker as well–Reggie is their older brother. Reggie is a lawyer working for Oscar. He studies how the US has changed their laws since first contact. Max is an experimental psychologist studying the effects of aliens on human behavior. The couple seem to be experiencing a little friction…

As Xan reviews the tableau at the reception, he understands a little bit about how Mallory must feel when all the pieces show connections. It’s at this moment that Jessica Brass asks Xan to walk her back to her room.
Meanwhile, Mallory is resting and thinking about the Earth visitors. There are too many people she knows gathered together. She can’t believe she didn’t remember Parker! She had such a huge crush on him in high school, but Amy wouldn’t let her get close. And Draughn? Why? Suddenly, Sundry fly through the vents and give her a distressed message about unknown chaos and confusion. Instead of jumping up to investigate, she surrenders to sleep and has anxious dreams, but wakes up to a pounding on her door. It’s agent Draughn, and he’s covered in blood.

Like I said before, Lafferty seems to have a good time writing. As with lots of murder mystery plots, the reader is faced with a lot of characters and potential motives. I like the way Mallory is taken out of commission – her normal senses are disrupted and the rest of the novel requires her to put all the stories together to tease out what really happened. It doesn’t hurt that she gets help from Xan and the rest of her friends.

My critique is that the plot is heavily conversational; for me, this has the unfortunate effect of the characters running together, but also makes for great sequence and plot progression. Because of this, the plot seems rushed (just my opinion!). If you like your science fiction murder mysteries action-packed, this is a book for you.

I look forward to the next Midsolar Murder in the series – I see some things in this one that I’m very interested in finding more about.

Thank you, NetGalley, ACE, Berkly and Penguin Random House for sending this book for review. Any opinions are my own; I’m not receiving any kind of douceur for my review.

[Sarah Muncy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chaos Terminal is the sequel to Station Eternity, which I read in October and gave 3.5 stars. Will Staehle has designed an excellent cover for the sequel just as he did for the first book.

1: The Plot

Mallory Viridian, her friends, and Station Eternity are back.

The Midsolar Murders series takes place in the near future. Aliens and humans have made contact and even formed symbiotic relationships with each other.

Just like the mystery in the first book, this whodunnit is personal to Mallory. A shuttle of new humans arrives on Station Eternity. These humans include Amy and Parker Valor, twins who are Mallory’s high school best friend and crush respectively. Not to mention Donald Draughn, the SBI agent who prevented Mallory from becoming a detective on Earth.

A murder of one of the new humans combined with the Sundry (the wasp-like hive mind symbiotically connected to Mallory) acting strange creates new mysteries for everyone to solve.

2: The Audiobook

The audiobook is narrated by Kelsey Navarro Foster. I didn’t like it as much as the audiobook for the first book. I found it a bit more flat and even more dry than the first book’s narration. It was easy to follow but the voices weren’t distinct.

3: The Characters

As usual, I’m only going to talk about the characters that I have something to say about. So, if a character isn’t on this list, assume I think they’re boring.

Eternity. Eternity is the sentient space station where the main characters reside. Eternity is thrown into chaos in the first book with the death of her symbiote. She attempts to form a bond with someone else which goes horribly wrong but she ultimately ends up in a symbiotic relationship with Mrs. Brown, who is a perfect match for her and whom she discovers organically. However, the sequel’s plot needs to recreate the chaos of the first, so at the beginning, Mrs. Brown goes on a trip away from Eternity, leaving the station vulnerable without her symbiote. It’s basically the equivalent of undoing character development so it can be redone.

Xan. Xan was my favorite character from the first book, so I was upset when he barely got any attention in this one. The extent of his storyline is that the ship he’s in a symbiotic relationship with, Infinity, leaves with Mrs. Brown at the beginning of the novel. Xan missing Infinity and awkwardly flirting with Earth’s new ambassador on Eternity, Jessica, is the extent of his part of the story in this one.

Generally, this book suffers from the same issue as the first one. There are too many POV characters. They all only get enough exposition to contain the depth of a shallow puddle by the end. There were too many moving parts.

4: Prose, Narrative, and Story

I thought that the whodunnit in the first book was personal to Mallory because it was a jumping off point for the series. I assumed the next installment would be less so, with Mallory more removed from the mystery. I was wrong. Which begs the question, won’t the author run out of people that Mallory knows?

The story is once again too full. There are new characters to navigate as well as old ones to expand on. There are two new mysteries and Gneiss politics. It’s too much, resulting in a pretty lukewarm story. The plot was noisy but had very little real substance.

I also hated the amount of romance in this book. First, Xan and Mallory have both history and chemistry. If romance is necessary for the story (I don’t think it is, but if we’re indulging it), they make the most sense as love interests. New characters didn’t need to be introduced to romance them. And most of this book forgets about Xan altogether.

Overall, my critiques of the first novel carry through to this one. So, this may be me just not liking the author’s style.

5: Conclusion

I enjoyed the sequel a bit less than the first installment. I still find this series mediocre and its characters annoying. I particularly disliked the romance aspect of this one.

★★★☆☆ (3/5)

[⚫㊐✨Heather Mc Erlean❦㈦㊏ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Chaos Terminal," by Mur Lafferty, is an outstanding science fiction book. With words like "galumphing," how could this book be anything but superb? I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway. I am happy I did. I need to get the first book to see where this all started. It reads as a standalone book, but it would probably help to read the first one.

When I first began reading this book, it took me back to my Farscape days. The ships were living, and in this, the station is. Then it took a turn down Star Trek Lane with hive minds, like the Borg. It kept me hooked from the beginning. While I can make comparisons all day long, it is still a gem of a book in its own right without the comparisons.

It is fascinating how the book brings up the same old generational politics in a new way. One of my favorite passages from the book portrays this sentiment perfectly. "Sounds like you really committed the high crime of 'not the way your parents did it.'" I can see myself using this line in the future.

Another favorite part of the book is when Parker asks Mallory if he can trust her. The response was perfect and a response I have thought of many times. Trustworthy or not, who would answer no? The names of the chapters are clever.

I was smiling as I read the book, and that's what it's all about. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes murder mysteries and science fiction.

[Shrike58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you haven't read "Station Eternity," do not pass go, do not collect $200.00, go and read that novel first.

Having introduced the character of Mallory Viridian, a woman who wound up going into off-Earth exile because she got sick of always being associated with murders, which only she can solve, and unwinding how this state of affair came to be, the question becomes how do you top that? Well, you really don't, but you do work through the implications of what it means to be in a symbiotic relationship with a society of wasp-like beings, who just so happen to have their own enemies. Not to mention that there are still characters who have business with Mallory. Being an actual mystery, there are limits to what one can talk about, but if you liked the first book you should like this one.

[a_big_al · Rating 2 out of 5]

First book was an easy read, this was a slog. Too many povs and time jumps muddles the story. For a space station full of aliens, there’s a very limited cast. Quite a few characters are TSTL; the “romane” feels very YA/NA for supposed adults. Won’t be reading for the third book.

[Brandon Wills · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid sequel with a fun mystery here's hoping for a third book

[Chris Loves to Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another delightful murder mystery aboard the Eternity!

[Dan Banana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action, mystery, bug creatures, Tina, murder, mayhem and lots going on. Entertaining and over the top space activities.

[Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 - it was pretty good but got a little messy about 3/4 in, but ultimately was wrapped up well still. I’d read the next one!

[Kristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. Kind of all over the place. I still prefer Mallory and Zan’s storylines over the others, and would like to see one where Eternity isn’t compromised.

[Christi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great sequel. Still some darkness and lots of flashbacks but a rollicking ride.

Series characters, strong sense of place, witty

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series. It may seem a little slow starting out, but if you hang in there, it gets going good..! You *have to* read the first novel in the series before this one, because this one just won’t make sense without the critical plot lines that were introduced in the first book. This science fiction murder mystery was action packed, and kept me intrigued straight through to the ending. I never saw who the ‘bad guy’ was, but then again, I never even tried - I was loving hearing about all our old friends from book one (Station Eternity) again, and seeing what crazy antics that Gneiss named Tina is up to now..! And, of course, to see how these new murders follow poor Mallory around, and how they affect her this time. What fun!
I adore Ms. Lafferty’s writing, and I literally cannot wait to see what she writes next. I sure hope it’s another part of this Midsolar Murders novels! But if it’s not, I’ll read whatever else she writes also. Lafferty is really becoming one of my favorite authors, with her solidly written and fun novels, her diverse and eclectic cast of characters who are sometimes very snarky, and in just the right way. You are surely guaranteed a good time, going into his universe.

Kelsey Navarro Foster Is the narrator for the audiobook version of this novel, instead of the narrator for the first one of this series. And you know what? She was wonderful, too. She made me chuckle a few times, with her delivery/emoting. Great job, Ms. Foster! I hope we cross paths again sometime soon! And great job Books on Tape, for this entirely enjoyable series.

4 stars, and highly recommended.

—————————————————————————
8/14/2025

Still 4 stars. Still highly recommended.

[Cressa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book, but not quite as much as the first in the series. I felt like there was so much going on that I would occasionally get lost and have to go back and re-read a chapter to see if I missed something or if we had just changed perspective again. The author states in the acknowledgements that there will be a book 3 and I look forward to continuing the series.

ARC from NetGalley

[Richard James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This sequel was not for me- although I remember enjoying the first book. I think I am more intolerant now of incompetent protagonists and unsympathetic main characters, and most of the protagonists here were one or both of these.

[Grahame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder Mystery in space

I really enjoy Mur Lafferty's style with murder mysteries. Always intricate with plenty of red herrings, misdirection, the complexity of a science fiction setting, and the occasional interstellar war.

I can't wait for book 3.

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

A definite improvement over the first book, this one felt more coherent and had a more cohesive plot. I still struggle to say I really like this series, but if there’s a third book I might still be lured back.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than the first. Made me laugh out loud so many times. Mallory our MC much more comfortable in herself which made her character way less annoying in this one. The hero’s journey! 😂 we are a wet sack of ppl.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

It lives up to its name and was quite Chaotic but I enjoyed the ride.