Alexandra Pierce Reviews Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty

Chaos Terminal, Mur Lafferty (Ace 978-0-59309-813-4, 369pp, $17.00, tp) Cover by Will Staehle. November 2023.

I have watched a lot of episodes of the British TV show Midsomer Murders. They follow a predict­able format: There’s the murder (or three) and the investigation, and the final triumphant reveal of whodunit. In the course of the investigation far more problems than just the murder will turn up, some of which are red herrings and some of which are relevant. There might be infidel­ity, fraud, secret identities, or vandalism; family feuds, public rivalries, and varying degrees of scheming are favorite tropes. In this second of the Midsolar Murders series, the follow-up to 2022’s Station Eternity, Mur Lafferty once again takes up this format and explores what happens when you let it run on a sentient space station largely populated by aliens, with four permanent human residents, two of whom are symbiotically connected to an alien species (one an insect-like hivemind, the other the offspring of said sentient space station). It’s a lot.

Mallory Viridian moved to Station Eternity to get away from humans, since people have an annoying tendency to be murdered in her vicinity. Station Eternity explained why this is so – it concerns her connection to the Sundry, a wasp-like alien species – but that doesn’t negate the fact that it’s still likely to happen. The arrival of a shuttle full of humans is therefore already a cause for some concern, and when you add to that the absence of Station Eternity’s human host, who has asked Mallory to fill in during that absence, Mallory knows she’s in for a headache. On top of that, she knows three of the new arrivals: the police officer who long suspected her of being in­volved in the murders she had solved; a long-lost childhood friend; and said friend’s twin brother, on whom Mallory had an unrequited crush, and who tends to have spectacularly bad luck. The rest of the humans include the new ambassador and a truly appalling man whose goal is to flirt with, and potentially sleep with, pretty much every other human. He is the one who ends up murdered, to no one’s great regret – which means there are plenty of suspects for Mallory to investigate. And so the story unfolds, complete with challeng­ing relationships, various secrets, and difficult revelations. ‘Chaos’ is an apt description for the relationships, in particular. The joy of consuming any such murder mystery is in following how an author gradually creates order out of the initial chaos, to show everything making sense; Lafferty does this with great finesse.

Alongside this storyline are two other plots which sometimes intersect with (and complicate) each other and with the murder investigation. One plot involves the Sundry: They help to keep Station Eternity operating, but they are experienc­ing a serious problem with hive infiltrators, which has repercussions for everyone inhabiting the station – and for Mallory, symbiotically linked to the Sundry hive. The other plot involves another alien species, the Gneiss. Tina is one of the largest Gneiss – a rock species who already run to Large – on the station. Tina has: one, offended most of her species by consuming a (dead) human; two, recently become queen of her planet; and three, become sick of being regarded as stupider than her friends. Putting these issues together means that Tina makes some choices that directly con­tribute to the chaos – like getting Station Eternity to leave its accustomed orbit and jet off into space. Fortunately, she does also make choices that contribute to bringing order, both for the station’s inhabitants and for herself. While they are side plots, they are vital in developing Station Eternity as a believable space, and breathing life into the characters and their relationships.

It’s not imperative to have read Station Eternity to enjoy Chaos Terminal; the crime and subse­quent investigation stand alone. As with many such murder mysteries, though, there’s definitely something to be said for already knowing who the characters are, their quirks and styles. (And read­ing Chaos Terminal first would mean already knowing the conclusion of the first investigation; your mileage will vary on whether that’s a prob­lem.) After Station Eternity, I had high hopes for a continuation of the series; Chaos Terminal is just what I was hoping for, and it’s clear there is plenty of scope for more (there have been more than 130 episodes of Midsomer Murders…).

This review and more like it in the December and January 2023 issue of Locus.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.

©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.