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Chaos Terminal (The Midsolar Murders, #2)

Mur Lafferty

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Feb 18, 2024 Lata rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2024-read, auth-f, sf-f-h, mystery

I found this latest instalment of the Midsolar Murders series oddly evocative of a 1940 comedy, even though one terrible thing after another was happening in "Chaos Terminal", which is also a welcome return to Mur Lafferty's sentient space station Eternity and murder magnet Mallory Veridian.

At the book's outset, things promptly start going awry once Mrs. Brown heads off on sentient shuttle Infinity for some mysterious reason, leaving Mallory to mind the station. There is a new group of humans ar I found this latest instalment of the Midsolar Murders series oddly evocative of a 1940 comedy, even though one terrible thing after another was happening in "Chaos Terminal", which is also a welcome return to Mur Lafferty's sentient space station Eternity and murder magnet Mallory Veridian.

At the book's outset, things promptly start going awry once Mrs. Brown heads off on sentient shuttle Infinity for some mysterious reason, leaving Mallory to mind the station. There is a new group of humans arriving, including the new human ambassador, Jessica Brass, and three people Mallory's very surprised to see:

-Amy, her childhood best friend
-Parker, Amy's brother, and Mallory's serious crush
-Don Draughn, the FBI agent who discounted Mallory's contributions to his investigations, so much so that Mallory had no way to find work and eventually left Earth for Eternity.

Eternity is behaving oddly, and something is wrong with the Sundry (who manage the autonomous functions of the station, and collect data on all sorts of things). This is highlighted by Mallory not reacting as expected to all the new humans, particularly the ones she knows. And very soon after, one of the humans is murdered. Mallory investigates, but because Sundry are dropping like flies, I mean, dead wasps, she's not noticing things clearly.

Mallory eventually feels more like herself (after figuring out what is happening with the Sundry), and then she really begins investigating, and seeing connections between actions to the point that she quickly identifies the murderer, and deals with some unresolved issues between her and Amy and Parker.

And while the mystery was interesting, it was the characters that really shone here. Mallory remains likeable, and driven once she's on a case, but the real standout this time was the Gneiss princess Tina, who cracked me up repeatedly, and then some, with all her antics. She pretty much stole every scene she was in.

I love this humour-mystery-aliens mix with its fast-paced action and dialogue, and really can't wait to read the next book in this series. ...more

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Dec 19, 2023 Cindy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, audiobooks

Mallory has been placed in charge of monitoring the ship’s vitals whilst Mrs Brown is away. A new batch of emissaries is heading toward the space station. The group includes the FBI agent who tried to arrest Mallory, Mallory’s secret crush from high school and his twin sister who was her best friend (and the one who prevented them from dating), along with their older brother and his husband, all part of a UNC group mission to explore relationships with the space station species. Highly coinciden ...more

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Jan 15, 2024 Lindsay rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, mystery

Nov 06, 2023 Gali marked it as to-read

Feb 05, 2024 Robyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2024

Jun 08, 2024 Juliana marked it as to-read

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