The Heist of Hollow London

The Heist of Hollow London by Eddie Robson, 288 pages

Clones Arlo and Dianne make a living as walking advertisements for trendy fashion companies owned by the same megacorporation that owns them. But then, seemingly simultaneously, the company goes under and Arlo's called in for reaping, which means that the corporate executive from whom he was cloned has need of one of Arlo's organs. But when Arlo isn't immediately killed for his "spare parts," he learns that he's been given the man's eyes instead as part of an elaborate plot to steal enough money for Arlo, Dianne, and a cohort of other clones to buy their freedom. However, not all is as it seems.

I love science fiction and I love heists, and this is a wonderful mix of both. I loved the worldbuilding of the dystopian, crumbling world of future Earth, and it's obvious that the crimes were well-planned by Robson. If anything, the end is a bit too convenient and neat, but really, that's getting pretty darn nitpicky. Loved it, much as I have with other books Robson's written.

MEM

MEM by Bethany C. Morrow (2018) 189 pages

Are you a fan of the Netflix series Black Mirror? You might like this. This short novel is set in the 1920s and doesn't feel as dystopian. A scientist has discovered a way for people to extract memories. The MEMs are zombie-like pale copies of the original person that just re-experience the emotional core of the memory until they expire. Except for Dolores Extract #1, who chooses the name Elsie to distinguish herself. She breaks all the rules by remembering all of her source's memories and has the unique ability to remember new experiences. Is she fully human? The mystery of her existence in a non-linear timeline with profound questions about identity, memory, and civil liberties are explored with much contemplation.
 

Dance with the Devil

Dance with the Devil (Mercenary Librarians #3) by Kit Rocha (2022) 352 pages

I continued to enjoy this series. It picks up immediately after the events of the second book, and a relatively short span of time has past in total in all three books. The TechCorps security memos and such, which are inserted between chapters, are contemporary, so we are past the flashback scientific observation entries from the training days of various members of the team. Dani and Rafe now get to be the center of attention. Their relationship is developed. Their skills are needed especially for the key mission. Dani's superspeed and inability to feel pain as a security expert and Rafe's supersoldier intelligence officer experience make for an entertaining and tense grifter scenario amongst the rich on The Hill. It was teased at the end of the previous book that we would meet Rafe's family and we do. The team of reliable people building a community in the oppressed Five-Points neighborhood of Atlanta continues to grow. The found family continues to care for each other. Despite the gap between the rich and poor as well as the tech and medical dystopia setting, the main characters always find hope in each other. This third part perhaps has more sexiness and more pulse pounding action. There are still chapters from the point of view of each of the main team members, but they are short. This one wrapped up a lot of the story threads from the previous two books. However, there are still characters from the widening circle of Five-Points residents that have not had their chance at the center of a story, and we get hints of a future threat from the Franklin Center for Genetic Research that will lead to further adventures.
 

The Devil You Know

The Devil You Know (Mercenary Librarians #2) by Kit Rocha (2021) 304 pages

I read the first book in this series back in 2020. I was sold by the sales pitch that Deal with the Devil is Orphan Black meets the post-apocalyptic Avengers as well as the series being named the Mercenary Librarians. The story mainly takes place around Atlanta with an evil TechCorps that has monopolized services and resources for the wealthy on the Hill. A small group of super soldier men called the Silver Devils, led by Knox, finally escape being employed by TechCorps when their assignment is to eliminate a group of enhanced lady clones, led by Nina, who subversively help the poor and disenfranchised in the Atlanta area. The first book focuses on the leaders Knox and Nina and how the two groups find family and common purpose. There is action, romance, and psychological tension. This second book develops Maya, who has a super memory and is the primary librarian, and her budding relationship with Gray, the brooding sniper with a brain implant that his body is rejecting. The main mission is to save a bunch of cloned children, and they have a showdown with the big bad who wants our heroes dead. Tobias Richter is the big bad head of TechCorps security. There are chapters from the point of view of each member of the team mixed with traditional chapters in the third person. We also get background hints from company memos and journal entries from the woman who raised Maya. These keep the experiments done to the clones and super soldiers and the abilities they develop fairly mysterious. The found family grows with new members and allies. I'm continuing right away with the third book in the series.
 

The Echo Wife

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey, 256 pages

Regan offered up an excellent plot summary in the post just before this one, so I won't rehash the plot here. However, I disagreed with her opinion of the novel, which was definitely dark, and didn't have many likeable characters (perhaps two? and that's a stretch). But I don't have problems reading books with unlikeable characters, and the complexity of PTSD and abuse and grooming and gender made this a thoroughly thought-provoking book. It made for a great Orcs & Aliens discussion too. I'd recommend it more for fans of domestic psychological thrillers than science fiction fans, though there definitely is crossover with the focus on cloning.

The Echo Wife

 The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey, 256 pages.

Evelyn Caldwell's contributions to the science of cloning has won her awards and grants. That same research was also stolen by her husband to create a more docile and domestic version of her. A version without all of the hard edges and venom. Evelyn is doing her best to forget this fact and make sure nobody knows, so the scandal doesn't destroy her academic career. But when that supposedly docile new wife kills Evelyn's terrible ex-husband she suddenly doesn't have the option anymore. After all, her DNA is all over the crime scene. 

To be honest this book didn't really work for me. There were just too many fundamental things about the plot, characters, and rules of the world that I couldn't buy. It also didn't help that I found Evelyn pretty insufferable. I am still looking forward to discussing this book with Orcs and Aliens tonight, I'm curious to see what other people got out of it.

A History of What Comes Next

A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel, 302 pages

For thousands of years, a family of women has been gently (and sometimes not-so-gently) nudging scientific advancement forward. They're now on the 99th generation, and in the waning days of World War II, are creeping up on their goal of "sending them to the stars," though who exactly "them" refers to is unclear. Unfortunately, there's a similar competing family of men that has been chasing, and attempting to wipe out, the generations of women for as long as they can remember, and these trackers are getting closer to their goal too.

This is an intriguing take on the post-WWII scientific advances, particularly the Space Race and competing missile innovations of the U.S., Germany, and U.S.S.R. I'm not entirely sure what I think of the clone/spy-vs-spy feel of the not-quite-human men and women, but it's certainly interesting.

The Echo Wife

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey, 256 pages

Just after receiving a prestigious prize for her work on cloning, Evelyn learns that her ex-husband, Nathan's, new wife, Martine, is pregnant. While this would be upsetting for many, Evelyn's particularly angry because Martine shouldn't be able to get pregnant, as she's a clone. One that Evelyn's ex made and based on Evelyn (but without the "disagreeable" parts, of course). But when Martine accidentally kills Nathan during an argument, Evelyn grudgingly gets involved in helping Martine cover up the murder, risking her career in the process.

Clone novels always introduce an element of ethical debate, and The Echo Wife is no different. What makes this one stand out, however, is the multiple layers of ethics up for debate. Are clones people or tools? Can a woman who was programmed to want a child and be subservient to her husband really make an autonomous decision to have the child? Can a clone be blamed for the crimes of its source human? Gailey is an angry person, and in this book, their anger crystallizes into a wonderfully told, taut drama solidly based in science fiction. This will make a wonderful book group title.

Six Wakes

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty, 391 pages

When Maria Arena wakes up in a new clone, she knows that she must have died in some mysterious manner just days after embarking on a 400-year journey aboard a colony ship. The trouble is, she's not the only new clone awakening. It turns out the entire six-clone crew of the Dormire has been slaughtered and reawakened, and if that wasn't disturbing enough, they're 25 years into the journey with no memory of that time in space, and someone disabled the AI that's running the ship's processes, including navigation and gravity. Suddenly, they're in a race to fix the ship and find the killer, who must be the previous version of one of those clones. But will they be able to do it with no witnesses and unknown motives?

This is a fascinating locked-room murder mystery, with an innovative twist in that the killer certainly has no memory of their deeds. That said, it also raises a lot of fantastic questions about humanity, the ethics of cloning, and where the laws of Earth end. I can't wait to discuss this with the Orcs & Aliens book group on Monday night!

The Big Sheep

The Big Sheep by Robert Kroese, 308 pages

Quick question: what do a giant genetically modified sheep and a paranoid Hollywood starlet have in common? Well, other than the fact that private investigator phenomenological inquisitor Erasmus Keane is tasked with finding one and protecting the other, not much. Or so the erratic detective thinks. Set in a futuristic Los Angeles, The Big Sheep is a funny bit of sci-fi noir, zooming the aircar of our narrator (Blake Fowler, the Watson to Keane's Holmes) from the gang-filled neighborhoods of the DZ to immaculate biotech firms to media empires to ritzy hotels, chasing down the answers to these surprisingly intertwined mysteries. The characters don't have much depth, but with a complex plot running at breakneck speed, that's not really a problem. It's a weird book, but a good one. Fans of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Richard Kadrey's The Everything Box will likely enjoy this one.