Mur Lafferty delivers another hilarious and mind-bending episode featuring reluctant detective Mallory Viridian in Infinite Archive. Mal is still recovering from her previous adventure when her literary agent barges in with an offer that she can’t figure out how to refuse. A murder mystery convention is on its way to Station Eternity. Aaron Rose has signed Mal up not only to deliver a keynote address but also a spot in a live-action role-playing game. Readers of the previous novels in the series (Station Eternity and Chaos Terminal) will know that the primary reason Mal has chosen to live in space is because every time she gets near a gathering of humans, someone gets murdered. Life among various alien species is much safer for everyone. (If you haven’t read the first two books in the series or if it’s been a while, Lafferty includes plenty of reminders about what’s happened previously.) And now an entire space cruise ship is headed her way, filled with thousands of potential victims, suspects, and witnesses.
Infinite Archive feels like two stories stitched together. The first part wraps up a lot of events from Chaos Terminal. Queen Tina and the Cuckoos return to cause mayhem. Mal is learning how to raise her new baby spaceship, Mobius. There’s a lot of diplomatic posturing in this half of the book, which could’ve been a bit boring if it weren’t for the fact that Tina is so much fun to watch on the page and that wee Mobius is adorable. The Cuckoos are still species non grata onboard Eternity after what they got up to last time, but Tina has thrown another spanner into the works by bringing along a member of an apparently sentient species no one has heard of or has a way of communicating with.
The second half of Infinite Archive is almost surreal in its creativity. This part begins when another incident caused by Tina sends Mal, her friend Xan, and Xan’s brother over to the Metis, the ship that’s hosting the convention. I suspect Lafferty knocked her own socks off with some of the things she cooked up for her characters. One sequence involving fan-fic had me laughing so hard I dropped my Kindle on the cat that was sleeping in my lap. (Sorry, Mogwai!) Metis is even more bonkers than Eternity because, for reasons that are explained later, it contains a copy of the human internet and has devoted entire rooms to different themes. There’s a room devoted to cats and cat videos. The med bay is staffed by actual doctors plus fictional doctors from TV and literature. And, yes, there is a Room 34. (The 4chan room, among others, is strictly off limits and under quarantine.)I admired Mal’s ability to focus in all the bewildering hubbub. Thankfully for all (well, most) involved, Mal is an extremely capable leader when she lets herself dive in and start asking questions.
I’ve adored every novel in the series so far. They’re delightfully creative, and I can never predict where Lafferty is going to take us next. I can’t wait to see what happens next!
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.