Murder by Memory, by Olivia Waite, is a quick, fun science-fiction mystery. The novella is set on a sort of generation ship, with a big twist: Instead of having children take their place on the long voyage through the stars, the passengers extend their lives by uploading their memories into fresh clone-bodies when they die. The novella starts when Dorothy Gentleman wakes up and discovers she’s been uploaded off schedule and into the wrong body, and she finds out soon that someone else is dead. As one of the ship’s detectives, she shelves her personal feelings (that’s my little in-joke) and immediately starts investigating.
It turns out that during or possibly just before a magnetic storm, someone erased some of the memory-books in the ship’s Library. One of those books was Dorothy’s, but luckily, she’s one of the few people who had a backup. But why the erasures, why the death, and what’s been going on in the complicated life of the person whose body she’s temporarily inhabiting? She’s determined to find out.
On the ship, where passengers decided on rules for a new culture before embarking 307 years ago, passion and money still appear to be the two most common motives for crimes, although with some differences. For instance, one of the ways people express their love is to arrange for their memory-books to be shelved next to each other in the Library while they’re between bodies. For another instance, although some essentials are provided to everyone on the ship, people still earn money with jobs, such as creating clothing or art, or banking, or bartending — but the drinks are infused with vivid sensual memories of life back home.
I found the worldbuilding intriguing in this book. The ship is a planned society that has been relatively stable for three centuries, and will need to stay stable for centuries more. Incidental statements from the narrator, Dorothy (the book is written in first person past tense), make clear that she’s writing for someone far in the future when the ship will be just a memory.
There’s a certain generosity in this society; for instance, once debts are repaid, they’re erased from public records. And there is enough housing available that people can move around fairly freely. But some things are more scarce, such as space in the Library; only the Council and a few special cases like Dorothy have backups for their main memory books, since those were supposed to be nigh invulnerable. And since nobody can think of everything, loopholes in the rules are discovered once in a while, which turn out to matter.
The book isn’t overburdened with infodumps, aside from a few explanations such as how the Library works; most of the worldbuilding is sprinkled through with little parenthetical asides by Dorothy. But that leaves plenty of room for more explanations and revelations as this series continues, as Waite plans to write more. I’ll be curious to find out other things; why exactly did this group set out to create a new society and eventually a new world together? Are they fleeing catastrophe or oppression? Are there no children, or did Dorothy just not run into any during this investigation? (If not, will people resume having children again when they make planetfall, or are they planning to keep cloning themselves and downloading themselves throughout eternity?) I did have a few quibbles with how things might work, but on the whole I was happy to be riding along on the ship with Dorothy.
Dorothy is an interesting character; she says she joined this venture so that her nephew wouldn’t be traveling alone, but it appears she needs connections too. She’s recovering from a deep personal loss but she’s beginning to be interested in other possibilities again. She’s observant, as a detective needs to be, and questions other people’s motives (except for those of her nephew, who’s a brilliant programmer but rather naive). She takes great pleasure in having a capable young body again, although she’s unsettled by the differences from her own body. I’m uneasy over some of her decisions, but I hope to read more from her viewpoint in the future.
Waite is mostly known for her romance novels and columns for the New York Times Book Review. However, those who follow Waite to this book from romancelandia may find that it comes up a bit short on that aspect; there are plot-relevant relationships and passions, but most of them are observed during the investigation rather than experienced, except for Dorothy mourning her lost love, and the seeds of a future possibility. This novella feels more like a cozy mystery in space — one of the characters even runs a yarn shop! It also feels more like space opera than serious science fiction, but that’s no drawback for providing an entertaining read.
I enjoyed Murder by Memory. Sure, there’s a little darkness in the hearts of some characters, given the nature of the story, but it doesn’t dwell on that. Instead, it’s a breezy space mystery with enough interesting worldbuilding, descriptions, characterizations, and plot to hold my attention and make me want to visit the setting, Dorothy, and her connections again. More of this, please!
Content warnings: Death, crimes, potential body horror.
Comps: The Dispatcher, by John Scalzi; The Romulan Way, by Diane Duane (the “historical” debate sections about organizing starfaring convoys, etc.), John Putnam Thatcher mysteries by Emma Lathen.
Disclaimers: I received a free eARC for review via NetGalley.
