Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

STATION ETERNITY by Mur Lafferty has a striking, memorable cover and the story it contains is pretty mind-bending, too.  Much of the action takes place on a sentient space station or in space itself. Many of the characters are species other than humans. There are blue and silver Sundry – flying insects who gather data to feed their hivemind. Another group are called Gneiss, gentle giants seemingly made out of rock who are able to ascend to other life forms under certain conditions. Or there are Phantasmagore able to literally blend into their surroundings. Lafferty introduces other species and gives individual members personalities and characteristics that are often amusing and sometimes scary. Initially, there are also three humans on the space station: Adrian, a knowledgeable but rather obnoxious ambassador from Earth; Xan, an ex-army quartermaster with secrets of his own; and Mallory, a young woman who seems to attract murder. They are to be joined by the first visitors from Earth but something happens, more death occurs, and Xan and Mallory struggle with deciding who to trust as they try to keep others safe. Fans of mystery stories and science fiction with enjoy STATION ETERNITY; it is reminiscent of Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary  - only with multiple subplots and many more “aliens.” STATION ETERNITY was chosen as a LibraryReads selection for October and received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal.