#62 Machine by Elizabeth Bear

 

The second book is written that you really don’t have to read the previous book set in this universe.  A few things are mentioned that happened in the book and there are a few characters overlap but nothing that would leave someone confused about what is going on.  The story focus on space ambulance doctor who’s crew is sent to a mayday signal. They find an old generation ship and a modern ship docked to it. The crew of the modern ship is completely incapacitated and the people on the generation ship are in a crude form of cryo with only a basic AI taking care of them.  They bring some of the pods and the AI back to the hospital for treatment and quickly find the modern AIs on the station have become infected with a virus.  Dr Jens is concerned for her patients, but she is quickly tapped for her old skills in law enforcement to find out who is doing this.  The mystery is good and the universe is well thought out about how society has changed. There are lots of different alien species and you do get the feeling that they are aliens and not just humans in disguise. 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss