The Functional Nerds Podcast

Episode 607-With Mur Lafferty

12.19.2023 - By The Functional NerdsPlay

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This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Mur Lafferty, author of CHAOS TERMINAL.

About CHAOS TERMINAL: Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, thank you very much. But no matter what she does, people persist in dying around her—and only she seems to be able to solve the crime. After fleeing to an alien space station in hopes that the lack of humans would stop the murders, a serial killer had the nerve to follow her to Station Eternity. (Mallory deduced who the true culprit was that time, too.)

Now the law enforcement agent who hounded Mallory on Earth has come to Station Eternity, along with her teenage crush and his sister, Mallory’s best friend from high school. Mallory doesn’t believe in coincidences, and so she’s not at all surprised when someone in the latest shuttle from Earth is murdered. It’s the story of her life, after all.

Only this time she has more than a killer to deal with. Between her fugitive friends, a new threat arising from the Sundry hivemind, and the alarmingly peculiar behavior of the sentient space station they all call home, even Mallory’s deductive abilities are strained. If she can’t find out what’s going on (and fast), a disaster of intergalactic proportions may occur…

About Mur Lafferty: Mur’s books are available in stores, online retailers, and through her website. Check out Solo: A Star Wars Story for the details that you wanted expanded from the movie, and check out I Should Be Writing if you need a supportive writing workshop in the form of a book.

In 2017 Mur released Six Wakes, a clone murder mystery in space that nominated for the 2018 Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, and Bookburners, a collaboration effort about a group of demon hunters for the Vatican. Bookburners continues through five total seasons, available at Realm.

The Shambling Guide to New York City won the 2014 Manly Wade Wellman Award, and Mur was lucky enough that its sequel, Ghost Train to New Orleans, won the 2015 Manly Wade Wellman Award!

Mur has been a podcaster since December, 2004, and since then won the Podcast Peer Award, three Parsec Awards, and in 2015 was inducted into the Podcaster Hall of Fame. Mur’s show Ditch Diggers (with Matt Wallace) won the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Fancast. Mur’s longest running show is I Should Be Writing (17 years strong as of August 2022!)

This week’s picks:

* Mur: Dazzling: A Novel by Chikodili Emelumadu

* Tracy: Etsy’s Board Game Accessories

* Patrick: Age of Myth: Book One of The Legends of the First Empire by Michael J. Sullivan, Narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds

Links:

* Mur Lafferty on the network formerly known as Twitter

* Tracy Townsend on the network formerly known as Twitter

* Patrick Hester on the network formerly known as Twitter

* The ...

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