Do you need something new for your reading list? This week, we recommend Eddie Sui Iron Garden Sutra, A meditative horror sci-fi/fantasy and murder mystery.
I’m not usually attracted to locked room mysteries, but this book’s description ticks exactly the right boxes to win me over: “A death monk and a team of researchers trapped in a spaceship of the dead encounter something beyond human understanding.” It has all the makings of a compelling murder mystery, which is fine in itself, but thanks to the philosophical musings of its main character, Vessel Iris, and a setting that almost demands existential contemplation, it becomes something much darker.
Vessel Iris is a monk once upon a time whose mission is to perform last rites for the dead so that their souls can reach their final destination according to the beliefs of her religion, the Starlit Order. “Vessels” like Iris share their minds with an AI companion, which creates a really interesting dynamic for the reader, as there is a constant dialogue going on between the two from the beginning (taking a tone that sometimes verges on “old married couple,” which I quite enjoyed). An ancient ship named Iris appears Nicaea lawyers Expecting to fulfill his duties to those long dead on board, he instead finds himself facing a group of researchers who are not dead yet – and a disorganized jumble of bones from hundreds of bodies he has disturbed by moving, which he must sort out in order to properly bless them.
Despite being a ghost ship in most cases, it turns out Nicaea Alive with vegetation and gardens that may have once supported the humans who lived there. And, it appears there is something more, as Iris’s AI begins picking up strange pings from presences on the ship, and one by one the team of researchers begins to be picked off. As everything unravels, Iris begins to question her faith and her purpose.
This was a great read, and I was excited to learn that it is the first in a two-book series, The Cosmic Wheel Series. Fans of horror sci-fi/sci-fantasy should definitely check this out.
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