Dead Space

Murder mystery / police procedural in space on an asteroid in a future that is all too corporate - with an AI that I can get behind. Won the Philip K Dick award in 2022. Selected at random from the library science fiction shelf. Worth reading!

Set far enough in the future to have asteroid mining, a colony on Mars and the near-ubiquitous revolution between that colony and its homeland. The world building, the premise, and our strong female main character working off her medical debt to the company that saved her in space - totally believable. That sabotage wasn't the only historical incident, and they are important. A fair amount of action and mystery move the plot along, and the cast of characters is small enough to follow. No zombies in this Dead Space, but it is also spooky at times.

Other reviewers have not been kind to what they describe as flat characters. Wasn't a problem for me. After a recent read about AI that was NOT good, this was a breath of fresh air. Maybe because of the contraposition with that 2 star novel, this one is a solid 5 star for me, and I really enjoyed it. That much better because I did just pick it at random from the library Sci Fi section while picking up an NF book on hold. Will look for another book from this author soon.