The Genome by Sergei Lukyanenko, 2014

A space pilot lands a job with a space-cruise company, and assembles a cinematically diverse space crew for a first voyage ferrying around inter-stellar royalty. Concurrently a series of odd, ambiguous and increasingly ominous events occur, culminating in the royalty’s ritual murder, raising the potential for space war if justice isn’t served. Thus arrives a space detective in the form of the 44th clone of a man who fashioned himself after Sherlock Holmes. And, of course, a Dr. Watson. Now there are two conflicts: will justice be served in time to forestall war, and will justice be served by the pilot or the detective?

The future as described is a-kilter: humans merge consciousness with machines and jump through time and space via worm holes, but in space everybody drinks, which provides several plot points, and smokes. Maybe in the future disease is but a memory and alcohol as been re-engineered to be psycho-active but not poisonous, or maybe it’s an homage to Woody Allen’s Sleeper. Retrograde (to the medieval) sexual politics also provide several plot points, including at the story’s resolution, literally at the climax. The author is considered thoughtful, so most humans are genetically engineered to specialize them in their careers, bringing in philosophizing about what it means to be human (and don’t forget the clones). The pilot rescues an assassin-geisha who falls in love with him (more genetic engineering), but he only has eyes for his space ship (ditto), and the reader thoughtfully ruminates over the conflict between love and duty. I’m making the story sound stupid, and it is, but I’m way over-simplifying, leaving out a lot — for example, the animated tattoo, which seems to have missed its cue at a crucial point in the story, and the gemstone prison — that makes the story weird and funny, specially if you’re willing to cut huge swaths of slack, or are irony poisoned.