Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
Peter Watts left such a strong impression on me with Blindsight that, despite having a much more muddled reputation, I couldn't resist picking up Echopraxia right away. It is true what they say: Echopraxia is not quite as good as Blindsight—it is an even more convoluted and spatially disorienting read that doesn't yield enough enlightenment to justify its pitfalls—but there is still something incredibly sticky about it that I can't wrench from my mind.
I won't even bother getting bogged down with a full synopsis of the plot, because it would take hours to make sense of the mess. Instead, I'll opt for a quick-fire summary: Daniel Brüks is a disgraced field biologist who, under threat of a vampire-controlled zombie attack while conducting research in the Oregon desert, gets driven into the arms of a monastery inhabited by a hive-mind order of faith-based scientist monks called Bicamerals and then swiftly gets dragged into space with a ragtag team of misfits to visit an antimatter power station orbiting the sun that has become corrupted by some sort of alien virus that is directly connected to the events of Blindsight. Woof. What happens next? Why is Brüks getting wrapped up in this dangerous space mission anyway? Is it pure happenstance, or is it all a carefully orchestrated plan? Some elaborate, drawn-out form of divine punishment for his crimes?
Sure, some of the messiness of the plot is intentional. Watts pre-establishes about a dozen different threads before even starting the first page and then dangles the connections in the periphery for the reader to speculate on. It's part of the fun of reading Watts, but whereas Blindsight's commentary on consciousness was beautifully packaged into an abstract first-contact scenario, Echopraxia plays with the idea of free will in a much less coagulated manner. The concept of "random guy stumbles into an interstellar plot to commune with an alien God" sounds awesome, but it doesn't exactly make for the most engaging read as we spend three-quarters of the book watching this (kind of annoying) guy clumsily stumble his way around a spaceship and navel-gaze without any clear agenda. Watts also blatantly tries to recapture the tension of Blindsight in a lot of the same ways. Humans being psychologically tormented by a vampire on a spaceship will never be a boring schtick, but, coming straight from Blindsight, it was hard not to immediately see through the pattern.
There's a reason I still gave this 4 stars, though. Echopraxia, just like Blindsight, is endlessly imaginative, jam-packed with visceral detail, unique characters, and enough high-concept ideas to keep your mind churning for days, but the most impressive aspect of Watts' writing is how he ramps up his narrative like he's boiling frogs. He slowly turns the heat up without necessarily cluing the reader in, until all of a sudden the blurry picture of his vision snaps into focus, and all of the philosophizing and theorizing finally starts to feel applicable to the plot. The ending of Echopraxia was just incredible. Even the draggiest parts where I felt like I was simply consuming words without meaning were more than worthwhile just to get to the last few pages. The book ends on such a bleak, depressing note that it completely shattered my mind and made me reevaluate the entire story.
So, while the total of Echopraxia wasn't as tightly crafted or well executed as Blindsight, it was still a damn good book, and one I can definitely see myself re-reading in the future. Maybe some time before the third book (Omniscience) comes out. Hurry up, Watts!
I won't even bother getting bogged down with a full synopsis of the plot, because it would take hours to make sense of the mess. Instead, I'll opt for a quick-fire summary: Daniel Brüks is a disgraced field biologist who, under threat of a vampire-controlled zombie attack while conducting research in the Oregon desert, gets driven into the arms of a monastery inhabited by a hive-mind order of faith-based scientist monks called Bicamerals and then swiftly gets dragged into space with a ragtag team of misfits to visit an antimatter power station orbiting the sun that has become corrupted by some sort of alien virus that is directly connected to the events of Blindsight. Woof. What happens next? Why is Brüks getting wrapped up in this dangerous space mission anyway? Is it pure happenstance, or is it all a carefully orchestrated plan? Some elaborate, drawn-out form of divine punishment for his crimes?
Sure, some of the messiness of the plot is intentional. Watts pre-establishes about a dozen different threads before even starting the first page and then dangles the connections in the periphery for the reader to speculate on. It's part of the fun of reading Watts, but whereas Blindsight's commentary on consciousness was beautifully packaged into an abstract first-contact scenario, Echopraxia plays with the idea of free will in a much less coagulated manner. The concept of "random guy stumbles into an interstellar plot to commune with an alien God" sounds awesome, but it doesn't exactly make for the most engaging read as we spend three-quarters of the book watching this (kind of annoying) guy clumsily stumble his way around a spaceship and navel-gaze without any clear agenda. Watts also blatantly tries to recapture the tension of Blindsight in a lot of the same ways. Humans being psychologically tormented by a vampire on a spaceship will never be a boring schtick, but, coming straight from Blindsight, it was hard not to immediately see through the pattern.
There's a reason I still gave this 4 stars, though. Echopraxia, just like Blindsight, is endlessly imaginative, jam-packed with visceral detail, unique characters, and enough high-concept ideas to keep your mind churning for days, but the most impressive aspect of Watts' writing is how he ramps up his narrative like he's boiling frogs. He slowly turns the heat up without necessarily cluing the reader in, until all of a sudden the blurry picture of his vision snaps into focus, and all of the philosophizing and theorizing finally starts to feel applicable to the plot. The ending of Echopraxia was just incredible. Even the draggiest parts where I felt like I was simply consuming words without meaning were more than worthwhile just to get to the last few pages. The book ends on such a bleak, depressing note that it completely shattered my mind and made me reevaluate the entire story.
So, while the total of Echopraxia wasn't as tightly crafted or well executed as Blindsight, it was still a damn good book, and one I can definitely see myself re-reading in the future. Maybe some time before the third book (Omniscience) comes out. Hurry up, Watts!
Watts is one of those authors who spins ideas so fast and with such vigor that you just have to hang on. I like the broad discussion of science and consciousness, but the religious stuff in this one fell flat for me.
A good continuation of BLINDSIGHT though.
A good continuation of BLINDSIGHT though.
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is hitting as just okay for me. It felt meandering with some of the plot points just feeling disconnected, especially towards the end. Some interesting ideas were posed, but there was too much packed in to dig into any one of them too deeply. Didn’t hit the same as Blindsight by a long shot. Kind of scratched at religion and hive minds, but it could’ve been fleshed out a bit more. I also found the main character insufferable, and not in a good way.
—-
Edit because after letting this settle for a few days I found that I enjoyed it more than I initially thought. Definitely needed to ruminate on it a bit more, but ultimately it did leave you with some interesting questions at the end. I think the ending felt abrupt to me and after the initial frustration subsided, I found myself connecting a lot of dots.
—-
Edit because after letting this settle for a few days I found that I enjoyed it more than I initially thought. Definitely needed to ruminate on it a bit more, but ultimately it did leave you with some interesting questions at the end. I think the ending felt abrupt to me and after the initial frustration subsided, I found myself connecting a lot of dots.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I liked this book, but it didnt hit as well as the first one, i would say only read if you loved blindsight, but if you didnt, maybe dont read this
this was much harder to follow than blindsight and the payoffs werent as good i think
this was much harder to follow than blindsight and the payoffs werent as good i think
Good, but not my favorite hard sci-fi.
Although this is not the reason for the 3-star review, I found repeated use of the r word to be offensive and unnecessary.
Although this is not the reason for the 3-star review, I found repeated use of the r word to be offensive and unnecessary.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book makes no fucking sense.
Compelling prose though.
Compelling prose though.