Reviews

Echopraxia by Peter Watts

sevencrane's review against another edition

3.0

kinda cool, more somewhat interesting ideas. unfortunately it has Agency Syndrome where the narrator is shuffled from place to place by The Scrappy Resistance, kept in the dark while The Shadowy Enemy hunts them at every turn and the narrator doesn't make any meaningful choices (until the very end, but by then it was too late). Ursula K le guin did make a good point that a story can be about discovery or movement, but at least let us discover things instead of keeping the narrator in the dark the entire time or having there be a purpose to the movement

bushbabyninja's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

abmgw's review against another edition

5.0

Outstanding good book, and for sure Watts best book so far.

Best part of the book was cearly Brüks, who gave the reaver a human veiwpoint - that was so much missing in Blindsight.

areaderheart's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

3.5

jemmyw's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

c3rr's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

mschlat's review against another edition

3.0

When I read Peter Watts's books, I feel like I'm engaged in graduate level science fiction. There's the appendix at the end with academic citations explaining the science. There's the philosophical implications of being transhuman and acknowledging that free will is an illusion. There's the elliptical nature of his dialogue, both in the prose style and in the intentions of the characters (who are very good at talking past each other).

That's all good, but Echopraxia did not hold together for me like [b:Blindsight|48484|Blindsight (Firefall, #1)|Peter Watts|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386924412s/48484.jpg|47428]. Unlike the first contact setup of Blindsight, Echopraxia is (intentionally) difficult to describe. We follow Daniel Brüks, a field biologist living in academic disgrace in the Oregon desert, as he stumbles into (or is drawn into) increasingly complicated confrontations between transhumans. What starts as a war story turns into a space story turns into an apocalypse story turns into ... well, that's hard to say. I looked at the reddit page where folks tried to explain the ending and was pleased to see they were about as confused as I was.

If you liked Blindsight, I do think you should read Echopraxia --- you get a wider view of the Blindsight universe and lots of interesting discussions on the nature of consciousness. Just don't expect to find any significant closure.

dakkster's review against another edition

2.0

This is more like technobabble verbal masturbation than a proper story with proper characters. There simply needs to be a more engaging plot with characters you actually care about. This had neither, rather going into INCREDIBLY detailed technical descriptions about philosophical musings or gadgets and doodads. There is no emotional connection here. The precursor Blindsight had emotion. It was really weird with a lot of technobabble too, but you cared about it in that one because of the emotional connection to the characters and the story you could actually follow. This book is lost in the dark. Meh.

aardrian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

godzillaismycopilot's review against another edition

2.0

Meh, the main character is a bit of a whiner, and I found myself not caring whether he survived. If he had been a teammate in a video game, I would have kicked him off the ship or "accidentally" let him die.

Life is too short to read Meh books.