Reviews

Echopraxia by Peter Watts

vinnsent's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

2.5

willand90's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

demanley's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I think some judicious editing would’ve helped my understanding. I also think a lot of this was over my head.

antigonecounterpart's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

slipperyjohn's review against another edition

A Whole Lot of Nothing

Halfway through the book and the main character has basically no agency. He only exists as a camera for the reader, a place to have the plot happen nearby. Every other character in the book is more interesting than he is, but none of them are particularly compelling either.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the previous book, but at least that book had the draw of an incredibly fascinating and truly alien species to learn about. This book has none. Oh it goes on and on about all the various post human variants, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen before. Even then he constantly subverts any special attributes that these variants might have, repeatedly showing them to be ineffectual in circumstance after circumstance. Really what I get from this book, and the last, is that the author has a really low opinion of consciousness and sapience in general, but shows little to back it up.

if you can tolerate some exceedingly poor characterization in exchange for something fascinating to explore, pick up the previous book. Pass on this one.

charlieglynn's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

fbk's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-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

4.0

tack's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Unlikeable and unknowledgeable main character that scrapes the surface of consciousness issues and saying something super interesting about them. Definitely not as fun of a mystery to parse as the first book, and I think it’s a bit of a miss in terms of story cohesion by the end, as well as my interest in learning the answers. 

duncan_black's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.0

profane77's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.75