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A review by mschlat
Echopraxia by Peter Watts
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.
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.