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A review by tani
Echopraxia by Peter Watts
4.0
This was a much harder read for me than Blindsight, and I'll admit that I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. Of course, I loved Blindsight, so that's a pretty high bar to set. And this book had enough to recommend it on its own terms. I do think that the biggest hindrance to me was character - I really loved Siri, the main character of Blindsight, pretty much upon meeting him. Bruks, the main character of Echopraxia, did not make nearly as favorable an impression. He grew on me, but it took a long time.
Another factor that I think affected my enjoyment was simple timing. This is a book that is extremely hard to read in small chunks. There's something about the writing and the world that I just needed a big chunk of time for. I had to sink into the world before I could really enjoy or comprehend it. Once I did that, it was great. But getting into it was often rough going.
There was still a lot to like about this book. It's a book built less of plot than of ideas, and I find those ideas fascinating. Every single time that the characters would get into a philosophical conversation, my interest would go way up. I love the ideas in this book and that the thoughts that they inspired in me. I find Watts's vision of this possible future absolutely fascinating, with its zombies and vampires and hive minds. That is a fantastic aspects of the book, and probably where I derived my strongest enjoyment.
I also love the element of horror that is woven into the books. I felt like it was less pronounced in Echopraxia than it was in Blindsight, but it still had some really good moments. The fear that Watts can inspire in me with just a simple idea, a single twist of a concept, is truly amazing. I can't really talk about that too deeply because it would too easily turn into spoilers, but it's not an experience that I get from very many books, so I'm impressed that Watts managed to instill that same fear into me in two consecutive books now.
I will say that there were times I almost wished Watts gave me less credit. If my attention wandered at all during this book, it would often be just in time to miss some critical point, resulting in some serious confusion until I picked back up on the thread of the plot. I could have used just a tad more redundancy to keep me centered in events. This was especially a problem if I hadn't read for a few days.
I recommend this if you're into hard scifi with a horror twist and a philosophical bent. Of course, if you'd asked me beforehand if I would into that kind of thing, I probably wouldn't have known. So let's just say that if you're looking for something both engrossing and different, you should give the Firefall series a try.
Another factor that I think affected my enjoyment was simple timing. This is a book that is extremely hard to read in small chunks. There's something about the writing and the world that I just needed a big chunk of time for. I had to sink into the world before I could really enjoy or comprehend it. Once I did that, it was great. But getting into it was often rough going.
There was still a lot to like about this book. It's a book built less of plot than of ideas, and I find those ideas fascinating. Every single time that the characters would get into a philosophical conversation, my interest would go way up. I love the ideas in this book and that the thoughts that they inspired in me. I find Watts's vision of this possible future absolutely fascinating, with its zombies and vampires and hive minds. That is a fantastic aspects of the book, and probably where I derived my strongest enjoyment.
I also love the element of horror that is woven into the books. I felt like it was less pronounced in Echopraxia than it was in Blindsight, but it still had some really good moments. The fear that Watts can inspire in me with just a simple idea, a single twist of a concept, is truly amazing. I can't really talk about that too deeply because it would too easily turn into spoilers, but it's not an experience that I get from very many books, so I'm impressed that Watts managed to instill that same fear into me in two consecutive books now.
I will say that there were times I almost wished Watts gave me less credit. If my attention wandered at all during this book, it would often be just in time to miss some critical point, resulting in some serious confusion until I picked back up on the thread of the plot. I could have used just a tad more redundancy to keep me centered in events. This was especially a problem if I hadn't read for a few days.
I recommend this if you're into hard scifi with a horror twist and a philosophical bent. Of course, if you'd asked me beforehand if I would into that kind of thing, I probably wouldn't have known. So let's just say that if you're looking for something both engrossing and different, you should give the Firefall series a try.