FANTASY REVIEW: Echo City - Tim Lebbon

Release Date: 29/07/11

SYNOPSIS:

Surrounded by a vast, toxic desert, the inhabitants of labyrinthine Echo City believe there is no other life in their world. Some like it that way, so when a stranger arrives he is anathema to powerful interest groups. But Peer Nadawa found the stranger and she is determined to keep him and the freedom he represents alive. A political exile herself, she calls on her ex-lover Gorham, now leader of their anti-establishment network. Then they recruit the Baker, whose macabre genetic experiments seem close to sorcery. However, while factions prepare for war, an ancient peril is stirring. In the city's depths something deadly is rising, and it will soon reach the levels where men dwell.


REVIEW:

I love a story that’s a little different to a lot of the titles already out there and Tim Lebbon is the type of author that really allows his mind to expand to encompass any tale that has a kernel of something special so much so that you’re never sure what you’re going to get in a proverbial Forest Gump type of manner.

What Echo City does is take Mega City One (or rather a city that feels like a fantasy version of Judge Dredds turf) and add a deeper horror element with a stranger carrying some undesired truth for the inhabitants that the totalitarian system doesn’t want revealed. Its beautifully done and with Tim’s talent it’s a story that has a lot of scope that will keep you entertained however where the story fails for me is that it all seems to occur in a Dark City type of environment where there’s nothing else out there and thus feels more than a little flat for expansion.

Yes there are area’s that can be explored such as how the city came to being or you have the scope to expand into the old a city is a 1000 stories waiting to happen but there is only so much that you can do and the story really has to be character driven which if they’re not that strong can fall flat fairly quickly. All in the story was entertaining but of all Tim’s books there are others out there that I’d recommend before this as a prime example of his work. I’m not saying that it didn’t fulfil what I wanted but rather just didn’t leave me with the bumps that I’ve expected at a tales end and for me that’s the pay off as far as Tim’s concerned.