SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: Echopraxia - Peter Watts

Release Date: 07/05/15
Publisher:  Head of Zeus

SYNOPSIS:

It's the eve of the 22nd century and the beginning of the end. Humanity splinters into strange new forms with every heartbeat: hive-minds coalesce, rapture-stricken, speaking in tongues; soldiers forgo consciousness for combat efficiency; a nightmare human subspecies has been genetically resurrected; half the population has retreated into the ersatz security of a virtual environment called Heaven. And it's all under surveillance by an alien presence that refuses to reveal itself. Daniel Bruks has turned his back on it all, taking refuge in the Oregon desert. As an unaugmented, baseline human he's an irrelevance, a living fossil for whom extinction beckons. But he's about to find himself an unwilling pilgrim on a voyage to the heart of the solar system that will bring the fractured remnants of mankind to the biggest evolutionary breakpoint since the origin of thought. 'If you only read one science fiction novel this year, make it this one!...it puts the whole of the rest of the genre in the shade...It deserves to walk away with the Clarke, the Hugo, the Nebula, the BSFA, and pretty much any other genre award for which it's eligible. It's off the scale...F**king awesome!' Richard Morgan. 'State-of-the-art science fiction: smart, dark and it grabs you by the throat from page one' Neal Asher.


REVIEW:

OK, this is the second book by Peter Watts in his Firefall series and to be honest one that I found a little flat compared to the original release which for me I found distracting. Firstly I wasn’t a huge fan of the principle character and that always makes a book a struggle to read when I don’t feel that I have that personal connection as I really don’t care if they live or die and whilst I loved the concepts that stretched evolution I thought that it was well planned, especially as with mankind’s dabbling there are some very serious repercussions.

Add to this some dialogue that felt fairly flat and almost as if it dragged and all round I really wasn’t a fan. Sadly for me, its not a series I’ll be returning to any time soon at the moment although if the mood takes you for some serious Science Fiction technological modifications then you will more than likely enjoy it.

SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: Firefall - Peter Watts

Release Date: 02/10/14
Publisher: Head of Zeus

SYNOPSIS:

February 13, 2082, First Contact. Sixty-two thousand objects of unknown origin plunge into Earth's atmosphere - a perfect grid of falling stars screaming across the radio spectrum as they burn. Not even ashes reach the ground. Three hundred and sixty degrees of global surveillance: something just took a snapshot. And then...nothing. But from deep space, whispers. Something out there talks - but not to us. Two ships, Theseus and the Crown of Thorns, are launched to discover the origin of Earth's visitation, one bound for the outer dark of the Kuiper Belt, the other for the heart of the Solar System. Their crews can barely be called human, what they will face certainly can't. 'A tour de force, redefining the First Contact story for good.' Charles Stross. 'If you only read one science fiction novel this year, make it this one!...it puts the whole of the rest of the genre in the shade...It deserves to walk away with the Clarke, the Hugo, the Nebula, the BSFA, and pretty much any other genre award for which it's eligible. It's off the scale...F**king awesome!' Richard Morgan. 'State-of-the-art science fiction: smart, dark and it grabs you by the throat from page one' Neal Ascher.


REVIEW:

OK, lets be straight from the start this is not a new book from Peter but a compendium, of two of his others (Blindsight and Echopraxia) and whilst there’s a lot of people who enjoy the authors work, I have to say that I found it pretty hard going. It was a real struggle for me to make my way through it as all in I didn’t quite get what was really happening in this Alien Communication title.

Add to this characters that I didn’t want to spend time with and a plot that felt like it dragged out for me and all round this was a book that didn’t work too well for me. Whilst I’m pleased I finished it, its not a series I’ll be returning to any time soon.