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Peter Watts

Echopraxia Hardcover – 26 Aug. 2014

by Peter Watts (Author)

337 ratings

Book 2 of 2 in the Firefall Series

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Prepare for a different kind of singularity in Peter Watts' Echopraxia, the follow-up to the Hugo-nominated novel Blindsight

It's the eve of the twenty-second century: a world where the dearly departed send postcards back from Heaven and evangelicals make scientific breakthroughs by speaking in tongues; where genetically engineered vampires solve problems intractable to baseline humans and soldiers come with zombie switches that shut off self-awareness during combat. And it's all under surveillance by an alien presence that refuses to show itself.

Daniel Bruks is a living fossil: a field biologist in a world where biology has turned computational, a cat's-paw used by terrorists to kill thousands. Taking refuge in the Oregon desert, he's turned his back on a humanity that shatters into strange new subspecies with every heartbeat. But he awakens one night to find himself at the center of a storm that will turn all of history inside-out.

Now he's trapped on a ship bound for the center of the solar system. To his left is a grief-stricken soldier, obsessed by whispered messages from a dead son. To his right is a pilot who hasn't yet found the man she's sworn to kill on sight. A vampire and its entourage of zombie bodyguards lurk in the shadows behind. And dead ahead, a handful of rapture-stricken monks takes them all to a meeting with something they will only call "The Angels of the Asteroids."

Their pilgrimage brings Dan Bruks, the fossil man, face-to-face with the biggest evolutionary breakpoint since the origin of thought itself.

Print length

383 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Tor Books
Publication date

26 Aug. 2014
Dimensions

14.81 x 3.19 x 21.41 cm
ISBN-10

076532802X
ISBN-13

978-0765328021
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Product description

Review

A paranoid tale that would make Philip K. Dick proud, told in a literary style that should seduce readers who don't typically enjoy science fiction. "Kirkus Reviews""

A paranoid tale that would make Philip K. Dick proud, told in a literary style that should seduce readers who don't typically enjoy science fiction. Kirkus Reviews"

"A paranoid tale that would make Philip K. Dick proud, told in a literary style that should seduce readers who don't typically enjoy science fiction." --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

PETER WATTS is the Hugo nominated author of Blindsight and has been called "a hard science fiction writer through and through and one of the very best alive" by The Globe and Mail and whose work the New York Times called "seriously paranoid."

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Books (26 Aug. 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 383 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 076532802X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765328021
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14.81 x 3.19 x 21.41 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 578,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 2,213 in Cyberpunk
- 5,012 in First Contact
- 10,461 in Science Fiction Adventure (Books)

Customer reviews:
337 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		49%
4 star		22%
3 star		16%
2 star		11%
1 star		3%

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John Fletcher

Come back next year for a better review.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 June 2015

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No-one has ever accused Peter Watts of being an easy or approachable writer. Complex stories, leading edge, but well-grounded, technologies and complicated and often unattractive characters have characterized his work since the beginning. In "Blindsight", to which this book is sort-of-but not-really a sequel, there is at least a clear narrative progression, albeit one seen through the eyes of a very unreliable narrator. In Watts's new novel, though, what we have is an unreliable central protagonist, a "baseline" human surrounded by beings with almost supernatural powers, who is a largely passive spectator of a whole series of incredible events. It wouldn't be too unreasonable to summarize the plot as "not-very sympathetic scientist kidnapped into space and spends book not understanding what's going on. Returns to Earth. The end."
Beyond that, it's hard to say. The book is clearly designed to be read at least two or three times before it really starts to make sense, and requires you to have Wikipedia open to follow up not just the science, but also much of the religious imagery in which the book is soaked. "Daniel", the hero's first name is, of course, the apocalyptic warrior of the Old Testament who saw the Writing on the Wall - something that's a feature both literally and metaphorically in Watts's story. And his family name - "Bruks" must mean something: perhaps related to the germanic words for "bridge" - but between what and what?
Come back and ask me when I've had a chance to read it several more times.

5 people found this helpful

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Youngs

Big ideas let down by a poor plot

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 June 2015

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The book mentions lots of big current ideas about the development and possible future of intelligence, however they're largely raised in passing rather than integrated properly to form a solid plot. One gets the feeling that the author started with a pile of concepts they found fascinating and then structured a "road trip" novel so they could all get a mention. It was interesting as a look-up list of further reference reading, but left me quite unengaged with the characters (who are gradually killed in various pointless episodes) and quite uncaring about the disjointed ending. It's a pity really as the author is obviously talented and thoughtful, but too keen on cramming ideas in at the expense of writing craftmanship - and we're past "Golden Age" SciFi when this was deemed okay.

2 people found this helpful

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Andrew D. Cockayne

Like Blindsight

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 May 2015

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To put it simply: If you enjoyed Blindsight, you'll enjoy this. I liked it slightly less simply because it is so very much like Blindsight, to the extent of sharing it's flaws, that it didn't seem quite as original.

One of the reasons many people give for disliking SF is that there's so much explanation of the book's ideas, by both author and characters, that there's often little room for anything else, like plot and character development. (I read LeGuin for that personally.) Being an SF fan, I come to books like this for the ideas, so I don't much mind. However, having read this book, I can understand why some who are not SF fans really disliked Blindsight.

Echopraxia is a lot like the previous book - to the extent that several of the characters are basically the same. (Then again, how much of a distinct personality can a Wattsian vampire have?)

And there is a hell of a lot of discussion of the ideas and - as with Blindsight - a lot of it doesn't make much sense at the time. (I'm hoping for at least one more tile in this sequence, because there are loose ends all over the place.) However, just as with Blindsight, those ideas are fascinating and Watts provides his usual notes and references at the end. I'm certainly going to follow them up.

I'm beginning to wonder though, whether Watts shouldn't get around the character and plot problems by simply writing up his research for the next book and publishing it as Popular Science non-fiction, it's clearly where his enthusiasm and talents lie. Any way, if you hated Blindsight, buy this and hate it too Peter Watts can probably use the money. I liked it.

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Malcolm Roy Ash

I suppose its dystopian but its also hopeful and that element contributed a lot to my enjoyment. Its not the easiest read but it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 May 2015

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Inventive and an exciting read. I suppose its dystopian but its also hopeful and that element contributed a lot to my enjoyment. Its not the easiest read but its top class contemporary hard SF. The ending is curious and thought provoking - like much of the book. Id sort of like to see how the end plays out subsequently but im not sure there's a point in that. This is world governed by emergence and chance, evolving too quickly to control. And Watts narrative and plot fits with such a world. Clarifying the ending would be satisfying but any ending is just one of many emerging competing possibilities. And its the journey through these possibilities that creates a lot of the interest rather then any conclusion. Any an ending in this world is just the start of another chaotic journey. So isn't an ending anyway. Have fun

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Branoic

Poor follow on from Blindsight

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 January 2016

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I love the book that precedes this (Blindsight) but this book just didn't work for me. The last 1/4 of the book is the most interesting part of the story and I would be very keen to have had the chance to read more of that plot. The first 3/4 of the book felt like filler, with flat characters, and none of it interested me very much. I read the book because I always read books all the way through; I'm a completist. I won't bother reading this book again.

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MR C P ABERNETHY

Imagine you are Siri Keeton: really hoping for a good sequel ;-)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 October 2014

Verified Purchase

Loved Blindsight and had daftly high expectations for this follow-up companion piece (it's not exactly a sequel timing-wise)
Happy to say that I had every bit as much fun (for certain, bleakly nihilistic values of fun =) with Echopraxia as I did with Blindsight.
Builds on what came before without being too predictable or throwing away any of the previous world building.
Particularly impressed with how it balances the characters and drama with some very big concept ideas and doesn't let one swamp the other too much.

Woefully overlooked author, deserves far more recognition than he gets

4 people found this helpful

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