Ocean's Echo

I originally pitched this as <i>"like fake dating but with fake soulbonding, also both characters are in the space military."</i><br /><br />This book includes: a main character who is having a bad day and intends to make it everyone else's problem, psychics behaving badly, pining, space battles, making out during a break-in, awful families, and the terror of being known and then loved in spite of it.<br /><br />Things that you should know about it (expand for CWs):<br /><blockquote>? It's a standalone.<br /><br />? The story takes place on the planet Orshan where, as the result of some dodgy experimentation, some people have the ability to read or control minds. It's in the same universe as Winter's Orbit but there's no overlap in characters or locations.<br /><br />? It's a space adventure with a military-SF feel (I wouldn't classify it as strict MilSF since the army is mainly the antagonist and the main character spends the whole book trying to get out of it.)<br /><br />? There is a strong romantic arc and emotions are high, but if you're a romance reader please go in expecting a VERY low heat level. If you're primarily an SF reader you'll probably think it has a lot of romance. I'd categorise this one as slightly more on the SF side of the SF/Romance border. Nobody has yet stopped me from writing cross-genre, and if "fake soulbonding in the space military" sounds like it could be your thing, then I appreciate those of you giving it a shot from whichever side of the genre line!</blockquote><br />CONTENT WARNINGS: mind-control, coercion, mental health struggles (self-destructive tendencies and thoughts, self-neglect including chaotic eating habits), imprisonment, mind/body sharing, some drug and alcohol use. There is more detail on this and on the CWs for all my books at everinamaxwell.com.

"<i>i feel fine,</i>" she says, while feeling most certainly very much not fine in the slightest<br /><br /><blockquote> <i>“tennal—unpredictable and razor-edged, crackling like the end of a live wire. surit worked in a universe of fixed possibilities. tennal was a chaos event. surit was drawn to it like a gravity wall.”</i> </blockquote><br />due to dodgy experimentations, planet orshan is home to readers, who can read minds &amp; navigate chaotic space; &amp; architects, who can control minds. readers who are considered threats are dealt with by syncing them with an architect. tennalhin halkana —a politician’s absolute disaster of a nephew— is a reader who gets conscripted into the military &amp; forced to sync with surit yeni, a duty-bound soldier with a complicated past. surit realises that tennal did not consent to the sync and refuses go through with illegal orders. instead, they fake a sync bond.<br /><br />for context: please imagine me frothing at the mouth &amp; gnawing on my arm for this is my ocean’s echo-induced state of mind<br /><br />i fully credit winters orbit for turning me into a sci-fi reader. sure before that i’d taken baby steps into the genre but never made it a huge priority, but then i met kiem &amp; jainan &amp; everything got turned upside down. &amp; now? a whole year later? oceans echo was one of my most anticipated reads.<br /><br />and i fell in love with it.<br /><br />so where do i start?<br /><br />do i start about how this is not winters orbit, but it very much holds its own. ocean’s echo is everina’s sophomore novel &amp; it hit me just as hard. this is also set in iskat &amp; there’s no place like home, no place like iskat. there’s so much comfort in returning to a world that i used to not understand but slowly committed to learning out of sheer love.<br /><br />maybe i'll start with how electric tennal &amp; surit are. oh the mortifying ordeal of being known!! &amp; loved in spite of it! what i love most about everina’s characters is how strong they are apart &amp; together. you witness them slowly fall in love with each other’s true selves &amp; its the most beautiful thing. how could i have not fallen in love? to have them wedge themselves in my heart forever. <br /><br />or perhaps i should start with how i love a ragtag crew. i love the chaos that comes with a crew that is snarky &amp; scrappy, who go against the odds just by sheer will. who cannot &amp; will not be kept down.<br /><br />i don’t know where to start but I know where this ends.<br /><br />this ends with oceans echo sitting on the faves shelf. this ends with me sending my best friend over 50+ voice messages because i simply could not pause reading to send a text (some voice messages were just us yelling its Fine). it ends with a love so great that honestly? i’m still a little afraid to say this out loud but perhaps it parallels winters orbit in my heart.<br /><br />✼ thank you to macmillan for sending me an arc of ocean's echo in exchange for an honest review<br /><br />___<br /><br /><br />oh my god EVERINA MAXWELL CAN HAVE MY SOUL LET'S FUCKIN GO

Actual rating 4.5 stars.<br /> <br />Aw, do you know that feeling? Wanting to read an author’s second novel badly because you loved the first one so much? Being afraid to start and then finding out the second one is even better? It happened to me while reading Ocean’s Echo.<br /> <br />First of all, don’t read this book because you want to read a romance with a lot of yearning and longing. Even though it’s clear from the start that Tennal and Surit will become a couple, the romance is not central in the story. Far from it even. Ocean’s Echo is a highly political story with a burgeoning civil war at its core.  The first architects and readers were made in a military lab twenty years ago. Readers can read other people’s minds while architects can write (influence) other people’s minds. The main plot is about how those capacities can be misused.<br /> <br />Tennal is a reader, selfish and chaotic, destructive and putting his own needs first. Until his aunt orders him to go into the military and sync with Surit, an architect. Surit, a duty-bound soldier, follows the regulations but is even more focused on justice and doesn’t want to be illegally synced with an unconsenting civilian. <br /><br />I loved those two guys and their interactions, and from the moment Tennal and Surit knew they could only trust each other, I felt the care for another throughout the story. So many times, content smiles tugged at the corners of my lips, and I had to slow down myself at times to understand everything that was happening. Everina Maxwell's writing is sublime, and even though I’m not a huge sci-fi reader, I could see all those ships and planets and even the chaotic space so lively.  I highly recommend this fantastic story! The only reason I didn’t rate Ocean’s Echo a full five stars is because I wanted a tiny, tiny bit more romance.<br /> <br />I received an ARC from Little Brown Book Group Uk and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.<br /><br /> <b>Follow me on</b> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mariekes_mesmerizing_books/" rel="nofollow noopener">Instagram</a>

<b><i>"Ocean's Echo"</i> was one of my most anticipated books of the year but....</b><br /><br />Before starting this review, I wanna mention a few things. I am a huge fan of Everina Maxwell's debut novel, <i>"Winter's Orbit"</i>. It's one of the best books I have read in 2022. It even made it to my list of best books of the year. So, obviously, I was really excited to read her sophomore novel. Ocean's echo made out just the day before my birthday. I thought it would make an awesome present and so I got myself a copy of it. However, it took me a while to read the book as my finals were going on during that time. I had such high expectations from this book. Compared to my expectations, it was a let down. Ocean's echo isn't a bad book by any means. It just failed to provide me what I was hoping for....<br /><br /><i>"Ocean's Echo"</i> was too complicated for my liking. I had trouble wrapping my head around the world building. I hardly could understand what was going on. much politics and too little romance. I knew it was a sci-fi with a romantic subplot. But 50% in, I was yet to catch any glimpse of the said romance. The characters were shallow and uninteresting. However, my main complaint with the book was on how little build-up the romance had. I couldn't see why should I root for this couple. Like they had no chemistry, no banter and also not enough distinct qualities for me to like them as individuals....I personally don't enjoy books with deep political conflicts. All in, <i>"Ocean's Echo"</i> didn't had anything interesting going on which I could enjoy. This book was a disappointed. However, I liked Maxwell's writing. So, I would probably check out her future releases. This was just wasn't for me....

This was so good???? I can't even describe how much I absolutely adored every second of this book. <br /><br />When I read Winter’s Orbit earlier this year, I was blown away by how incredible it was. Once I learned there would be a sequel in the same world, but with different characters, I knew I had to read it. I was a little bit nervous about Ocean’s Echo because of how much I loved Winter’s Orbit, but wow did Ocean’s Echo blow all my expectations out of the water. There was a moment in one of the earliest chapters that once I read it, there was no stopping my progress with the book. I just kept reading and reading because I needed all the answers, and I needed them immediately. <br /><br />While I would describe Winter’s Orbit as a romance with sci-fi, I would consider Ocean’s Echo to be a sci-fi with romance. The relationship between the MCs was an essential part of the story, but the sci-fi elements were even more so. I’m not gonna lie, there were a few parts where I had no idea what was happening, but that did not lesson my enjoyment of the book in the slightest. I was so tense the entire time, my heart pounding as I kept reading to discover what was going on. Ocean’s Echo is definitely an edge of your seat kind of story, and I loved every second of it. <br /><br />The plot was so complex and detailed. There would be instances when a new point would be revealed, and I knew it was relevant somehow, but for the life of me, I could not figure out how. So when it was finally uncovered, I was a mess of excitement and nerves. Things got really crazy at about the 60% mark and did not slow down until the very end. I wasn’t sure my poor heart could take much more, but at the same time, I never wanted it to finish. <br /><br />Throughout the course of the book, I had to keep pausing and marveling at what a masterpiece Ocean’s Echo is. The writing style was beautiful and intricate, perfect for a sci-fi novel. Everina Maxwell has a wonderful way of weaving a story with the perfect balance of feelings/emotions and vivid detail for the reader to imagine each scene. <br /><br />The tension and the pining in this book was perfection. Tennel and Surit are expected to sync together, a term used in the military for a reader and architect, where the architect takes full control of the reader. Unfortunately for the military, they chose the most unwilling and stubborn reader, as well as the most upstanding and rule-following architect ever. Since this sync is nonconsensual and being forced on Tennel, Surit refuses to take part in it, and instead works with Tennel to fake the sync. The two then join forces to help each other reach their goals, and as the story progresses, their bond grows stronger, and their want for each other becomes impossible to ignore.<br /><br />I adored these two so much! Tennel has a carefree, ‘nothing fazes me’ attitude, with no mind for rules or orders, while Surit is the complete opposite in every way. He keeps his feelings locked up deep inside, follows rules to a tee, and has a strong sense of justice. Their attraction to each other was evident early on, but because of the situation, it was impossible for them to act on it. Thus leads to one of my favorite tropes in romance: pining. Watching Tennel and Surit come out of their shells and trust each other was so sweet and endearing.<br /><br />In addition to Tennel and Surit, there were also some awesome side characters that added more fun and interesting layers to the story. Basavi and Istara were my favorites, and I would absolutely read another story helmed by them. Basavi was shyer, though firm in her opinions; meanwhile, Istara was loud, sarcastic, and never afraid to let you know what they thought of you. They were just the allies Tennel and Surit needed, and I loved the dynamic between the four of them. <br /><br />Also, I have to mention how much I adore how queer this world is. Each society is queer and accepting, and there’s no homophobia present. All of the conflicts arise from other sources entirely unrelated to the characters’ sexualities and identities. We need more of this in fiction!<br /><br />Honestly, I could go on and on about how much I loved Ocean’s Echo. It’s been a couple of days since I finished it, but my thoughts keep straying back to the book, even when I’m supposed to be doing other things. If you haven’t read Winter’s Orbit, or if Ocean’s Echo isn’t on your TBR yet, I highly recommend adding them! This series will not disappoint. <br /><br />Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. <br />

Everina Maxwell's writing was still such a pleasure to read in <i>Ocean's Echo</i>! Sadly, this book didn't quite work for me.<br /><br />I had a lot of trouble getting my head around the world-building and I believe that was because the story dealt quite a bit with mind control/brainwashing in a way that wasn't particularly fun for me. Others will probably find the set up very intriguing and enjoy the way it was developed throughout the novel--because it is extremely well developed and detailed--but, due to personal preferences, that was not the case for me.<br /><br />Tennal and Surit as main characters and narrators were great. They had very distinct voices and personalities and it was super fun to read about them clashing and then slowly learning to respect and trust each other. Their dynamic was an interesting one and I did like how Maxwell played with that throughout the book.<br /><br />With that said, I didn't exactly buy the romance element? It was very very light since the focus here was very much on the political plot and conflicts. There wasn't enough build up for me to be fully convinced that Tennal and Surit loved each other--which is a strange thing to say considering that only really came into play at the final 15% or so.<br /><br />The ending was also more of an open ending type than a tightly shut case. There were a few threads that were left without answers and even Tennal and Surit's future together was presented more as a hopeful thing than a sure one. I wasn't entirely upset about that since I had issues with the romance. I will keep an eye out for other Maxwell works, but this one wasn't for me.<br /><br />*<br /><br /> <i>ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

When I read Winter’s Orbit I was blown away and so excited to hear another book in this universe was coming out. This book is well written, but for me at least it lacked the magic of Winter’s Orbit. I found the book to very slow moving and the characters hard to connect with. It got to a good place with the plot, it just took a long time. As a science fiction story it was pretty decent (although heavy with politics and military). As a romance it didn’t really work at all. I get the initial resistance, they were in an unequal power dynamic situation which isn’t great for true romance but there wasn’t much of a build up from absolutely no to true love. I still like the universe and I think this book did a lot more world building. I will read more by the author, but this book just wasn’t as strong a hit for me. I gave it 3.5 stars overall.

I didn't like this one as much as I liked <i>Winter's Orbit</i>, and I think a lot of it was because of the messy second half, where the plot overran the romance and was just...kinda messy.<br /><br />Anywho, I loved the chaos/order trope, which worked really well even though *technically* this is not really a romance? There is an implied HEA however, although the book ends with enough room to create a sequel.<br /><br />I was super duper excited to request this one off NetGalley because I really enjoyed <i>Winter's Orbit</i>, but then I actually read the synopsis and it implied it had three of my absolutely least favorite things: mind control, military fraternization, and power imbalance brought about by those two things.<br /><br />I'm happy to report that my fears were not necessary. Maxwell handled both of those sticking points (for me) very well, sidestepping something that would have made me put the book down and DNF right away. Not that she needs to cater to my whims at all or even knows who the fuck I am...but that's beside the point.<br /><br />Anywho, I did enjoy this up until the 60% mark, where things got...weird? Messy? Melodramatic and filled with MacGuffins galore in the form of remnants, to the point where I finished for the sake of finishing. The last 40% felt less fleshed out, with character interactions not really hitting for me and the reveals not as impactful, mostly because it felt like the stakes were just blah.<br /><br />But my opinion is in the minority, and while this was not the read I had hoped for, I can see it being a fun book for others!<br /><br /><i>I received an ARC from NetGalley</i>

pre review: i’m gonna go absolutely feral rn<br /><br />LETS GO BACK TO ISKAT BABY!!!!!<br /><br />///<br /><br /><blockquote> <i>“‘all right,’ he said. ‘i’m a fuckup. is that what you wanted to hear? we knew that already.’ he bit the bullet. ‘what are you going to do about it?’”</i> </blockquote><br />due to experimentation with ancient space relics, in orshan there are two kinds of neuromodified people: architects, who can influence your thoughts; and readers, who can read minds and also navigate chaotic space. because readers are seen as unstable threats unless they are bound to architects, tennal halkana—a politician’s disaster nephew, forced into conscription—is forced into a sync bond with surit yeni—a model soldier with a dark past of his own. but surit refuses to sync without tennal’s consent, despite the orders they’re both under. so they fake it.<br /><br />➳ more of a reflection than a review. spoiler free!<br /><br />when you fall in love with a debut, the follow up is sometimes a bit of a risk. is this author a one hit wonder, or can everything that comes next top the charts? i’ve fallen in love with sophomore books, but i’ve also been let down. and some books you love so much, you just don’t know how they can’t ever be followed up.<br /><br />winter’s orbit is one of my favorite books. so expectations were high for ocean’s echo, even though i knew putting that kind of pressure on it was a big risk.<br /><br />but my faith was not misguided.<br /><br />ocean’s echo stands beautifully on its own next to winter’s orbit. it has a world that is familiar, but also entirely new. there is no real overlap between the two books, but some concepts and ideas are familiar. they reminded me of home.<br /><br />because somehow home became iskat and orshan and this universe everina maxwell has created. with galactic links and mysterious remnants.<br /><br />surit and tennal are both disasters. both mess of people who enter a kind of alliance in the form of a fake bond. everina has the most beautiful way of showing characters learn each other and fall slowly in love—despite everything around them that dictates how they should be. it’s easy to read this and ask yourself: who’s the kiem and who’s the jainan? but they’re not either of them. they’re both entirely their own and i cannot stop thinking about them and their story.<br /><br />i expected while reading ocean’s echo that i would want to reread winter’s orbit so badly. but mostly i just wanted to be reading ocean’s echo. i feel like for so many books that feel like other books i love, i just want to go back to the books i love. but i just wanted to be here, on orshan, in chaotic space, with surit and tennal.<br /><br />and okay. i am going to reread winter’s orbit too.<br /><br />thank you so so much @torbooks for the earc, and @everina_maxwell for creating a home with her words. ocean’s echo comes out in november.<br /><br />cw can be found on everina’s website and here on goodreads!

A space opera-ish romance, with telepathic powers and fake soul mating and alien relics and all. It sounded like great entertainment - and if turned out to be cheesy, that would not be a problem at my current mood. And it did turn out to be cheesy yeah, but the worldbuilding is just so stupid, the romance so perfunctory (if it is a romance), all disjointed that I ended up not enjoying it at all. <br /><br />The kind of surprising thing to me is I also did not like her first novel (maybe I should go back and up it one star because it is better than this one), and here I go again trying her second novel. I wish I understood why, maybe because I do have a forever soft spot for this type of concept, slashy space opera romances and the blurbs/cover really got me for both books. <br /><br />This is supposed to be a blend of sf and queer romance, and I am very OK with any proportion of one to the other: I do read and love sf, I do read and love romance, so I can be very forgiving for something being bad sf if it is a good romance and vice-versa. But it is bad sf (I am going to rant about the worldbuilding in a bit, I can not help myself) and it is a bad romance. If it is even a romance? It is not even a slow slow burn, Mariana Zapata style <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="15865c55-afc7-4567-86a3-5e3d6a3bc6b5" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="15865c55-afc7-4567-86a3-5e3d6a3bc6b5"> despite the first kiss or whatever being at 88% of the book </label> it is that I am not sure there is any kind of burn. Not talking about explicitness levels <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="0d91ff33-bd40-4e92-ab1b-1951bd7623bf" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="0d91ff33-bd40-4e92-ab1b-1951bd7623bf">again, first kiss at 88% of the book, though one of the main characters has sex with other people (and it makes sense for him to do so) during the book. There are some hints of potentially kink-y stuff of Tennal wanting to be overpowered mentally to enjoy sex, but that is not developed later on the book. Perhaps for the better</label>, I am just talking even feeling the attraction, emotional or sexual between these two people. They end up friends, allies <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="844ef368-da88-4a37-9165-2af048155842" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="844ef368-da88-4a37-9165-2af048155842"> and they might end up having sex, but this could have been just as well a friendship story, or they are just great friends on the way to fuckbuddies</label> ?<br /><br />The worldbuilding is a mess. And maybe part of the problem is that I do read and love sf, and it fails at the thing I love about sf which is providing food for thought on the what-ifs, how something would be possible, would work. I am also a reader of mystery novels, and I automatically pay attention to details, numbers because they might be clues! And that was a bad mental setup to read this book, because the world, plot, backstory is very flimsy.<br /><br />The author on acknowledgments thanks many many many people, including presumably two editors, and big teams at two publishing houses (Tor US and Orbit UK). I wish somebody had made her write a timeline of events and do some math on the character's age and think a bit on the mechanics of the telepathic powers and made it all clearer because there is a lot here which just did not make sense to me:<br /> <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="6ccb6bbc-fc32-40d4-be70-c818fafde083" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="6ccb6bbc-fc32-40d4-be70-c818fafde083"><br />- Apparently 20 years before the book started, the first volunteers from the army (why they had such a strong military is never really clear) volunteered to be affected by alien relics and they all acquired telepathic/coercion powers;<br />- Those first volunteers were 20, making people like the legislator and the general all 40 at the action of this book, not that old really;<br />- Civil War, Marit rebels, powers get split in all those affected, which became then readers or architects. Marit dies, Surit is born after Marit's death from frozen material (did they not freeze material before the experiment?) with the transmited alien relic mind alterations.<br />- Tennal is twenty and his sister 16. Surit is what, 18? 19 at most? <br />- Now this is confusing, Tennal would have been born around the time his genparent was going through experiments, how come he inherited the alien relic caused telepathy? And honestly why not freeze the genetic material BEFORE the experiment? (Well, not convenient for plot purposes I guess).<br />- Supposedly there are secret readers around in society, we meet some (how old are they? One of them has supposedly finished the mandatory period for military service and is just waiting for the other to complete it!) but the first experiments were 20 years ago... They will know very well who, being born before those 20 years ago went through these experiments, and surely any child will be a possible suspect? Nevermind that there must be some kind of artificial reproduction system, since all the talk of one gen parent, while the other might only be supplying some material, so maybe they could test or screen genetic material?<br />- One of the people who is secretly a reader (so they are 20 at most?) went through military training and could even have ended their tour of service already...<br /> </label><br /><br />And then there is the whole setup: two kinds of people with mental powers, readers who can read superficial feelings and eventually read thoughts but with the person being read being aware of it. And "architects" who can coerce, "write" people to do what they want and people can not stop themselves from obeying. But which kind do you think is more likely to scare, instinctively revulse, repel people? Because in this universe the coercion mental power is OK and it is readers which are stigmatized. It does not make sense to me, but it was just one of the many things in this book which did not. <br /><br />On the positive, I liked the writing, each scene is clear, and the writing unobtrusive, it gets the point across without much fuss (and that is not such an obvious thing to take for granted in any book). Characters are well defined, within each scene, and sympathetic enough, from scene to scene (even if the big picture of their interactions and motivations fails for me).