Echo of Worlds by M. R. Carey (Reviewed by Shazzie)

 Echo of Worlds by M. R. Carey

Buy Echo of Worlds here -  U.S. | U.K.

OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: M. R. Carey has been making up stories for most of his life. His novel The Girl With All the Gifts has sold over a million copies and became a major motion picture, based on his own BAFTA Award-nominated screenplay. Under the name Mike Carey he has written for both DC and Marvel, including critically acclaimed runs on Lucifer, Hellblazer and X-Men. His creator-owned books regularly appear in the New York Times bestseller list. He also has several previous novels including the Felix Castor series (written as Mike Carey), two radio plays and a number of TV and movie screenplays to his credit.

FORMAT/INFO: This title was published by Orbit Books in June 2024, in hardback, ebook, and audio formats. This is the concluding book in the Pandominium Duology.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS:

"A civilization of organic selves and another made entirely of machines, each seeing each other as a threat to its existence and now tearing each other apart in a ruinous conflict that was spilling across thousands of realities."

I already suck at summarizing the premise of books I read, so I'll just leave you with the author's words, picked right from this book. Organic life is at risk of extermination because of a war with civilization of machine constructs. The first book did a great job introducing us to a few different earths and civilizations in different stages of advancement and/or decline, but it did leave me wondering how such a story could be satisfactorily wrapped up in just one more book, like was promised. I don't know why I worried about that, given that I've loved so many of his books in the past. Anyway, this book just proves how good he is, and the kind of careful attention to detail that goes into his books.

While the first book was more science heavy in terms of the setup, I think this just takes the heart pounding relevation at the end of that one and just runs with them. There’s more exciting moments to the story, but they’re spread of fairly well enough to give the reader time with the characters, and appreciate how big these moments can be for their arcs. Lots of less discussions around sentience and the ethics that surround a lot of the choices made in this war, and it’s worth knowing this before you get into the book. Retrospectively, I appreciate book one a lot more, but I do wish that I had some kind of summary readily available, and I encourage you to read them close together.

Things pick right up from where we left off in book one, and they set off at a steady pace. There are surprisingly gentle moments for a book with such stakes, and I quite enjoyed the kindness and consideration they displayed in some interactions. There's thorough work on the world introduced in previous entry in the series, but also solid character moments that don't waste even a small thread opened in book one, and this is exactly what makes the author a stalwart. The ending is very well done, just showing us how precarious existence can be for civilizations.

I want to recommend this to everyone who wants to read science fiction, but there's one thing you need to know to expect before you pick this up. It's a great ride, but not an easy one. Picking this up at a time you can afford to commit to a high amount of mental bandwidth can be very rewarding, since it's the kind that demands and rewards attention. Rest assured, it has brilliant payoff.

CONCLUSION: This is a near perfect finale for the mammoth attempt the author opened the series with. Echo of Worlds is, if not the most, one of the most spectacular books I’ve read this year. It’s quite unimaginable, the feat M. R. Carey has achieved with this fantastic duology. I find myself in full agreement with the blurb on the cover of this book, it is a genuine treat and cements him as one of the sci-fi greats. What’s more, it’s one of the countable, finite few that has turned me that have me declare that there’s no better rewarding read than well written sci-fi.