A review by wardenred
Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

“They’ve taken down your defenses.” The mental touch withdrew. Surit sounded blank, so blank that Tennal wasn’t expecting it when he said, “That’s barbarous.”
Tennal swallowed in shock. The elevator doors beeped a protest, unable to shut. “Welcome to the military,” he said. “Is this your first day?”

I remember back when I read Winter's Orbit, I absolutely adored the romance part of the story but kept getting lost when it came to worldbuilding. Apparently, that's just what I should expect with Everina Maxwell's books. At least with Winter's Orbit, I found my footing by mid-story or so. With this one, I'm sorry to say I only kept getting more lost.

I guess a big part of it is that worldbuilding is even more important here, what with the big focus on chaotic space and all. However, the way all the relevant information is delivered just fellt... off? If I tried to treat all the lore as mostly trappings for the interpersonal conflicts, I got lost. If I tried to delve deeper into it, too many things just didn't seem to work upon closer inspection. Or maybe the bigger ones actually did, but whenever I started overthinking, I couldn't get past even the arguably smaller stuff. Like the math. The gap between when the experiments that led to the emergence of readers and architects were conducted and when those talents became a genetically inherited thing is just too small. I don't understand how it works. Or even just the lingo: like, okay, we've got two kinds of telepaths here—[mind] readers who read and architects who write. Why not call the latter writers to keep things consistent? Where does the "architect" part even come from? 

I fully accept it might be on me just overthinking the wrong stuff or approaching everything from the wrong angle! My brain can be weird! But alas, I kept getting confused.

I expected a lot from the romance/relationship arc, because at the beginning, it looked like very much my jam. I mean, forced proximity? Opposites attract? A lawful character who is solid and dependable in his principles and a chaotic one who is a mess of jagged edges? Count me in! And at the beginning, while the two were just getting to know each other and adapting to their situation, I was very much invested. Unfortunately, the more I read on, the less invested I became. 

I can't say there was anything *wrong*, exactly, with this slow burn romance for me. It's more about what was lacking from it. I expected a bigger focus on the possible ethical conundrums specifically surrounding the whole mind control/mind link think, and there was some discussion of it, but more through the general lens of fraternization dangers and power imbalance within the chain of command. I also didn't get satisfactory and timely understanding of what made both Tennal and Surit the people they were on the page, which felt rather important. Like, there were certain aspects of both their personalities that just didn't feel 100% right / organic, but I was willing to roll with it because I kept expecting a backstory-related explanation, something to fill the gaps and tie the disjointed parts together... but it never came.

Honestly, now that I'm trying to tie all my thoughts and feelings about this book together into this rambly review, I think there's one thing every aspect of the story had in common for me. First, I saw it and thought, "cool." Then I spent time with it, and thought about it, and it became less cool the more I tried to inspect it. The worldbuilding seems cool on the surface; when I tried to poke at it and grok it, not so much. The two leads and their dynamic were absolutely cool at first, but the deeper their relationship and personal arcs ran, the more unanswered questions I had. Cool side characters appeared and had 1-2 brilliant scenes that suggested lots of interest stuff to come, and then plenty of it fell flat and those same characters turned forgettable.

With all that said, I did enjoy the beginning of the book enough to want to finish it even when it turned draggy. The way the dynamic between Tennal and Surit developed may not have been entirely to my taste, but it definitely had some very satisfying moments, and not only in the first part of the story. Tennal never stopped being entertaining in that way that had me torn between wanting to ask him to neer change and also wanting to give him a hug and punch whoever hurt him. There was plenty of engrossing banter. What I was able to parse from the lore was cool.

It's just that all of that never quite came together for me, I guess.
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