micah ➳ canonicallychaotic's Reviews > Ocean's Echo

pre review: i’m gonna go absolutely feral rn

LETS GO BACK TO ISKAT BABY!!!!!

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“‘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?’”

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.

➳ more of a reflection than a review. spoiler free!

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.

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.

but my faith was not misguided.

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.

because somehow home became iskat and orshan and this universe everina maxwell has created. with galactic links and mysterious remnants.

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.

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.

and okay. i am going to reread winter’s orbit too.

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.

cw can be found on everina’s website and here on goodreads!