Stefanie's Reviews > Ocean's Echo

**Update December 7, 2023** Bought my own copy and re-read this because after The Hurricane Wars I needed to remember what a truly satisfying SFF + romance tale was like! Upgrading to a well-earned 5 stars.

ORIGINAL REVIEW
4.5. I don't know if I've ever seen as masterful a combination of cracking sci-fi adventure story with really well-developed romance. IMO, this one is even better than Maxwell's first with this combo, Winter's Orbit.

As SFF readers, we're all familiar with mind reading and a "mind meld" between two (or more) people, right? Well, Maxwell is the one to finally fully explore the romantic potential in these concepts. Which if you think about it, is NOT that romantic. Especially when it's not a choice, as it is in this book.

Tennalhin Halkana and Lieutenant Surit Yeni live in a world of "architects" and "readers." "Readers" are mind-readers. The talent is rare and considered unseemly at best and a threat at worst - leading most readers to hide their powers or get press-ganged into military service. "Architects" are far more common and can make people do what they want - for short, limited spans of time. Tennalhin is the insouciant nephew of The Legislator (president equivalent) but he's also a strong reader, and at the start of the book, she's given up on reforming him and is sending him off to the military to be synced for life with an architect. Surit is career military, trying to get a promotion despite his deceased rebel mother, and opts for the job - without knowing Tennal is very much not down.

The whole story kicks into gear because Surit is the kind of rigidly principled guy that once he finds out Tennal is there against his will, he refuses to sync. But he also doesn't want to be seen as refusing an order (a first for him) so they decide to fake it. This allows the two of them, who should hate each other, to actually learn how to work together - oh, and in the meantime, slowly uncover a huge conspiracy around the creation of architects and readers in the first place, and oh x2, find themselves in the middle of a political coup.

For a story that is very much a romance as well as a plot-driven military space adventure, there are not a lot of outwardly romantic scenes. (Fewer than in WINTER'S ORBIT, if it matters to know.) Low heat / slow burn for sure. And yet Maxwell builds the tension between Tennal and Surit throughout the narrative powerfully. In the end, these two have to get comfortable with each other's minds and who they are as people before they really can get physically close.

The payoff is lovely and satisfying for both the relationship between Tennal and Surit AND the complex plot Maxwell puts together. Can I just say: the absolutely bonkers place that Maxwell takes the climactic conflict between Tennal and Surit and the endgame bad guy was just psychedelic and wild and I loved it??

WE NEED MORE SCI-FI THAT DOES THIS TYPE OF STORYTELLING! But I'm incredibly grateful this book exists and can't wait for whatever Maxwell brings us next.