Fanboys Anonymous

Deep Echoes is a difficult book to set down!

'The first real challenge that Geos faced was the Disciples, those hateful engines of Lun that still bash numbly against our borders. They swept in from the East and destroyed all they saw. That was the First Invasion. The Contegons, formed by the First Servant, fought them off but at great cost: exemplars like Contegon Corner Strength gave their lives to save us. In the aftermath of the First Invasion, the First Servant knew that the Contegons could not manage this war alone so she ordered a new Station to be created: the Shield. To fight these aggressors, she gave power to men, an act she privately came to regret.' 

This post-apocalyptic story takes place during a time of frightening theocratic world governance. Actually, it's like the movies Equilibrium and Priest were having secret relations with the love child of Final Fantasy X and The Matrix (after the human race was pretty much extinguished), only there are no vampires or emotion-controlling drugs. Without a DNA test, we can't find which is the daddy.

The Contegons, a futuristic fantasy version of the Knights Templar, are warriors of a religion called Solarism. They, and the young ones currently enrolled in physical and academic training to become Contegons, are worshipers of a god called Sol. They follow a book called the Sol Lexic and a set of rules called the Solaric Tenets that dictate their lifestyles and actions.

This book, which I thoroughly enjoyed, picks up with Maya, our protagonist—or is she the antagonist?—who has made a decision that will change everything for her and for her best friend Chain as well. The two are alike in that they do not question what they believe and are strikingly different for reasons to be determined. The question is whether they believe in the same thing. Their actions steer them on separate paths that are destined, at some point, to reach the end of their elasticity and come snapping back together. It sets up a tale that won't be forgotten. Other main characters weave their ways into the story and before you know it, the book begins to perfectly set up an interesting encore to be read in a second installment. I can't wait!

'During the day

  Sol rests in the sky

and Lun sews darkness below.

But then at night

He undoes that work

and leaves His own seeds to grow.'

A Solaric children's rhyme

Eldritch Mundanity - SPW Blog

Sean P. Wallace makes his books free via a pay if you like policy. If you enjoy reading, you can donate using the link above

What I most enjoyed about this creation from the mind of Sean P. Wallace was that it didn't take thirty pages of reading to get into, which tends to be a screaming problem for wandering minds like my own. A similar problem arises when a book begins with action, resulting in a loss of information that’s detrimental to the reader. Sean P. Wallace, now one of my favorite authors, has put incredible amount of energy into making sure this didn't occur. He summoned the attention of my eyes and didn't let them go.

This dark mixture of science fiction and fantasy is classified as young adult fiction, but it didn't strike me as such. It can easily be read as—and mistaken for—an adult book, seasoned with occasional strong language, mild adult content, and a wildly attention-grabbing story. In other words, it isn't childish, even if it is fun. For young adults and adults alike, it is my strong opinion that Deep Echoes is a book more than worth picking up, and that Sean P. Wallace is a masterful artist of the alphabet.