I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2021 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2021/02/2021-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

this was a really cool scifi novel, the characters were great and I really enjoyed reading this book. The author has a great style and I look forward to more from the author.

Set in the future in Toronto, the story follows several different characters through their journey with new technology and virtual reality.
Ultimately, it had a lot of potential but I felt like there were too many characters and not a clear connection between all of them. The science was interesting, the overall story was not.

I honestly didn't think I would enjoy this book as much as I did. It takes place in the future, in Toronto, where almost everything is done by AI.

I found the characters compelling, especially Kel and Ray. I wasn't sure where several of the characters fit into the narrative. An example being the writer, Seth.

The author's world building is vivid. The narrative basically flowed well. I wouldn't mind reading a sequel.

I was given an ARC. I am leaving my honest review.

The groove. The zone. Whatever you call it, chances are we’ve all experienced it at some point in our lives; that mental state where everything just clicks. Whether it’s work, gaming, studying, it’s a state we all hope to attain and then, crucially, maintain. But what if you could turn that mental state on at will? That’s the question posed by Chandra K. Clarke in her new novel Echoes of Another: A Novel of the Near-Future, in which a scientist (Kel) researching Alzheimer’s Disease manages to create a device which is capable of recording a brain state and playing it back at will. Her intentions are pure, with the aforementioned state of “flow” being her aim, but when the device goes missing, others come up with far less altruistic ideas for the tech. Seen from the viewpoints of multiple characters, the applications for Kel’s device outstrip anything she could have imagined for it.

Set in a not-too-distant-future Toronto, Echoes of Another gives us a vision of the world as it could be soon, with currently existing technology improved upon and mass produced. It is a world with self-driving vehicles, longer lifespans, hydroponic farming and more besides, with everything networked and connected. Digital assistants monitor dietary requirements, with meals produced by fabbers - essentially 3D printers that are capable of creating food as well as objects. Much of the technology in the novel is existing in some form at the moment, but lacks the wider or grander applications it’s put to here, making it essential reading for anyone even vaguely interested in modern technology, futurism, sustainability and environmentalism. The various gadgets and systems in the novel never feel jarring or difficult to rationalise, making the world itself feel meticulously considered and constructed. Body modification adds a touch of cyberpunk to proceedings too, but not enough to push the novel into that genre altogether. To some, indeed many, this world might sound like a utopia, but Clarke isn’t keen on sugar coating her vision of the future - there is still inequality present, with residents of the notorious “J-District” being the worst off. Even with the advances in technology, there are still those who fall through the net, whether through their own doing or bad luck, and the message is clear - technology can’t solve all our problems.

And what a lot of problems we would still have. Organised crime, for example, is still a blight in Echoes, but the criminals have become more creative with how they make their money. Ray, one of the main characters of the novel, is our eyes on this, and it’s not long before he’s on his first job for the organisation. Ascending through the ranks as he tries to uncover information for his own ends, Ray is perfectly placed to witness the effects the new “Flow” device has when it hits the streets and falls into the wrong hands. As quickly as one illicit use is discovered for Kel’s invention, two more spring up, the endless imagination and creativity of the populace working against her to repurpose her creation. Parallels are easily drawn between this and real-life examples of leaked intellectual property, as well as jailbreaking and hacking, but the novel doesn’t get bogged down in sermonising on IP law reform, instead focusing on the end users themselves. Whilst some use the technology for the reason Kel created it in the first place, others have some very dark designs on it indeed - without wishing to spoil anything, I’ll just say that these were some of my favourite moments in the novel. They felt like the very best episodes of Black Mirror, where I would keep thinking about the implications, the possibilities and the ethical issues raised long after the credits had rolled. I find I’m still thinking about the ideas in Echoes now, days after finishing it. What would I use such a device for, I wonder? What place would I have in this society of the future? And how long until we’re there ourselves?

With multiple protagonists and storylines, Clarke skilfully sets up her world, establishing relationships, motivations and settings, before tweaking it ever so slightly and allowing us to watch what happens. It’s almost as if the novel itself is a carefully designed lab experiment, in which a foreign body is introduced into an environment and we’re invited to observe the effects. Echoes of Another is not just highly believable, it crucially never loses sight of the importance of telling a good story. Thoughtful, imaginative and enjoyable, it’s essential futurist fiction.

I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. I'm not always a sci-fi fan, but Echoes of Another: A Novel of the Near Future has changed my mind. I'm always a sucker for a story told from varying points of view. Ray, Kel, Maura, Seth, Haroon, and Meike's stories were wonderful windows into a setting that became a character all its own.

The near future in Toronto is very close to how I envision the future as far as technology is concerned. Food fabricators, passive and kinetic forms of energy, roof gardens tended by robots, vertical gardens on buildings, and buildings dedicated to food production. Even so, some people have never tasted food from a tree or a plant, and insects are the major animal protein. Here in 2020, we're only a couple of decades away from this type of existence. The setting is just the start. There are the stories of several people from different walks of life. In the middle of it all are the same conversations we're having now about politicians, influence of the media, and 24/7 connected lifestyle and at the center of that is the ThingWeb, what the internet becomes in the future. When the stories start to weave together and connect that's when the book really hits its stride.

I loved this book and the way it unfolded. I don't want to give anything a way because it really wouldn't be fair to readers. My favorite point of views are from Haroon and Maura. They actually remind me of friends of mine but all the characters are easy in which to lose oneself. The political parallels were a little heavy handed and on the nose, but it makes sense to show what the future can hold if we keep moving in the same directions with blinders on.

I would highly recommend this book for someone who likes science fiction settings without the heaviness of hard core science fiction. This is a character driven vehicle in a science fiction setting. It doesn't get bogged down in the science. It tells the story of people.

Very enjoyable science fiction. I appreciated the author’s use of description and suspense. A recommended title!

Neuromancer, though not set in Canada, was written there, so it makes sense of a sort to have what is a fairly traditional cyberpunk book (if that's a phrase that makes any sense) set in a nearish-future Toronto.

At least, I thought at first that it was a fairly traditional cyberpunk/nearish future book. There's implanted tech. There's a corporation. There are a bunch of disaffected, alienated characters, all single, all with a number of friends between zero and one.

Only it manages to avoid the usual tropes, in at least some ways. The corporation isn't evil. The arc of the characters - all the characters - is towards connection, including with each other, though there are too many of them. Haroon, in particular, added very little to the main plot and wasn't much affected by it, and his background is similar enough to Ray's that I found myself having to concentrate to remember which was which. He feels like he's being set up for a sequel more than like he's a part of this story.

After a slowish start, setting up that excessive number of characters, their stories start to connect up at almost the halfway point, after which it becomes gripping. Short, brisk chapters have a lot to do with this.

The characters are not as aimless as near-future SF characters often are; they want things and strive for things. At the end, though, they don't so much achieve resolutions by protagonism as get them handed to them as rewards for suffering.

The premise didn't completely work for me. There's a big glaring plot hole right at the centre: The application Kel thinks of is incredibly obvious, and if it could be done with common, standard tech (which apparently it can), someone would have thought of it probably even before it could be done, and certainly immediately afterwards. Nor do they need Kel's design, specifically; if she could invent it, so could someone else, especially since she's a research scientist rather than a technician. So the main plot driver failed to get me to suspend my disbelief.

Also, the US is kind of falling apart; that's mentioned in passing, as something that's neither surprising nor interesting. But among the many immigrants to Canada, there appear to be no US refugees.

So: very promising, well written on the whole, but has too many characters, takes too long to get going, and doesn't completely hang together or resolve completely organically. I'd probably read a sequel, though, since the strengths outweighed the weaknesses for me.

I received a review copy via Netgalley.