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Echo in Amethyst
I just finished listening to the third in Sharon Shinn's new Echoes trilogy - Echo in Amethyst. It took me ten days to get through it, but it felt like a lot longer.
The premise for the world of the trilogy is that high nobles in the Seven Jewels have up to three copies of themselves that follow them around and copy all their movements, as a sign of their status. It's an interesting idea, but only some of the practicalities are explained - I mean, the echoes eat and drink, but do all the houses have to have bathrooms with four cubicles for synchronised waste management?
Anyway, even suspending disbelief to accept that the system somehow works, this book left a lot to be desired.
Spoilers below...
This book is actually from the point of view of an echo, who has been roused to full sentience by systematic abuse from her original. This is an interesting viewpoint to explore, and I was interested enough to find out how the story would be resolved to follow it through to the end.
However, it also presents a lot of problems for a narrative, in that the protagonist has no name and literally no agency, as for most of the book she can't even move independently. Even when she does gain some autonomy and the ability to speak, she refuses to do so, for fear of the consequences. So, the whole story feels like it's being told at one remove, about a character (the original) who is despicable.
What's worse is that the book takes place at the same time and across the same series of events as the first two in the trilogy, so most of the exciting bits take place off-page and are reported in the protagonists hearing afterwards, the reader is already aware of the details of what's going on and why.
The romance is rather problematical as well, since the protagonist's fate is entirely in the prince's hands once he realises she is aware, and she is unable to do anything at all to help herself. He even bestows her eventual name, so her entire identity and level of freedom is down to him.
There are occasions where the protagonist (named Hope part way through) could and probably should have taken action to reveal herself and have an impact on events, but she is paralysed by fear and does not. When she at last does take some independent action and finds out something she feels is important, the prince subsequently tells her that he worked it out days before and basically says she shouldn't worry her pretty head about it. Gah!
Even at the climax, Hope is unable to save herself and has to rely on the prince to physically restrain her so she doesn't commit suicide alongside her original. I also worked out fairly early on how things would be resolved in Hope's favour - but I was hoping she would have more direct involvement in getting them there.
It's disappointing, since Sharon Shinn is normally great at writing awesome female characters who are mistresses of their own fate, or at least presented as equal to their male counterparts. So, overall, I'm not keen on this whole trilogy, which is a shame.
The premise for the world of the trilogy is that high nobles in the Seven Jewels have up to three copies of themselves that follow them around and copy all their movements, as a sign of their status. It's an interesting idea, but only some of the practicalities are explained - I mean, the echoes eat and drink, but do all the houses have to have bathrooms with four cubicles for synchronised waste management?
Anyway, even suspending disbelief to accept that the system somehow works, this book left a lot to be desired.
Spoilers below...
This book is actually from the point of view of an echo, who has been roused to full sentience by systematic abuse from her original. This is an interesting viewpoint to explore, and I was interested enough to find out how the story would be resolved to follow it through to the end.
However, it also presents a lot of problems for a narrative, in that the protagonist has no name and literally no agency, as for most of the book she can't even move independently. Even when she does gain some autonomy and the ability to speak, she refuses to do so, for fear of the consequences. So, the whole story feels like it's being told at one remove, about a character (the original) who is despicable.
What's worse is that the book takes place at the same time and across the same series of events as the first two in the trilogy, so most of the exciting bits take place off-page and are reported in the protagonists hearing afterwards, the reader is already aware of the details of what's going on and why.
The romance is rather problematical as well, since the protagonist's fate is entirely in the prince's hands once he realises she is aware, and she is unable to do anything at all to help herself. He even bestows her eventual name, so her entire identity and level of freedom is down to him.
There are occasions where the protagonist (named Hope part way through) could and probably should have taken action to reveal herself and have an impact on events, but she is paralysed by fear and does not. When she at last does take some independent action and finds out something she feels is important, the prince subsequently tells her that he worked it out days before and basically says she shouldn't worry her pretty head about it. Gah!
Even at the climax, Hope is unable to save herself and has to rely on the prince to physically restrain her so she doesn't commit suicide alongside her original. I also worked out fairly early on how things would be resolved in Hope's favour - but I was hoping she would have more direct involvement in getting them there.
It's disappointing, since Sharon Shinn is normally great at writing awesome female characters who are mistresses of their own fate, or at least presented as equal to their male counterparts. So, overall, I'm not keen on this whole trilogy, which is a shame.