Echo in Onyx (Uncommon Echoes, #1)

Echo in Onyx (Uncommon Echoes, #1) | Sharon Shinn

#BookSpin I feel like all my challenge posts lately have been downers, but I am just not feeling these books! This one had very strange, complicated world building and a nice romance, but I kept feeling like my intelligence was being insulted. And there's a deus ex machina ending that is beyond creepy.

Haven't decided if I'll read the next book.

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Echo in Onyx (Uncommon Echoes, #1) | Sharon Shinn

bailed

Bailed in Chapter 10, discussed in comments, tw for rape.

esurient Quite frankly, I am done finding on-page depiction of graphic rape in my fiction. I've read what feels like a million books where rhe author uses rape as the tool to make their point, and I'm tired of reading that. I have no interest in returning to this book. 3y

esurient Reviews of this series indicate this particular scene is used to highlight the unstable and uncaring reign of the current king and his children, which is apparently the broad plot arc to this trilogy. Pertinent to this novel, the bulk of the story is spent concealing the rape victim's crime of fighting back, which had incidentally caused the death of the rapist, leading the victim to be sentenced for execution. 3y

esurient Apparently there's a deus ex machina ending that both saves the victim and sets up the next book. 3y

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esurient And I just... don't care to read about that. The personhood question of the echos could have been explored with a simple murder catalyst. There's no need or real creativity in hammering this awful 'victim-victim-victim' dirge for the next twenty goddamn chapters. 3y

esurient tw also, homosexuality is held in distaste by the story-culture, although the characters in question are presented sympathetically. How lovely for me to find myself reading that on this, the first day of Pride month. 3y

esurient And Shinn has written GOOD novels in the past! Meaningful stories, with thoughtful, nuanced presentations, and distinct, personalized characters! I am SO angrily disapointed! 3y

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Echo in Onyx (Uncommon Echoes, #1) | Sharon Shinn

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Echo in Onyx (Uncommon Echoes, #1) | Sharon Shinn

Hum!

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Echo in Onyx (Uncommon Echoes, #1) | Sharon Shinn

I am curious to see how deeply this worldbuilding is considered. Are echoes just... not fed in times of famine? Murdered in households that can barely afford one newborn, much less four? Does the infrastructure accommodate with extra space in sewage and housing and transport? How does impoverished nobility deal with the need to outfit duplicates at x4 the expense?

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Echo in Onyx (Uncommon Echoes, #1) | Sharon Shinn