Echopraxia, by Peter Watts
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Echopraxia, by Peter Watts
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Prepare for a different kind of singularity in Peter Watts' Echopraxia, the follow-up to the Hugo-nominated novel Blindsight.
It's the eve of the twenty-second century: a world where the dearly departed send postcards back from Heaven and evangelicals make scientific breakthroughs by speaking in tongues; where genetically engineered vampires solve problems intractable to baseline humans and soldiers come with zombie switches that shut off self-awareness during combat. And it's all under surveillance by an alien presence that refuses to show itself.
Daniel Bruks is a living fossil: a field biologist in a world where biology has turned computational, a cat's-paw used by terrorists to kill thousands. Taking refuge in the Oregon desert, he's turned his back on a humanity that shatters into strange new subspecies with every heartbeat. But he awakens one night to find himself at the center of a storm that will turn all of history inside-out.
Now he's trapped on a ship bound for the center of the solar system. To his left is a grief-stricken soldier, obsessed by whispered messages from a dead son. To his right is a pilot who hasn't yet found the man she's sworn to kill on sight. A vampire and its entourage of zombie bodyguards lurk in the shadows behind. And dead ahead, a handful of rapture-stricken monks takes them all to a meeting with something they will only call "The Angels of the Asteroids."
Their pilgrimage brings Dan Bruks, the fossil man, face-to-face with the biggest evolutionary breakpoint since the origin of thought itself.
Echopraxia, by Peter Watts- Amazon Sales Rank: #380041 in Books
- Brand: Watts, Peter
- Published on: 2015-06-16
- Released on: 2015-06-16
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.17" h x 1.03" w x 5.49" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 384 pages
Review “A paranoid tale that would make Philip K. Dick proud, told in a literary style that should seduce readers who don't typically enjoy science fiction.” ―Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
PETER WATTS is the Hugo and Nebula nominated author of Blindsight and has been called "a hard science fiction writer through and through and one of the very best alive" by The Globe and Mail and whose work the New York Times called "seriously paranoid."
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60 of 61 people found the following review helpful. Strong themes, good characters, entertaining story By TChris Echopraxia takes place after Blindsight. Transhuman Bicamerals (hive-minded faith-based scientists who speak in tongues), engineered versions of zombies, and not-quite-human but controlled and confined vampires are among the many background characters. Don't grind your teeth -- this is not another dumb zombie/vampire novel.The central character is baseline human Dan Brüks, a biologist and tenured professor who resists all the wiring and implants that most people take for granted. As Exchopraxia begins, Brüks is in the desert where he finds Bicamerals threatened by a not-so-controlled-or-confined vampire and her zombie helpers. Soon the Bicams and the vampire join forces (more or less) because they appear to have a common but unidentified enemy. An attack from an unknown source sends Brüks and the Bicams and the vampire and a baseline military officer and some other characters scrambling to a spaceship that is itself chased and attacked by the unknown enemy. Figuring out who (or what) is engineering the high tech attacks is one of the plot's three mysteries. The second involves a mysterious something -- the "Angels of the Asteroids" is the roughly translated name bestowed by the Bicams -- and its association with Icarus, a space station that acts as a conduit of unlimited solar energy. The third involves the abrupt disappearance of the Theseus, a spaceship that investigated mystery number two, on which the military officer's son was serving.Peter Watts has a better than average prose style. I like the way he renders dialog in a character for whom language is too slow to keep pace with thought. Characters have carefully designed personalities. Brüks and the military officer are both carrying a bundle of guilt, a byproduct of being baseline humans who can't jettison inconvenient emotions. The plot moves quickly, particularly in the novel's second half, but it does not short-change character development or the refinement of themes (including the benefits and disadvantages of being human rather than transhuman) that are central to the story.The novel's background is filled with ideas, some familiar and others fresh. Watts doesn't assume that readers are stupid and need their hands held. Concepts that don't seem to make much sense initially (like "smart paint") are eventually made clear, usually through context rather than direct explanation. Watts scores points with me for avoiding needless exposition.While Echopraxia is science-heavy science fiction, Watts also scores points for recognizing and engaging the limits of science -- which is not to say that the novel prefers a religious approach to understanding phenomena, despite the importance of transhuman monks to the story. Watts understands that too many people have blind faith in the ability of either science or religion to supply correct answers to all questions when, given our relatively primitive evolutionary state, we don't even know what questions to ask. Watts provides an antidote to arrogance, a reminder that it is wrong to belittle others because their understanding of the universe (or of our tiny part of our single universe) differs from our own. Echopraxia makes a strong argument for the importance of keeping an open mind about ... well, everything ... because the odds are good that whatever we believe to be true is fundamentally wrong.Apart from being intellectually engaging, Echopraxia tells an entertaining story. The combination of an intelligent background, a fun plot, important themes, and strong characters make Echopraxia a rewarding read.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful. Hyper-deterministic look at post-humanism By Han Jie Though far from what one thinks of as typical hard sf, Peter Watts’ 2006 Blindsight was one of the genre’s most cutting edge stories knowledge-wise. The larger societal mindset still trying to catch up to the implications of modern neuroscience, Watts used fresh data to fictionally present many of the roots of human behavior brain research is uncovering. The follow-up novel eight years in the making, 2014’s Echopraxia is, at least, worth the wait. Though lacking a similarly engaging main premise, Watts’ continues with an agenda of hyper-determinism, producing a harsh, challenging look at the mind and its potentials.Wikipedia defines ‘echophenomena’ as “’automatic imitative actions without explicit awareness,’ or pathological repetitions of external stimuli or activities, actions, sounds, or phrases, indicative of an underlying disorder.” Echopraxia is the ‘action’ portion of the definition. Beyond mere hammer-to-the-knee, it refers to the deep, sub-conscious motivations of human behavior, differing worldviews, and the manner in which people respond to the exigencies of life. These are the areas Watts expands the idea in Echopraxia. From religion to existentialism, the limits of science to pure fear, a broad array of topics are confronted by one man taken on a trip he wished he could have avoided.Echopraxia is the story of Daniel Brueks, a biologist working in the Oregon wilderness to exterminate species with corrupt DNA. The monastery in the desert below, with its pet tornado, is his entertainment. But when attacked by an unseen, inhuman entity, it proves his only refuge. Meeting monks and soldiers, scientists and laborers within, when the attack shifts to the monastery Brueks quickly finds himself on the Crown of Thorns—a space vessel capable of orbiting the sun at close distance. Things getting further and further out of control, someone, or something, from the solar system is also bent on getting at those inside the vessel. A pawn on a game board of biotechnically advanced rooks, bishops, and knights, Brueks spends every moment thereafter scrambling to stay alive as post-humanity unleashes itself around him.Echopraxia’s storyline is not linearly, rather laterally connected to Blindsight. (Siri’s story dovetails into Bruek’s toward the conclusion, answering questions regarding the fate of Earth at the end of Blindsight). Watts shifts the tension from a mysterious alien entity to something closer to home: other humans—or at least the various forms humanity has been modified into. Vampires, zombies, bicamerals, biomodified humans—all carry on their strange existences around Brueks as he maneuvers the zero g corridors of the Crown of Thorns trying to get a handle on their alliances, intents, and simply enough, mode of existence. Possessing only a few simple implants, Bruek’s body is veritably Neolithic compared to Valerie the vampire, Cooper the soldier, and Lina the upgraded human. Each type providing Watts a different stage to expound his ideas, the inherent consciousness, behavior, relationships, and neuroscience collectively form the conceptual core of the story.And expound Watts does. At times feeling like pure rant, and at others like integrated exposition, the unrelenting ultra-realist worldview of Blindsight continues in Echopraxia. (“Truth had never been a priority. If believing a lie had kept the genes proliferating, the system would believe that lie with all its heart” is just a sample quote.) Where the worldview was expressed in Blindsight via characters confronting the unknown, and thus complementing the story, in Echopraxia, there is more straining, more forcing of the underlying ideas into the plot. Not always intrinsic to conversation or stream of thought, there are moments, some chapter openings for example, where the fourth wall becomes visible—not penetrated, but perceptible. For this, Echopraxia lacks the cogency of Blindsight, and can at times feel like a soap box rather than description of a human dealing with the “people” and world around him. Certainly there are moments they work together satisfactorily, the ending well done, for example, but there remain moments wherein a dislocation of agenda and plot is visible.In the end, Echopraxia carries on the ideas of Blindsight by presenting scenarios wherein people confront the deepest psycho-neurotic aspects of being human. Digging deeper into possible varieties of post-humanity, the neuroscience of zombies, vampires, bicamerals, the uploaded, and the biomodified is presented in comparison to a “normal” human as each come to terms with existence in their own way. Watts writing style still filled with dark satire and cutting commentary, he continues to press the accelerator of determinism to the floor, driving at a point where humanity must face the realities of their physical existence if they are to ever progress. I’m not certain Echopraxia equals Blindsight, but it remains at the bleeding edge of research into the brain and human behavior, and for this is as relevant as can be in hard sci-fi today
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful. I read Blindsight after it was recommended to me via Amazon -- I ripped through it ... By MART I read Blindsight after it was recommended to me via Amazon -- I ripped through it in a day or so. This book is the sequel to that one. Think of it this way: If 2001 featured a crew of genetically modified/brain mutilated/optimized astronauts led by a vampire, yet was still depicted with stately, icy elegance -- then you'd have Blindsight. This book is Blindsight's 2010 if there was an ideal world whose movies/books were written like this -- this would be the sequels that world produced. Don't hesitate. Read Blindsight, then read this. Get them both together. Just get them. Some of the best science fiction of the 2000s, in the running as the best.
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