Echo's Voice

Rating:
Summary: A Timely Novel
Review: Imagine a future in which the wealthy can purchase biochips and artificial organs so that they can maintain a youthful appearance for centuries. A Supreme Court Justice can remain on the bench for 200 years. Actors and singers never grow old.

Welcome to the year 2475. All news and entertainment is controlled by the LTK Corporation. The eternally youthful wealthy executives see themselves as superior beings.

Echo Forrester was raised in this environment, surrounded by wealth and beauty. But she refuses to become a part of it. You see, she knows too many secrets, and has some very good reasons for hating the people who raised her. She goes through life angry and frustrated, and not very likeable. That is, until Rick Brock shows up.

Rick and Echo are complete opposites in most respects. Rick, the son of a national hero, was raised to respect authority. As an officer with the National Police he lives for duty, honor and country. He doesn't think much of the rebellious Echo at first. But they keep finding they have things in common.

The fast-paced and often humorous story follows Rick and Echo's journey. Along the way we are introduced to too many interesting characters and bizarre plot twists to describe. I suppose the novel could be considered science fiction since it takes place in the future and includes some interesting speculations about technology. But it is also a love story, with a healthy dose of adventure, mystery and humor.

The author, Sarah Mankowski, began Echo's Voice as a screenplay. When she decided to expand it into a novel, she attempted to maintain the feel of a movie, with each brief chapter designed like a scene. I think she even designed the book this way before DVDs became popular with their scene/chapter headings. Somehow, all of this works and seems very appropriate to this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Loved This Book!
Review: This is one of the most fun books I've read in a long time. Maybe Echo Forrester infuriates everybody now and then, but you have to love her spirit.

Rating:
Summary: Echo's Voice - a review by W.A. Rieser
Review: Years ago, they referred to ancient dancing techniques or a good night on the town as 'tripping the light fantastic.' Fantasy authors have taken advantage of that sentiment to produce works like Huxley's Brave New World, Asimov's Foundation and Orwell's
1984. There have been many others since, most notably AI from the imagination of Spielberg's mind. In all of these weighty conceptions, the authors strived valiantly to craft legitimate possible futures for our progeny. Rarely did they envision anything positive for our children. Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury is typical of the extremely negative foresight creative artists apply to anything they see growing out of our present.

Now Sarah Mankowski steps up to the plate with Echo's Voice, her bat, and waits patiently for that ever so mischievous fastball curve, literary criticism.

Call it naivety, call it foolish thinking on my part, but I think her idea of the future is so much more promising and interesting than those offered by the giants of fantasy
literature we've all come to admire so much. Her little corner of the universe is filled with a terrible yet stunning possibility, that although we manage to achieve the ultimate
in corruption and inhumanity, we cannot alter the destiny of Earth itself, for it is resilient and not bound to human laws. Further, Sarah offers something new. Robots are not unique, but hers achieve sentience, including feelings, humor and everything else that intelligence needs to survive. That is refreshing and she offers it in a fresh template with scenes replacing chapters. The novel grew from a screenplay rather than the
reverse. The tale offers true hope for those who need to believe in a promise and Sarah's hooks and twists provide all the entertainment anyone can ask for.

Yes, her style is couched in terms normally associated with the female point of view, but how could it be otherwise? Yes, she often states things simplistically and without the refined, often complex phraseology of a Robert Heinlein or a Poul Anderson. But in doing so, she reaches out to a larger audience, one that I believe will be receptive to this fine work.

In short, I strongly recommend Echo's Voice as a wonderful, new example of the genre and urge everyone to read it. You will not be disappointed.