Ecko Rising by Danie Ware
I really do hate coming down hard on a writer’s debut novel, but as I read Dani Ware’s novel, ‘Ecko Rising’, I was up for screaming, ‘Put some plot around the words.’ You learn more about that from the back cover what is supposed to be going on than the content.
Ecko is a terrorist assassin who is seen as a saviour of his world by some. Quite why beats me as for much of the book he isn’t even there for you to pass a judgement one way or the other. If you’re expecting a war between different parts of society, then you don’t see it from either side. I’m still at a loss as to what the goals are or why I should care for any of the characters given.
Stories like this need more than characters rambling on. They need some roots there for a reason to remember why we should care for them. If you don’t have that then you’ll lose the reader. As a reviewer, I just knuckle down and read but little of it made any impression on me one way or the other.
If you like dialogue-intense stories low in plot, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading this book. The real question is whether you’ll remember any of it the next morning.
GF Willmetts
August 2012
(pub: Titan Books. 520 page small enlarged paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-85768-762-3)
check out websites: www.titanbooks.com and www.daniware.com
