Review - Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell

Tennal is a “reader,” someone with the ability to sense the thoughts of other people. He's more powerful than people realize and goes to unhealthy extremes to try and quiet the constant buzz in his head. Tennal is also the nephew of the Orshan head of state, and his activities are a constant source of embarrassment. In a desperate attempt to get him under control, his aunt makes arrangements for Tennal to be conscripted into the military and “synced” to a powerful “architect.” Architects can use their mind powers to make people do things, and syncing puts the reader under the complete control of the architect. Surit is a powerful architect, although he has tried to hide it. He is a by-the-book military man determined to serve his country. Tennal and Surit are complete opposites, but neither of them believes that syncing their minds is a good idea.

Although set in the same universe as Winter's Orbit, this story takes place on a different planetary system and features none of the characters of the other book. The commonality is the background of how the human worlds are tied together through ancient links and the artifacts the builders of those structures left behind. You could easily read this story without having read the other book.

If you have read “Winter's Orbit,” then Tennal will probably remind you a lot of one of the main characters in that book, Kiem. They're both young men who enjoy their bad boy reputation to some degree, yet are really kind-hearted people. However, where Kiem was just rebellious, Tennal has good reason to act out. The more we learn about the military operation that started everything, the more we empathize with Tennal's situation.

While I see parallels between the characters of Tennal and Kiem, Surit feels very different from Jainan. Surit is no shrinking violet. From the very start, he projects a self-assuredness that makes it seem natural for him to be a leader. However, like Tennal, Surit is very much a product of his past and haunted by the “sins” of his mother. Surit's journey in this book is both literally and figuratively transformative.

The relationship between Tennal and Surit is very much a slow burn. Even after they acknowledge feelings for each other, their situation prevents them from acting on them. This story is much more of a classic action-adventure space opera. There are lots of questions about the secret military project that produced the original architects and readers, and what actually happened to end it, but those are more secondary this time.

“Ocean's Echo” is available from Amazon (commissionable link).