Echo (What Do You Regret?)

Happy Wednesday, I hope you’re well.
Today, I’m going to be reviewing Echo, a science fiction novel, by Jordan Leach.

Summary of Story

Echo Fray used to do the bare minimum in life, considering himself a failure in all things, until he met Natasha Vixen, a brilliant and yet unstable time-traveller. The chance of a lifetime transforms Echo from a failure, into a man with a mission- live the life he truly wants, with no regrets.

The story is told in a non-linear, yet meaningful way, showing the different stages in Echo’s training
to become a time-travelling master. We see the separate lives that Echo and Natasha craft for themselves as they bend time to their will, with disastrous consequences.

Characters

Echo and Natasha serve as the two protagonists in this story.

Echo Fray starts the story as a quiet and fearful man, having spent a good portion of his life behind bars, until the mysterious Natasha Vixen shows up one day and bails him out, much to his surprise. Echo is trained at first to become an assassin and though stubborn, he transforms into a thoughtful, methodical, intelligent, and courageous man by the end of the novel.

Natasha Vixen was a compelling character that I came to both love and hate. Mysterious, cunning, beautiful and intelligent, she seems to have everything going for her, including the incredible ability to travel through time. While learning more about Natasha’s backstory did make me feel sorry for her, I came to admire her determination to create a world without needless destruction. However, everything comes with a price. The amount of destruction Natasha ended up causing in her quest for a better world meant that she had essentially failed in her original goal.

Writing

Love, loss and regret feature heavily in this novel. Betrayal of your true self is key, particularly toward the end, where Natasha foregoes her original goal by creating more destruction than there was originally.

The author’s writing style was conversational, as though Echo was guiding me through his experiences in the present tense. It felt like I was right there with him, experiencing everything first-hand.

The ending was sweet, a real heart-warming moment, with echo having learned to cherish the little moments of joy in his life.

Memorable Quotes

From Echo, I found three particularly memorable quotes.
The first is:

‘The truth still existed, despite society’s attempts to destroy it.’

This particular quote stood out to me immediately. In our modern world, the truth is rarely something that we are given. The news today has become nothing more than pure tabloid gossip, filled with hateful opinions on both sides, and advertisements in between. As a society, we seem to be nothing a terrific job of covering up the truth, which begs the following question-

Why hide the truth? What are people afraid of?

The second quote which stood out to me was:

‘Nothing reminds a man how small he is like facing the great behemoths of nature.’

When faced with etremely difficult situations involving our own nature as human beings, we often realize just how small we are as individuals in this world. That’s not a bad thing per say: one individual can still have an enormous impact on the world. What I was reminded of is that the further we build up civilization, the more it feels (to me, at least) like we’re running away from not just our own nature, but from nature in general.

The third and final, possibly most powerful quote is as follows:

‘All we can do is try to live our best life right now- one that learns from the past
and plans for the future- one that doesn’t revolve around control and regret.’

This quote stood out to me as I realized that we all have ways of controlling our own lives, but in small ways. I often find that when I feel out of control, my OCD gets really bad. Everything has to be constantly moved to sit in a specific place, as if that alone could make me feel more in control.

Some people overeat to feel like they’re in control of something. Some people become addicted to substances. This quote had me thinking about how all of us seek control of our worlds in our own special ways. Sometimes, we don’t even realize that we have these little rituals, to make ourselves feel more in control, but believe me, they’re there.

As a species, we also seem to have trouble with repeating past mistakes, again and again, particularly when it comes to political issues and war. It’s as if we just don’t learn, as if we refuse to look back on the past to ensure a brighter future for humankind.