Review & Giveaway - Echoes by Therin Knite

Title: Echoes

Series: Echoes #1
Author: Therin Knite
Release Date: January 22, 2014

Pages: 220

Goodreads Rating: 4.00 stars

My Rating: 4.5/5 stars

My Content Rating: Mature YA/Adult (Language, violence, some sexual situations)

Summary from Goodreads: Washington

District of Columbia
United Republic of Earth
2712
_____

Twenty-three-year-old Adem Adamend has it rough. His name is ludicrous. His friends are few. And the only thing his "kid genius" status has gotten him at the Interdistrict Bureau of Intelligence is a boatload of extra work with no credit in sight.

Then hotshot lawyer Victor Manson is burned to death in his own back yard, and Adem finds himself using his unique skills to piece together the strangest crime he's ever seen. Strange because the only possible suspect Adem can pin the murder on...is a mythical beast. A dragon.

Before Adem can unravel the mystery of Manson's death, the Bureau loses jurisdiction to the secretive EDPA, an organization that investigates weird and deadly events. But Adem isn't one for giving up, so he takes it upon himself to delve deeper into EDPA's machinations, into the series of unfortunate events that led to Manson's demise.

And what he finds may change the way he views the world -- and himself -- forever.
_____

What do you do when a killer can hide behind his dreams?

What do you do when a murder weapon ceases to exist?

And how do you stop a villain who can conjure up nightmares and burn you from the Earth in the blink of an eye?

Adem Adamend is about to find out.

Echoes is an action-packed sci-fi mystery, full of twists and turns! 

The negatives:

• Not quite enough futuristic elements.  While there were definitely some interesting futuristic sci-fi elements in this book, I could have used even more!  Besides a few interesting gadgets and people who change their appearance using mods, life in 2712 didn't seem that much more advanced.  

What I LOVED:

• Adem.  Adem was an incredibly interesting character because of his ability to read people.  He was like Sean on Psych, only even more so.  Adem is brilliant (the seventh most intelligent person in the world, we're told), but somewhat emotionally stunted due to the murder of his mother when he was only six years old.  Because of her murder, he has dedicated his life to using his skills to help solve crimes - and is hoping to eventually solve the mystery of his mother's death.  Even though Adem doesn't have a ton of emotional depth, he makes up with it because of his sense of humor - which brings me to my next point...
• Dry wit.  Adem's narration is filled with a sort of dry wit.  In some ways, it reminded me of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (or maybe his Dirk Gently series), but a lot less wacky. Adem is constantly parenthetically commenting on the circumstances around him in ways that made me laugh - a big plus in my book!
• Echoes (dreams).  I'm not always a big fan of straight-up mysteries or crime novels, but the slightly paranormal/sci-fi element of this book is what made it for me.  You see, you find out relatively early on in this book that the murder is not just any murder (you may have gathered that from the fact that it says in the synopsis that the murder was committed by a dragon).  Adem discovers that the real culprit behind the murder is able to manipulate his dreams - and make them come to life.  The result is a true nightmare!  There were quite a few twists and turns in this book as Adem tries to solve the murder (coming very close to death several times).  One of the major twists, I did see coming, but another one was a big surprise to me and I thought it was brilliant!

I would highly recommend this book to fans of sci-fi or crime novels/mystery (who don't mind a sci-fi element). I give it  4.5/5 stars.

***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own***

About the Author:

Therin Knite is a 22-year-old college senior who occasionally writes speculative fiction and has the odd delusion of literary stardom. Knite lives in a humble little place known as the Middle of Nowhere, Virginia and spends every possible second of free time reading books and writing what may possibly qualify as books.

   

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