Echo City

Echo City #1

by Tim Lebbon

Surrounded by a vast, toxic desert, the inhabitants of labyrinthine Echo City believe there is no other life in their world. Some like it that way, so when a stranger arrives he is anathema to powerful interest groups. But Peer Nadawa found the stranger and she is determined to keep him and the freedom he represents alive. A political exile herself, she calls on her ex-lover Gorham, now leader of their anti-establishment network. Then they recruit the Baker, whose macabre genetic experiments seem close to sorcery.

However, while factions prepare for war, an ancient peril is stirring. In the city’s depths something deadly is rising, and it will soon reach the levels where men dwell.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Dystopia, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Unfinished

558 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

I love writing, reading, triathlon, real ale, chocolate, good movies, occasional bad movies, and cake.

I was born in London in 1969, lived in Devon until I was eight, and the next twenty years were spent in Newport. My wife Tracey and I then did a Good Thing and moved back to the country, and we now live in the little village of Goytre in Monmouthshire with our kids Ellie and Daniel. And our dog, Blu, who is the size of a donkey.

I love the countryside ... I do a lot of running and cycling, and live in the best part of the world for that.

I've had loads of books published in the UK, USA, and around the world, including novels, novellas, and collections. I write horror, fantasy, and now thrillers, and I've been writing as a living for over 8 years. I've won quite a few awards for my original fiction, and I've also written tie-in projects for Star Wars, Alien, Hellboy, The Cabin in the Woods, and 30 Days of Night.

A movie's just been made of my short story Pay the Ghost, starring Nicolas Cage and Sarah Wayne Callies. There are other projects in development, too.

I'd love to hear from you!

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars

Wow, 2012 is the year that I really found the awesome writing and worlds created by Tim Lebbon. Echo City will stay with me for a long time. I am having a really hard time comprehending how Lebbon does not have a huge following and his works are not rated as high as I believe they should be. If you have not read him before, I will state a disclaimer that he manages to mix all my favorite genres into his writings which make me a biased reviewer. Echo City is a true dark fantasy with a touch of horror in it too (like all his works are). It is also a science fiction novel with a touch of the new weird in it as well. Religion, Gods, and the beliefs of what it means to be a man are pervasive throughout this macabre tale. His books are thought provoking and will stir your imagination. I like that many compare this book to Mieville’s PSS, but their writing styles are unique to themselves and are great for different reasons.

Like his other books this is a book that is rich and dense with atmosphere. Echo City itself is an amazing piece of imagination and fiction and can stand on its own along with other fictional greats like New Crobuzon, and Ambergis. Echo City is a city that is both literally and figuratively built upon its past and upon its history. The Echoes are under the city, walking the city, and filling every nook and cranny. It is a place surrounded by an endless, deadly desert, and is an island that may be the whole world. Phantoms are a present reminder of the past.

“”The Echoes are … nebulous. The deeper you go, the older the Echo, the more uncertain the geography becomes.”
“But they’re just levels.” Gorham was becoming frustrated and a little angry, and he supposed it was due to fear.
“Just levels? Gorham, the past is a living place. The deeper you go, the further into history you travel. The city doesn’t deal with history. It builds over its past, encloses it, shuts it off, and while tradition might persist, the real histories are soon forgotten. It’s the present that matters to Echo City, while the past echoes below it, in some cases still alive. If you read the history books, one will contradict another, particularly as you go further back. So why should the Echoes be any different?””

The city itself is crafted so deeply that it is itself another of the many points of view that Lebbon gives to us the reader. I was taken away and brought down under the streets of Echo City as the story was being told. I felt like I was there, that I bared witness to the events, and that I walked among the echoes along with our protagonists. The feel reminded me of a cross between Mieville’s New Crobuzon and set in the world of The Descent by Jeff Long.

The opening chapter of this novel is among the very best of any book that I have ever read. It is an amazing journey and it provides us with a taste as to what the novel is and what it will bring. The creatures as hideous as they are, are also filled with hope and determination and in this book that is a real treat…Awesome stuff!

Lebbon writes books like this as dark fantasy novel for adults. They are bloody, graphic, serious, and filled with depth and character. Echo City is filled with a great cast of colorful protagonists, chopped people, and scary beasts. Religion plays a major role as does faith and prophecy. The characters made this book work and made Echo City remember able. The “chopped-ones”, made by The Baker are similar in scope and science to the Remade freaks of Mievilles. There are Humans with extra appendages, blades for hands, and armor for skin. Freakish chopped-ones that fulfill specific roles that will scare you, make you feel dirty, and leave you in awe and wonder. Nophel, one of the main POV’s was a chopped-one himself, being that he is the true son of “The Baker”.

“Nophel lowered his hood and smiled at his image. The single pale eye, his other eye a blood-red ruin. The dark skin split and bubbled with fungal growths; they would need pricking and bathing again later. His teeth were good, bright and even, and that made his smile the most monstrous aspect of all.”

The writing style of Lebbon is unique in today’s market. I have really come to love and appreciate his meticulous building of tension and suspense, and the slow build he crafts. To some this will come off as too slow and too long, but to me it is what makes him special and makes Echo City so worth a read. His prose is as dark and well-crafted as the landscapes that he portrays. His action scenes are equal to the task.

“They know this is death, he thought, but they keep fighting. I’m fighting for Echo City, but they’re fighting for me. Forme! He screamed and ran forward, reversing the direction of their retreat and engaging three Dragarians. These were regulars—unchopped but still trained for war—and they came at him with swords and knives, throwing stars and weighted wires that would take his head from his shoulders. He ducked and stabbed, kicked and bit, slashed and thrust. Something struck his shoulder and pain flared, but his scream was one of fury. Wetness splashed across his throat and chest, and he was unsure whether it was his. A sword jabbed at him and he fell back, straight onto another. It pierced his hip and he turned, kneeling, twisting the knife from the owner’s hand, smashing his head forward, and feeling cartilage crunch beneath his forehead. The man stepped back, holding his nose, eyes watering as he looked in comical surprise at the blood pooling in his hand. Dane jabbed, and his sword’s tip entered the man’s left eye, wide blade jamming in his skull.”

I want to gush on and on about this book and about Lebbon. I will summarize this by saying that those of you who are tired of books tailored to the young adult crowd might find this there cup of tea. He writes exceptionally thought provoking dark fantasy that really is not for the faint of heart. This book as well as his other works will sit with you long after you are finished with them. I am a huge Tim Lebbon fan and cannot recommend him highly enough.

[Ranting Dragon · Rating 1 out of 5]

http://www.rantingdragon.com/echo-cit...


“Something’s coming…”

That one line summarizes Echo City, a stand-alone novel by Tim Lebbon. This is a work of very dark but slightly epic fantasy that sometimes borders on the horror genre. It is about a huge city called Echo City, named after its Echoes which are layers of old parts of the city built over by new parts but left intact beneath the surface. From deep down there, down beneath the earliest of Echoes, something is slowly rising. Fortune-tellers are predicting it, while others are feeling it in the waters of the river and creatures that live down in the Echoes are panicking.

When Peer Nadawa, a political exile, stumbles upon a strange man coming from the deserts where no one can survive, she is forced to escape her exile and find her lover Gorham, leader of a band of rebels, to seek the truth behind this stranger’s arrival. Could he be the prophesied savior?

A promising concept
While this story sounds very promising, and the city in which it is set is one of the most intricate I’ve ever read about – with all its forgotten history and layers upon layers through which the story travels – I can’t shake the feeling that Lebbon has bitten off more than he can chew. While reading the book, I found myself contemplating how well this story could do as an epic fantasy series, instead of a stand-alone novel.

Lack of story
The truth is, however, that Echo City doesn’t move anywhere at all. Despite all the potential it has, it simply doesn’t do anything. There are pages upon pages of people walking through the city and its Echoes, seemingly without destination, to come full circle in the end, while nothing really happened to justify the almost 500 pages of story in between. It was the potential that kept me reading, but after finishing this book, all I felt was disappointment.

Convoluted
It must be said, though, that Lebbon has tried to turn Echo City into a very epic novel. There are over a dozen different viewpoints, some of which are quite well-written. Every now and then there is an amazing chapter which offers a stunning view of a city in chaos. Overall, however, this novel didn’t need so many viewpoints, as many of them only contributed to the convoluted feeling of the book.

What also didn’t help Lebbon was the lack of background given. I felt that nothing in this book was properly set up; there were just too many coincidences. For example, there is a point when one of the characters, Nophel, needs to investigate something that happened in the city. He says to his master, “So, I’m going to need that invisibility potion you have lying around.” And *poof!*, just like that, an army of invisible people that will accomplish everything that needs to get done for the story to progress is born.

Complicated and useless
All in all, this simply isn’t a book I liked. It had the potential to be great, but it just wasn’t. At times, it was overly complicated, with many useless story-lines and a weird form of scientific magic that just didn’t get any of the explanation it needed. At other times it was too simple, almost like a children’s story, and didn’t move anywhere at all. The very anti-climactic ending didn’t help either.

Lack of vision
Another thing that bugged me was the city itself. As I said, it’s a magnificent setting for a fantasy novel and I stand by it. Layers upon layers of history built upon each other with characters traveling these through hidden passages kept me up many a night, marveling about such a wonderful setting. But then, one of those nights, it struck me: An entire section of the city is dedicated to farming. The story tells about fields still being present in the Echoes, soil and all. Yet, the city has been surrounded by deadly desert since the time of the first Echo, so where would they possibly find all that soil? Also, there is never any mention about pillars or other form of support for these layers to rest upon. In fact, there are several mentions of huge plains in the Echoes. It strikes me as completely implausible and I can’t help but be bothered by the lack of vision of the author.

Why should you read this book?
I guess you really shouldn’t, though I’m sure some of you might like it. If you’re big on dark fantasy that borders horror, you might be able to appreciate Echo City. I’m afraid, though, that if you share my love for detail, you will not like this read.

[Stefan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Echo City is a vast and ancient city in the middle of a huge, deadly desert. Its inhabitants have been isolated for thousands upon thousands of years and have come to believe that the city is actually all of the world, because venturing out into the surrounding desert is certain death. During its immense history, the city has renewed itself countless times by building new layers on top of the old, not like layers of sediment but more like floors in a building, with the old “echoes” of its past slowly decaying in underground vaults.

Peer Nadawa is a political dissident, living in exile in an isolated prison district in the city, recuperating from the shock and torture she endured in the hands of the Marcellans, Echo City’s religious rulers. After all, before her capture, Peer was a member of the outlawed Watchers, who believe that there’s more to the world than just Echo City. Gorham, her former lover, is still a Watcher fighting against the theocracy of the Marcellans and its military arm, the Scarlet Blades. His new lover is Nadielle, a woman living beneath the city and creating new, mutated forms of life in a process called “chopping.” Finally, there’s Nophel, a disfigured servant of the Marcellans, under the protection of Dane Marcellan, a degenerate member of the ruling class.

This disparate group of characters is about to go through a shocking change in their lives, because early on in the story, Peer is witness to the impossible: a stranger walks out of the bone-strewn and poisonous desert wastes and arrives on the city’s outskirts. She quickly realizes that she has to bring the visitor, who is the first person ever to survive exposure to the desert, to her former colleagues in the Watchers, despite the fact that he appears to have lost most of his memory...

So begins Echo City, the newest dark fantasy novel by Tim Lebbon — and “dark” is definitely an appropriate term for this sometimes disturbing story. A feeling of hopelessness and loss permeates the entire book, from the ancient city, resting on countless millennia of isolated history and mercilessly ruled by a corrupt theocracy, to most of its characters who are, almost without exception, defined by what they have lost rather than what they are. Echo City is a gritty and at times unpleasantly dark novel that might remind some readers, at least in atmosphere, of China Miéville’s BAS-LAG novels: Echo City somewhat resembles New Crobuzon, with its underground political dissidents fighting the heavy-handed leadership, not to mention the similarity between the “chopped” and the Remade.

There are many more differences than similarities, though, and Echo City is a unique and impressive fantasy setting. Tim Lebbon excels in his ability to make the city seem like a real place, with several districts that have a unique atmosphere, including some that are ruled by vicious criminal gangs and, maybe most strangely, one that appears to house several huge domes in which an entire mysterious race has been isolated for centuries. There’s also the fact that the entire city’s history is literally buried underground to be explored, Journey to the Center of the Earth-style (although I found it almost impossible to suspend disbelief to such an extent that I could really accept those huge vaults remaining upright for thousands of years). There are also some seriously bizarre mutated creatures, such as the Bellowers and the Scopes, that take Echo City to a whole new level of weirdness. In terms of setting, this novel is a huge and memorable success that made me wish the book included a map and some illustrations.

Unfortunately, there are some issues with pacing. The second half of Echo City contains a few chapters that barely advance the story, making it drag a bit towards the end. Trimming these down would have improved the reading experience tremendously. Some of the characters could have used more depth and back story, including main characters Peer and Gorham, but fortunately this is balanced out by some truly fascinating ones such as Norphel and especially Nadielle. Finally, the whole concept of “chopping” (creating strangely modified humans and monsters) is introduced by briefly showing a chopped prostitute: she has three legs and two sets of genitalia, allowing her to make twice the income. Given the wonderfully innovative things Tim Lebbon does with “chopping” later on and for most of the novel, I felt that using a “twin-muffed whore” to introduce the concept was unnecessarily shocking.

Regardless, Echo City is a memorable dark fantasy novel with an impressively rich setting that could well be developed further in a prequel. Readers who (like me) sought out this novel based on the strength of the short story “The Deification of Dal Bamore” (in the recent Swords & Dark Sorcery anthology) will, despite some minor issues, probably not be disappointed.

(This review was also published on 11/5/2010 on www.fantasyliterature.com)

[Иван Величков · Rating 3 out of 5]

Прекалено мудна ми дойде тази книга. До последните седем глави си мислех постоянно: Та тоя пич има страхотна концепция. Защо се размотава? Защо не му е сюжетообразуваща? На края всичко си дойде на мястото и развръзката беше страхотна, но 400 страници вече ми бяха утрепали ентусиазма.

Още в началото автора заявява еднозначно защо всичко се развива по този начин:
„В заключение, мъката ми: концепцията, че Ехо Сити може да е всичко в един свят; мисълта, че сме сами; саммомнението, че човечеството е възникнало от един човек, разрастнало се от едно място, отбягвайки отвъдното, колкото и да е опасно. За мен това е отблъскващо. Отрича самата ни природа, която доказано отново и отново е смела и тържествуваща. Отрича самата идея за нашия прогрес като вид и пълната победа, която трябва да дойде. Но това невежество се е заселило в сърцата на тези, които претендират, че ни управляват. И въпреки че виждам слава в бъдещето ни, преди нея, виждам болка.”

Върху това Лебон изгражда своя град на ехотата. Далеч в бъдещето. Човечеството е притиснато от хилядолетия между стените му, обградени от Костните земи – токсична пустиня, чиито пясъци убиват с радиация. Градът е стар. Човечеството е надграждало върху останките на предците си, което е довело до километри пещери под града, пълни с митове, ужасии и руини. Надолу, надоло, чак до Бездната, където по водопади падат телата на умрелите. Управлението е теократично и крайно деспотично. С вековете и остатъчните познания на цивилизацията, хората са се разделили на отделни биологични видове. Имаме управляващите Марселианци – богати (въпреки че богатството в този умиращ хабитат се изразява в курви, дрога и влияние). Алените остриета са армията им, която държи всички в подчинение – фанатици отгледани от малки да служат на бога им. Имаме Драгарите, които са избягали в ехотата под града преди пет века и чакат своя месия, „кълцат” телата си, променяйки ги генно и отдавна не приличат на хуманоиди. Гартаните (отдавна обявени за еретици и прогонени в тъмните ъгълчета на града от управляващата каста), които чакат своя месия от пясъците, да ги отведе към смъртта. Изгнаниците в Кръшкача – квартал лагер за неудобните на властта. Наблюдателите – друга „секта”, отчайващо чакащи някакво отдавна забравено знамение от към пустинята. И под всичко това Пекаря – наследствен биолог, майсторящ непонятни човешки конструкти в изкуствените си утроби. А, щях да забравя Досадата (The Vix) – огромно чудовище захвърлено в Бездната, което от хилядолетия се изкачва по водопадите от трупове, за да унищожи града.
Един ден от Костните земи идва човек, който променя всичко. Не е това, което очаква който и да е от тях, но е видял цивилизация отвъд отровните пясъци. С това започва края на вековния град.

Определено книгата е пример за лилава проза, но толкова тъмно лилава, че черното изглежда пред нея като декорация за детски рожден ден. Ако трябва да я сравня с „Умиращата земя” на Джак Ванс, то вместо неговата меланхолия тук имаме безкрайно отчаяние. Ако трябва да я сравня с „Горменгаст” на Мервин Пайк, то този град-свят е лишен от пайковата ирония и показва само най-мрачното от човечеството.

Тежка и бавна за четене книга, може би защото не е точно моята чаша чай. Все пак смятам, че си заслужава четенето.

[Marcus · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a struggle to get into - a struggle I ended up losing I might add.

Lately I've been in a mood for post-apocalyptic stories and the attractive cover of Echo City coupled with the intriguing concept hooked me. Unfortunately after the opening sequence - dark, foreboding, heavy, etc - nothing else happened to keep me going. I tried to keep reading but it was a chore. Unlike other books where I look for any excuse to keep reading, Echo City was like a term paper you keep putting off. I don't know what it was about the book but I just couldn't get into it.

I kept thinking, "It'll pick up any page now." But 100+ pages in I gave up. Gone are the days where I'd slog through a book just because I paid for it (a big reason why I use the library these days). I might give an author with whom I'm familiar more leeway but someone I've never read before? If he/she doesn't grab me by the 50-100 page range, I'm done.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do not want to finish this book. I suspected this might happen back at page 80, when I realized that Lebbon was telling far more than he was showing in his writing. Now, at page 225, I've read enough to put it down for good. Lebbon does put some good ideas into play, and I am still a little curious - just not enough to continue. For me, the mysteries of Echo City will remain as such.

[Robert Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those big books that tries to focus but doesn't quite pull it off.

Seems a waste somehow to go to all the effort of building a whole new world and only use it for one book. There's a lot of inventiveness gone into building a place that shares many elements with our world but isn't quite here or now (or any now that I know of). Kind of makes you wish for a sequel, but not enough to want it to happen.


I like the characters in this book. I like the story. I like the ending.

I'm not so keen on how long it takes for the story to get from the beginning to the end. I don't like that so many people die.

Read this one if you like new worlds with new rules. Avoid it if you like your action to be very fast-paced.

[Noelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

in general, I enjoyed this book...it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but it did satisfy my sci-fi craving...I liked the characters who, I felt, where realistic...they weren't all good and all bad, but at varying degrees of both like real folks tend to be...the narrative voice was beautifully descriptive, even poetic at times...however, there were segments of the narrative I felt were overly detailed and somewhat slow in pace...removing about about 75 pages would move the story along a little better...overall, not a bad read, but not one I would read again.

[Allyson Shaw]

I got to page 200 before I gave up. The first few pages were solid and grabbed me and even the first few chapters held me but then all the characters became sock puppets furthering the convoluted plot. The ambiguous ethics in the story were never dealt with- which made for some unpleasant reading. Life is too short to read books I don't like!

[Jonathan Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good dark fiction, but I had trouble connecting with the characters for some reason. A lot of the action seemed to happen at a distance.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Echo City blends a number of different genres and styles, sometimes reminding me of the magic and wonder of Neil Gaiman, and other times as some sort of strange post apocalyptic horror. In the end, it never really manages to solidify what it is, and a little too much mystery is left in the readers hands. Speculating at the truths of a story is fun when it is made to be an introspective look at a few important details, but when so much of the story is left up to the reader to decide it maybe falls short of what it could have been with just a few more minor revelations and tidied up loose ends.

That said, the world building was amazing and I always felt as though I was sneaking a peak at an utterly alien reality. Every little detail was obviously crafted intentionally to be sure that no aspects of our world shone through the cracks of assumptions or accidental inclusions.

Even despite my issues above, I felt that the story held up pretty well, mostly because of the intricacies of the world building. When reading about a place where you can’t assume you understand anything except basic human emotions, even a mundane story could hold your interest, and this story is far from mundane.

If you like Gaiman’s fantastic worlds and don’t mind if they bump into some horror and maybe a little sci-fi here and there, give this a chance.

[Kalvin Wike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like some others, I came to this book after seeing his short story "The Deification of Dal Bamore" in Swords and Dark Magic. I thoroughly enjoyed that story, and was hoping for more of the same with this book. I don't really feel like that's what I got.

At about 90 pages in, my impression is that Tim Lebbon would probably excel if he stuck with shorter stories. "Deification" was short, sweet, and teased that there was a very rich world that was worth investigating. In the form of a full novel, though, the characters seem "half there" in terms of whether or not I believe they exist, the action is sparse and not very interesting, and I find the prose both uneven and unnecessarily shocking in some areas. The quality of the narrative seems to be more or less "OK" but not great, and some bits definitely take me out of the moment. I feel that he focuses on sexualizing the characters and their perception of the world quite a bit, which I don't like.

Yet, the world building is still very interesting. I would like to find out what the answers to some questions are, or learn more about the world and its history, but at the same time I don't know that I want to dedicate much more time to something that I'm only half-way enjoying.

[Anne Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this four stars, but the book was far too long! The author paints a picture of an amazing world: a city, built upon level after level of its own past history, full with grotesque creatures and human beings with many flaws. The city exists in a poisonous desert, which means that no one can leave and no one can enter. Except that, one day, someone does enter.

So, the setting of the story is intriguing and I felt hooked by the first few chapters. Then, the journeys around the city made by the main characters started to become more and more tedious and overdone. This book feels like two or three squeezed together into one volume, or one shorter novel which has accrued too much description and should have been edited down. Also, telling the tale from multiple points of view became quite difficult to follow.

But, you know what? Despite these issues I did read the whole book and I did enjoy it. I am not sure who I would recommend it to. Perhaps someone like me with lots of spare time and the ability to keep going to find out what happens in the end.

[L.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story wise, this is pretty interesting as a concept - cities built on top of one another as new generations grow and develop, leading to the
feared 'echoes'. There were, however two things which I found irritating in the writing style. First, Lebbon's tendency to use overcomplicated words which often took me out of the story I could have otherwise been engrossed in when I stopped the think, 'wtf does that mean?' The second thing is how crude some lines were, one of my favourites being 'the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood up, his balls tingled' among many other (I'd say needless) descriptions of Gorham's piss. (his words, not mine) Overall this wasn't bad, I'd try another book by this author but I wouldn't rave about it. I'd say this is 3.5 stars, rather than just three but it's all or nothing with this rating system sooooo....

7/10 wouldn't give to my mum probably.

[Alexander Guerrero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Esta novela es otro, quiero y no puedo. La ambientación es buena y hay buenas ideas, todas desaprovechadas.
Los personajes son planos y sin carisma alguno. Todo lo que hacen, lo hacen basándose en suposiciones que no se molestan en corroborar. Es imposible entender sus motivaciones ya que parece que todo lo hacen, por qué si.
Y la historia, más de lo mismo. Todo pasa, por qué si. Un sin sentido donde no se explica nada. No se si el autor pensaba hacer una saga o no. De cualquier forma, todo mal, si es el primer libro de una saga, mal por que no explica nada quizá pensando en hacerlo en proximos libros. Y si es novela única, en serio? que final de mierda es ése.

[Ian Cully · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic standalone novel that takes you into a very weird world of magical geneticists, subterranean horrors and isolation.

This book really doesn't obey any standard fantasy tropes at all and stands out for being not just different but briskly written and hugely intriguing. It's a mish mash of Lovecraftian horror, elements of early Clive Barker with a dash of steampunkesque styling.

I absolutely loved it.

[Petros · Rating 2 out of 5]

Echo City has an amazing setting and a completely dull plot. Most of the book is spent on describing each of its locations and how people live in each one of them. What exactly is going on though is passable and mostly uninteresting. It’s more of a tour guide to a city that would make a great RPG or adventure videogame. Think of it like the Metro trilogy with even less plot and overall objective. Once you finish it and look back you will only remember its concepts and not what happened in it.

[Shawn Edrei · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a good idea in this book - centered around the structure and function of Echo City itself - but it's buried under suffocatingly sluggish prose and overly vague plotting and characterization. Granted, sometimes a book can reward you for fighting your way through it, but this doesn't feel like one of them.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really a fan of Tim Lebbon's, nor Horror for that matter, but although this was overly long and at times boring, i was engaged enough to keep reading to the last page. Wouldn't read again if knew what i was in store for.

[Tyler Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world stuck with me long after I forgot everything else.

Considering my truly, fantastically poor memory, that alone marks this a worthy read.

May it echo on in your memory as well.

(Couldn't help it.)

[Scott Gardner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting read , I liked the way the author slowly introduced the characters , too many novels just pile them in at the start and you get lost with who's who.

first time reading this author , will look out for more

[Brett Grossmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a lot to initially stick with the book. I was lost in all the world building. Good character development and the writer makes you care about the endgame

[Garryn Kinsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the city but I did not fall for any of the characters.

[Richard Webb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tim Lebbon’s Echo City is a speculative fantasy in the new-weird vein with aspects of horror and steampunk based in a city surrounded by toxic (perhaps post-apocalyptic) desert: for centuries, no-one has left Echo City, and no-one has visited. Thus by necessity the city builds upon itself, layering the new upon the old, literally burying its own past. Citizens live in the present with little or no concept of history and the theme of cultural memory (actually cultural amnesia in this instance) is signified but is worthy of more exploration.

The prologue, featuring a sequence of babushka-like progenitors, is grossly engrossing, and sets up some of the corporeal bio-shock that returns later in the book. Lebbon paints a vivid picture of the city and we feel much of its quirks, strangeness and charms through the broad brushstrokes of atmosphere and the finer points of detail about daily life for its inhabitants. This decelerates the story after the momentum-gathering opening, but this is fine as it enables a glimpse into the touching relationship between Peer and Penler. The first act closes with the inciting incident – the arrival into Echo City of a man walking in from the desert -- and everything seems nicely poised.

From that point the incorporation of this man into Peer’s socio-political activism against the city’s bureaucratic subjugators the Marcellans is only partially successful – both in terms of the events of the story and the effectiveness of the narrative. The man, given the name Rufus Kyuss, is unsure of his role and has no demonstrable abilities and thus has limited impact, again in both senses. This might be in part due to the unquantifiable nature of the Marcellans – their threat is only suggested and this dissipates the dissidence, as it were.

There is a recurrent dark fantasy/sci-fi/ horror element in the body alchemy of ‘chopping’—a process of human cloning and gene splicing, though this is rather too reminiscent of the forced modifications of the ReMade in China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. It is a little surprising how few ethical objections are raised to this in the book, as the antagonism between outrage at this abuse/slavery and the pragmatism of necessity/benefit is fertile ground to furrow deeper. However it does make for a delightfully grotesque array of creations, such as a semi-human telescope and a living subway system, even if Lebbon just leaves us to ponder the freak-show without comment.

The inventiveness of the imagery is the strength of the book, and the author’s command of prose makes for many colourful sequences. But strong interior decoration won’t hold up a building without solid foundations. The book seems unsure of what it is actually ‘about’ and this is a fundamental flaw which could use re-pointing; with so many potentially provoking themes hinted at, opportunities to build upon them are missed, as if Lebbon is reluctant to delve down into the layers of his own creation for fearing of finding fault lines.

After some pacing issues in the middle third – there is much moving through the city but not all of it is purposeful – the story then rushes its ending and the looming catastrophe in the city is too Deus ex Machina. Without Spoiling, it feels at odds with the majority of the story, the focus of which is the underground rebellion. So engulfing is the climax it reduces much that comes before to irrelevancy. A shame, as the rebellion is the human story; the blockbuster ending has scale and volume but little emotional depth and fractures the story, leaving questions hanging. For instance, the enigma of Rufus Kyuss does not seem to fully play out -- who is he and what does his arrival actually mean? On finishing the book I was not quite certain.

This is a book of great ideas – some original, some that ‘echo’ other fantasy cities – but it is an interesting setting. It has a tantalizing premise, a set of characters to root for, themes worthy of expansion and a gallery of curiosities, but does itself a slight injustice by being distracted away from these strengths just as they should reach a culmination.

[J K · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a while to get through this, and I posted plenty of messages on my Goodreads page wondering/whinging out loud why this was. The further I waded through it, though the clearer it was that something was missing.

However, I want to start with things I really liked about it. Because that’s the sort of positive person I am. Sometimes. When the coffee kicks in. There were great ideas here. Right at the start, as a strange creature walks across the lethal desert, shedding outer layers like a Russian doll, I was immediately intrigued. The concept of

As far as I could make out, it was a little too long, and I feel that a good chunk of the endless walking could be whittled down. The descriptions of the city and the characters both needed more passion, as I felt quite detached from them and the decaying city and only gradually pieced the visuals together. That said, the twisting of terminology was great. I loved the concept of the Baker and the body ‘chopping’. I feel that the writer did too!

There was noticeably more focus on the fantastic monsters than there was on most of the ‘normal’ characters, and I feel there was too much explanation of ‘what each character thought of every other character and why they thought that and how it affected them’. Gasp. I feel the narrative hopped around between viewpoints too much, and I didn’t feel especially close to any of the characters because the story kept shifting. However I really liked the chap with the diseased face, who had a vendetta, as he had compassion and had been royally screwed over. I just didn’t feel much for the characters involved in a rather passionless love triangle. I felt that we’d sort of entered the story at the wrong point, there. The Baker was also a fascinating character but everyone seemed too scared to get to know her. Lots of bits I liked, and even the levels of the city, the ‘Echoes’ were interesting. Perhaps it would have worked better carved up into smaller pieces with more mini climaxes, and having the destruction of the city much earlier. There is a bit of a cliffhangar ending, so it’ll be interesting to read any followups to this story.

Despite my grumbles, this was quite an effective start and I’ll pick up something else by the author. I just feel the whole tome needed significant streamlining, and a bit more of an ‘oomph’ (to use the technical writerly term) when it comes to description, action and pacing. I was glad to visit Echo City, but the trip got a bit laborious after the first two hundred pages.

[Holly Mcentee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was actually a re-read for me: I must have read it years ago and forgotten about it. VERY GOOD - good world-building, good terror, interesting characters. It reminded me of Perdido Street Station in all the right ways. I will make a specific effort to try more by this author.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Echo City by Tim Lebbon caught my eye after I saw it's awesome cover online. The story is a stand alone novel and I hate to say it but it's almost refreshing to see an author in the fantasy genre tell a good story in one book! Echo City is essentially a place in the middle of a vast desert. The city itself is a pretty depressing place and it's inhabitants are all plagued with political, social, and religious differences. It's here where we meet the Political outcast Peer Nadawa who lives life on the borders of this desert. Former rebel now turned outcast Peer has been banished to the outskirts of Echo City and has excepted her defeat. Then one day she sees a man emerge from the surrounding wasteland and she knows with his coming everything is about to change. The setting is where I thought Tim Lebbon really shined. Echo City has a very creepy subterranean feel to it. It's not warm, not welcoming, and you can't help but feel glad you don't live there. It's no shire, I'll say that much! The author really teases the reader as it's learned early on that something is rising from the depths of Echo City, and it's this curiosity of what it could be that really kept me hooked. One issue I had was that one character ark was a love story, which I'm totally not against, but it felt almost as if he was shoving the romance down our throat. The other characters were pretty damn original I gotta say! From a deformed worker covered in boils, to a gang of ghosts, to a "butcher" who makes abominations of flesh, if you like weird then Echo City delivers. This book also has a lot of sex, violence, and murder so if you like dark then here's yet another reason to check it out! While Echo City wasn't perfect it was original and entertaining, especially as a stand-alone. If Tim Lebbon releases more books set in this world, or even more set in the fantasy genre, I will be checking them out for sure! Overall a very unique reading experience worth checking out!

[Guy Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a frustrating book. Lebbon’s an author of dark fantasy with a serious fanbase, and you can see why here. Set in the last city (might be on Earth, might not be), Echo City manages a high level of invention. The eponymous city is baroque creation, enthralled to its own past, the city being built not on, but over the buildings of yesteryear. Ghostly cities of successively great age – the Echoes - are entombed beneath its bustling streets.

Echoes are what you get, with Lebbon playing with the idea of mutability in flesh (this world’s tech of “chopping” is bio-based), stone, identity and reality.

Top marks for world-building, but what he does with this excellent creation is less impressive. Lebbon takes so many trips into our character’s psyches that it robs readers of a sense of interaction. We’re being lectured to by Lebbon, not invited to join in.

A lot happens in Echo City – it’s the end of the world – but because of the mode of delivery, it feels leadenly empty of incident, and reading becomes tiresome as different parts of your brain war over whether the need to find out what happens next or the desire to rip out a page with yet more tedious dialogue upon it and eat it is more important.

There is loads of room for pleasing speculation on the nature of the mysterious city itself, but there’s not enough of that crucial engagement with characters to make this all that it could be. For a more engaging fantasy with underground themes, check out Chris Wooding’s The Fade.

[Adrenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just don't know about this book.

The prologue was astounding. It's written from the perspective of a hideous monster roaming the desert, and it's haunting and beautiful and strange. I had to know more. And then we're introduced to our main character (a lady! yay!, Peer Nadawa. She's capable and has an intriguing past. Even the world building was completely fascinating. "Echo City" takes place in a city that builds up over itself, leaving echoes of past cities in the underground, because it can't afford to build out. For mysterious reasons, the desert is deeply toxic. Anything within it dies miserably.

Once I bought the book and started reading, it sort of fizzled out and ended with a whimper.

There were too many scenes where the characters wander from place to place, observing the architecture and thinking and pondering and talking. After a certain point reading the book felt more like a chore than an adventure.

Even still, I appreciated the presence of interesting female characters, the unique world building, and the concept of using genetically engineered creatures as technology instead of machinery.

It was a struggle deciding between a two or three star rating. I ultimately went with three star because I loved the idea of could have been done with the concept, even if I thought the final product was stale.

I might check out other books by Lebbon but I'll do so with tempered expectations this time.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

C2010. FWFTB: toxic, desert, stranger, experiments, deadly.This book was well received out in cyber space and the extracts that I read were very enticing. IMHO this is a very well written book with an authentic plot and characters. Pacy and exciting. The author has managed to draw some superb characters without clogging up the story with unnecessary world building. It is not a barrel of laughs though and there is very little, if any, humour to lighten the mood. “To most people, history is a dead thing, but in reality it still exists – but is forgotten. Down in the underside of Echo City, he strove to remember.” (To my eternal shame, I did not know that Mr Lebbon is a New York Times best selling writer and I will now be seeking out more of his dark fantasy novels. I have to echo Mr Erikson’s recommendation on the front cover “Brilliantly conceived and exquisitely well written.”The image on the cover manages to convey the whole atmosphere of the book and is credited to Lee Gibbons who has also done work for Bernard Cornwell and Camila Lackberg. Definitely recommended to the normal crew. FCN: Peer Nadawa (exiled and confused!), Gorham (well ! one of the male protagonists but he seemed a little bit of a spineless creature), Nophel (probably the character that I was most sympathetic to), Nadielle (the Baker – who illustrates a geneticist gone bad) and Malia (shame!)