DNF at 50%.

The premise was promising, but the execution was lacking. There is a lot of tell and not much show.

The characters had as much personality as a toaster and tended to blend together so much that even halfway through the book I couldn't keep their names straight. They were no more than functions: Ethan = doctor, Sam = protagonist, whatever his name is a bad guy, etc.

Most of the backstory is told in infodumps. And when action happens, it's written in such a distant way that I couldn't visualize it or feel involved. Of course, not caring about what happens to any of the characters didn't help either. I don't feel like finishing this, because I just don't care enough to find the answer to the mystery of the crash landing.

A strange adventure on a mysterious planet that we get to discover at the same time as the characters. I struggled with this book even though it has a lot of elements of Sci-fi that I love: exoplanet, alien plants/animals/etc, and other stuff I don’t want to spoil!

The setting was awesome, and I loved the mystery behind everything as we learn about the environment through the eyes of the protagonists who don’t know a thing about the planet they are on. I just could not get in line with the pacing and most of the plot. Thankfully, the last 20-25% really make up for the slow set-up. I probably would’ve rated this higher had the first half of the book been condensed and the ending been extended!

A little flat, but it got my attention enough to add other books by Gary Gibson to my reading list!

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the author, the publishers and the NetGalley team for providing me with an Advanced copy. I cherished this opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review.

This novel follows fifteen people who wake up in a crashed spaceship with no memory of where they are, who they are and why they are there. They must survive in a hostile location while trying to regain their memories and their purpose.

Echogenesis was more plot driven than character driven as more time was devoted towards the mystery surrounding the characters than the characters themselves. I really enjoyed this as the novel reminded me of the tv show Lost. I loved reading about the slowly evolving mystery regarding their past. There were plenty of twists and turns and the big twist regarding how and why they ended up where they were surprised me. I’m glad Gibson included the Earth’s eventual fate.

The characters were a little bland and forgettable. It took me approximately 50% of the way through and only seven characters left before I started to remember who was who.

The conclusion was really good as there wasn’t the perfect happy ending. Also, although Gibson finished the novel he left room for either a novelette sequel. The reader could also easily finish it.

The pacing was great as the mystery surrounding the characters past, their location and the world was slowly revealed. This meant their wasn’t a dull moment and I had to keep reading to learn all of the secrets.

The world was interesting but I wish more attention could have been devoted to the world. I loved hearing about the different lifeforms and landscapes and wish I could have learned more about the new, alien planet.

Overall this was a good exploration science fiction novel with an engaging mystery driven plot, forgettable characters and an interesting world building. I would suggest this to sci-fi fans that like mystery/exploration subplots.

Thank you to NetGalley and Brain In a Jar Publishing for the ARC.

After Sam wakes up in a strange world, decades younger and surrounded by strangers the group tries to figure out where they are and how they got there.
The book is very promising with an interesting plot that, apart from some improbabilities, keeps your invested in finding out what's going on along with the group of people. Unfortunately it's too hard to feel connected to the group of people that's stranded and Sam as a main character is also not someone I could connect to. There is no character development and while it still remains a good fast-paced sci-fi/survival story with an interesting plot, I was indifferent to the fate of the group which is why Echogenesis is an okay book instead of great.

***Thank you Netgalley for supplying an ARC so I could review this book***

Interesting an entertaining, this book is like Lost on a different planet and involving nothing but teenagers!!

Echogenesis

[Blurb goes here]

This was a fun read. One that keeps you turning pages, even when you have to go to bed since you have to work the next day. All in all, a great ride.

Thank you for the free copy!

Same wakes in a cryo pod on an alien planet, stranded with a group of others, none of whom know why or where they are. The mystery is set up well, the execution of the plot is pretty good, there's a lot of action with some great twists, but unfortunately not as much characterization and would be necessary to make this a 5 star book. Still, it's an enjoyable ride and a great read. Recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced review copy.

Echogenesis by Gary Gibson is a recommended science fiction novel.

Sam Newman and fourteen others wake up inside pods near a damaged landing craft on an unknown planet. Apparently no one knows why or how they ended up on this planet, in this situation. They are also in new, young bodies, unlike the aging bodies many of them remember. The survivors have also already separated into groups, with those who were military in one and the others, composed of engineers, scientists, etc. in another. Now their overwhelming need is to figure out how to survive.

This is an action-based sci-fi story where you have to set disbelief aside completely and go with what happens, in spite of the improbabilities. There is a decent idea here but the execution wasn't quite as good as the concept. The world building is so-so. There is an interesting variety of characters, but no real character development to increase your engagement in the plot. What this leaves is an entertaining novel with several flaws that you can read quite quickly while trying to find out what happened and why. There are several twists in the action and the final denouement was actually worth slogging through some of the problematic parts of the plot.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the publisher/author via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and Amazon.

Fifteen strangers wake up in a place they don’t recognize with no idea how they got there. Which immediately makes me think of a certain popular tv show of yesteryear. But alas, this one is entirely different because a. everyone here mysteriously wakes up as a much younger version of themselves and b. it takes place on a different planet. So a space adventure/survival story. And pretty fun on both accounts as far as those things go.
The narrative is primarily action driven, wherein I might traditionally prefer more character development, but how much can you invest in these guys when their survival rates are so low. There’s a nice twist there too about the mysterious deaging process. And no, it isn’t because they suddenly find themselves in a movie. Although this would probably make a fun B movie.
Fans of action driven whambam paced science fiction would probably enjoy this. For me it was more middle of the road, but reasonably entertaining all the same. Thanks Netgalley.

Echogenesis by Gary Gibson- I had high hopes for this book. I've enjoyed other books by this author. But some of the improbabilities with plot and some(most) of the annoying characters made it a true slog for me. I know that a lot of people like this book and that's great for Gary. I'll just wait for the next one.