Echoes of War

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was a pretty good sci do novel full of intrigue and action. Dani is a courageous young woman who fights back in a time of war between humans and aliens called Echoes. She discovers the truth about who she really is but doesn't allow it to deter her from her goal to unite factions and bring peace back to earth. it is a very well written novel, easy to follow and engaging. Definitely worth reading.

*An early copy received from NetGalley and SparkPress in exchange for an honest review*

A post-apocalyptic, alien invasion world that follows Dani, a strong and likeable female character and her family/friends and their struggle to survive. The novel has many elements that kept me reading:
1) Interesting description of a future earth (although not too much description that it distracts from the plot/characters)
2) A conflict between good and evil where you assume good will prevail, but at what cost?
3) Solid character development. The witty banter between characters is particularly strong.
4) Love interests that are woven into the plot in a natural rather than an *eye-roll* way. It adds rather than distracts from the overall plot.

The ending leaves an opening for the story to continue and I look forward to reading more.

Cheryl Campbell crafts a strong science fiction story with a rounded female protagonist. The book is wonderful because of Campbell's descriptions and dialogue, which add perfectly to an imaginative plot. Recommended for readers of this genre and newcomers who want to try out a strong contemporary title.

As a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, with the added dimension of long-term alien colonization, I was very much looking forward to reading this novel after reading the synopsis. It did not disappoint. Dani is a strong central character, without being forced. She has genuine and identifiable relationships which make her a character very easy to empathize with. I loved that it was set in the 'real world' in that the geographic references made the story believable in that 'what-if?' fashion.

There is a true cost to the cause Dani fights for and the clear progression of her development provides plenty of material, not only for this novel but also help to speculate what the future (and future novels!) might hold. The relationships between the character seem very genuine and the banter is enjoyable and help to build the characters. Dani's journey and fight are really enjoyable - hopefully, the next installment will follow soon!

Three of my favourite genres, survival, post apocalyptic and science fiction, all in one book? Add into the mix a complex, and flawed female protagonist, and plenty of action to keep me interested, it's easy to see why I couldn't look past Echoes of War when I saw it offered up on Netgalley for an honest review. And despite my high expectations, Echoes of War did not disappoint.

The first in a trilogy by Cheryl Campbell, Echoes of War is an edgy, post-apocalyptic sci-fi set in New England. Dani is a scavenger, living on the fringes of society as a Brigand, not trying to be a hero, and just trying to live another day with her brother, Jace. She avoids the Wardens, an alien race that has come to Earth and spent the last few decades trying to eradicate humans. But that all changes when she risks her life to save a human boy, and when he calls her out on her inaction, she decides to step up and out of the shadows, and try to fight back against the Wardens.

I loved the fact that Dani was far from perfect. She makes mistakes, sometimes even big ones, and in doing so, felt much more believable and complex. I enjoyed her gradual growth as a character from the first chapter, right up to the very end, the changes brought about by not only the events that unfold, but the friendships she builds over the years.

I found the first few chapters a bit confusing and it was difficult to really tell what was going on, and who was who. But once I got my head around that, I found Echoes of War difficult to put down. The romances, like the characters, were complex, and not the focus of the novel, though I did find Gavin's love for Dani a bit sudden and out of the blue, with few scenes at that point to establish it. However, as we do start to see them interact, it does start to make more sense.

Overall, I really enjoyed Echoes of War, and can't wait to see what Cheryl Campbell comes up with next in the sequel.

* This eBook ARC was provided by Sparkpress & Smith Publicity through NetGalley for an honest review.

This is solid sci-fi read! Well-written characters in an interesting plot with a good amount of action made this work for me. The main character is a bit immature at times, but good dialog made up a few deficiencies.

I really appreciate the advanced copy for review!!

A great read! The main character - Dani is a driven individual and it's hard not to love her. I look forward to reading more books from this author.

This was really interesting, so well written, amazing world building and the banter between characters I just loved so much. I loved the fact the main character wasn’t flawless and she was so genuine and real. This is a great start and I can’t wait to read more from this series.


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This was so well done. I was a little confused at first but went along with for the ride. The aliens in the story were astounding. The complicated gifts of this alien race had my mouth dropping wide open. It reminded me of “V” the TV mini series. Dani was a real character. Miles and even Oliver made the story even better. Good old Jace, his sacrifices were so selfless. I got really emotional at some key times. The bad guy Rowan, he was so bad. He was a true psychopath. We never did find out why her memories didn’t return like the other Ekkohs. I recommend this story highly. I love the Ekkohs will their be more stories about them?

This is a new premise for me. The idea of being an Echo is certainly intriguing. I enjoyed Dani's "lives" and the trials.and challenges in them. The world building was.excellent and the flow was steady. A very enjoyable read.

Echoes of War by Cheryl Campbell.
SparkPress (BookSparks), 2019. $17.
Language: R (251 swears, 73 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH
The Wardens are the army of alien invaders who started the war hundreds of years ago. While some humans are fighting to defend from the Wardens’ attacks, a large group of humans and aliens are simply trying to survive the chaos of the war raging around them. Dani is one of these survivors. She’s always looked out for herself and her dog, but, when the opportunity comes to reclaim her home from the Wardens, Dani can’t help herself from fighting against the odds.
I was intrigued by the premise but skeptical as the story started. However, as the story unfolded, I found myself lost in Dani’s struggles and vision for the future. Her seemingly reckless and determined nature made sure that there was never a boring moment, and I fell in love with her friends made along the way. This story necessitates several large time gaps where the author jumps over weeks, months, and even years at a time. Usually I am not a big fan of big time jumps, but Campbell expertly crafted the transitions is a way that the flow was smooth and the story continued to be engaging through each time jump. Campbell’s success in making me interested despite a pet peeve I usually have with books only made me more enthusiastic about reading what she had written. The have only rated this book as “optional” instead of “advisable” for purchase because of the language rating. The mature content rating is for sex, prostitution, and attempted rape; the violence rating is for war violence, death, and suicide contemplation.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Title: Echoes of War
Author: Cheryl Campbell
Genre: Dystopian, YA
Rating: 3.0 out of 5

Dani is a Brigand: living on the fringes of society and scavenging to survive. The Wardens, an alien race, came to Earth centuries ago and lived disguised as humans until they were discovered. Now they’ve destroyed much of humanity—and are trying to destroy the rest. Then Dani’s brother reveals she’s an Echo—one of the near-immortal alien race who reset back to a younger age when they die, but not militant like the Wardens.

Soon Dani is trying to convince the other Brigands they need to work with the military so they can defeat the Wardens. But Dani will have to learn from her mistakes if she’s to help them succeed.

Okay…it was really hard for me to write this summary, which tells me a bit about this book’s issues: it’s a little too undefined to be completely coherent. Frankly, Dani was kind of childish, and while this is partially explained due to her nature, she never seems to learn from her mistakes and is just hell-bent on doing things her way—no matter the repercussions to other people. I did not find her very likable. And this book felt more like an unpolished manuscript to me: sometimes there are no explanations/motivations for characters’ actions—I can’t relate to people if I don’t have the slightest idea why they’re doing things. And there are several places lacking transitions, where time passes—four months, in one case—with zero transition at all, which felt very abrupt and threw me out of the story.

Cheryl Campbell lives in Maine when she’s not being a nomad. Echoes of war is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of SparkPress via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4 STARS

I thoroughly love a good post-apocalyptic/dystopian and I also love good sci-fi. Plus you know your girl loves a fierce female protagonist who is flawed and relatable. So when I saw this one on NetGalley, I knew I wanted to give it a try! I have had a harder time personally finding a good sci-fi lately, so I went into this hoping to find something engaging and unique. Boy did I find it! Echoes of War did not disappoint!

I loved the fact that Dani was far from perfect. She makes mistakes, sometimes even really big ones. This made her character so much more believable and complex. I enjoyed her gradual growth as a character from the first chapter, right up to the very end, the changes brought about by not only the events that unfold but the friendships she builds over the years. I also truly enjoyed all of her different "lives" that we were shown.

I will confess that because you are literally THROWN into the action, I found the first few chapters a bit confusing and it was difficult to really tell what was going on. Once I got my head around that beginning though, I found Echoes of War a difficult novel to put down.

Cheryl Campbell does an outstanding job of creating a story that instantly pulls you into the rapid-fire action while at the same time builds a new world within it. The world-building was phenomenal as she uses current day geography and landmarks told from a future date. This quickly allowed me as the reader to relate to the story and the challenges faced by the characters. Mix it all with alien occupied earth, the battle for human survival and you find yourself in twists and turns that leave you wanting more of the world as soon as you put the book down.

The romances and the characters were complex, and while I love a good romance, I was glad to see that this was not the focus of the novel. I also had a teeny-tiny bit of a hard time with Gavin's love for Dani. It did feel a bit sudden and out of the blue, kind of insta-love, with not enough scenes to establish or set up the relationship for us the reader. I did enjoy their relationship as the story went on though and we saw more interaction with them.

Overall, Echoes of War is an exciting, action-packed, sci-fi thriller that Cheryl Campbell has created. It is unique enough to stand out amongst the genre, and it's just a solid post-apocalyptic tale. I really enjoyed Echoes of War, and am excited to see what Cheryl Campbell comes up with in the sequel.

Content:
Adult language and violence throughout. (R)
Mild sexual references (PG-13)

Firstly, i really loved the idea of this, it had lots of potential and I found the Echoes super intriguing. The echoes are an almost immortal alien specie which can only die from beheading or mid regeneration. A war was started and the story follows an Echo called Dani who survives from going out to scavenge supplies.

I wasn't too fond of the writing to start off with, the word dead was written a few times in the first few pages, minor issue but a little irritating to me. Also there were unnecessary uses of curse words. I have no problem with cursing as i curse a lot myself but sometimes it just seemed like it wasnt needed.

I appreciated the world building but i felt like there could have been more with character development. The main character in particular, i found super frustrating.

I would like to see how the story continues and hope for more development.

Thank you!

Alien Invasion story where the aliens have been living among us for awhile. I really enjoyed it but couldn't figure out why the echoes could regen but did not heal sickness or injuries very well.

Cheryl Campbell, a children’s writer, has written a YA dystopian novel that begins hundreds of years after an alien race invaded earth and lived amongst us before rising up and completely destroying cities and their residents. Millions of humans were killed and the rest are being hunted by the aliens as the book opens.

The surviving humans, among them Dani a twenty-something woman, are starving and being hunted. Dani is a scavenger able to find enough food for herself and her friend Jace. When some unknown thing changes and the aliens step up their search for the remaining humans and seem bent on killing them all, Dani must stop being a loner. When she learns she’s not a human after all, her world is rocked, but she carries on. She stops being annoyingly immature and steps up to help the hunted to survive.

Campbell has done a good job introducing the dystopian world as Dani knows it, but fails to tell us why the aliens wanted America and why they are trying eliminate the humans. Her descriptions of the war-torn area in which Dani and Jace live give the reader a real feel for the kind of life they are leading.

The action begins right on page one and continues for a number of chapters when the author changes direction and begins to describe Dani’s previous lives. I personally think it would have been a much stronger book had Campbell not changed the focus, but rather continue to have the characters fighting not only for survival, but for their lives as well.

If you like dystopian novels with interesting main characters, a plotline with potential, and the first book in a proposed series, you will undoubtedly enjoy this book.

My thanks to Spark Press and NetGalley for an eARC.

First of all, thank you #Netgalley and #Sparkpress for the advanced copy of this book! I loved it! ! I IMMEDIATELY knew I would connect with the main character, (even though I’m 53), Dani has all the spunk and tenacity needed to make me route for her the entire book, and that’s no easy feat!!! Every day I looked forward to picking up this unique story of survival in a world taken over by an alien invasion! I will anxiously await the second book as this will be a trilogy!!! #CherylCampbell#SparkPress

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica – ☆☆☆☆
Spoiler-Free Review

Cheryl Campbell is a new-to-me author

Echoes of War is the debut in the Echoes Trilogy.

I'm always looking for something a bit different that melds several genres together, a novel that I won't forget as soon as I start another. Dystopian meets Science Fiction.

Echoes of War was rich in detail, painting a fully envisioned world, without being laden with too much description. Earth has been overrun with aliens in this dystopian tale, Dani is one of the human survivors, doing all she can to stay that way. I was able to get a good grasp on the world building, without it being spoon-fed to me, nor was it lacking explanation.

Starting off with a bang, Echoes of War is action-packed and exciting, spanning a long period of time. Where I had difficulty is how the time seemed to jump forward, the characters felt different.

While the world building and war-torn environment were stellar, this was at the expense of the character development and relationship connections. There wasn't much growth for the characters, actions/reactions not jiving up to their maturing ages, sounding more young adult than adult, whereas young children sounded mature and logical in comparison.

I thoroughly enjoyed Echoes of War and look forward to continuing the trilogy. Recommended to those looking for something different, who are more interested in action and world building vs character building.

I like a good dystopian story, add in a sci-fi slant about aliens and you've got me! I enjoyed this first novel in the trilogy, and look forward to reading the next two installments.

Dani is an Echo - not that she knows about that at the start. The Wardens are also echos, and trying to eliminate all humans left on Earth so that they can establish a new home for themselves. As you can imagine, the humans aren't best pleased about it, and will do anything they can to prevent it. Dani is a skilled scavenger and gets caught up in an attack, she gets killed, and regenerates. That's when the real story starts.

The world is good. The banter is not too gratuitous in snark. Dani is not human she felt it as she made mistakes as was not gratuitously praised.

Disclaimer: I received this ebook from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Echoes of War

Author: Cheryl Campbell

Book Series: Echoes Trilogy

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: LGBT moments and characters!

Publication Date: September 10, 2019

Genre: Sci-Fi

Recommended Age: 17+ (violence, language, gore, slight sexual content)

Publisher: SparkPress

Pages: 400

Amazon Link

Synopsis: Decades of war started by a genocidal faction of aliens threatens the existence of any human or alien resisting their rule on Earth. Dani survives by scavenging enough supplies to live another day while avoiding the local military and human-hunting Wardens. But then she learns that she is part of the nearly immortal alien race of Echoes—not the human she’s always thought herself to be—and suddenly nothing in her life seems certain.

Following her discovery of her alien roots, Dani risks her well-being to save a boy from becoming a slave—a move that only serves to make her already-tenuous existence on the fringes of society in Maine even more unstable, and which forces her to revisit events and people from past lives she can’t remember. Dani believes the only way to defeat the Wardens and end their dominance is to unite the Commonwealth’s military and civilians, and she becomes resolved to play her part in this battle. Her attempts to change the bleak future facing the humans and Echoes living on Earth suffering under the Wardens will lead her to clash with a tyrant determined to kill her and all humankind—a confrontation that even her near-immortal heritage may not be able to help her survive.

Review: I thought this was an amazing read! The detail and world building in this novel was out of the solar system! There’s a fine line between just the right amount of detail and too much detail, one which Stephen King himself falls over at all the time, but this book managed to succeed it! The characters were also compelling and well developed. The pacing was also well done and I’m so happy that a romance isn’t the focal point in this.

The only issue I really had with the book is that you are thrown straight into the novel and it can really throw you off for a few chapters. Hang in there, it gets better.

Verdict: Worth the read.

Here's another book I knew was going to be right up my alley before I even started it. Following a young woman in her 20's named Dani, it shows her world, one torn apart by war, as an alien military has ravaged Earth for the last few decades. Though the Echoes, an alien race who had integrated themselves into the human population for hundreds of years, were living just fine before their military counterparts began trying to extinguish the human race, everyone opposing the Wardens are being torn apart. It's all anyone can do to just barely survive.

Living with her uncle Jace, Dani's life as a scavenger has been hard. Always watching her back, she's risking her life every day just trying to go out and steal food. It's a little help that her boyfriend is part of the military defending their territory from the Wardens, but they're not innocent either. They scoop up anyone they can to recruit them to fight for them, including other scavengers like Dani. Whether they're an Echo or not. And even though the Wardens are Echo Military, they do horrible experiments to their own people and are genocidal against the humans, which is a lot worse than just being forced into the Military. No one can win this war, it seems like.

That is, until Dani comes along. After losing her life, she regenerates as a young ten year old girl and must grow up all over again. Usually Echoes keep there memories with them when they regenerate, but Dani's different. Her and Jace relocate to a small town and start fresh there. And Dani's determined to change the way the world is, because she's not the only one sick of the war.

This book was amazing, and like I said, I knew from reading the description that I would love it immediately. It's action packed, heart and gut wrenching, and the story isn't one that's used up and repeated. As you might know if you have followed my blog for a while, or even if you just read my blog name, I love books about aliens and/or the apocalypse. Everything about them intrigues me, and this book was no exception. I read it in just under a day, and I'm very thankful that I have the second book in the trilogy ready to go. I can't wait to start reading it, and I have high hopes for it because of how much I loved this one.

If you're into books about aliens living among humans, and also a war against those same aliens on a war torn Earth, then this is the book for you. And if you don't, I highly suggest giving this one a chance. I just loved it so much that I want everyone I know to check it out. It's not so gory that it makes you shy away from it, but it's still action packed and interesting. The characters are easy to imagine, and somehow they're very realistic although their world is nothing like our own. I just can't get enough. I hope we get to see more of Brody, Oliver, Dani, Mary, Hattie, Miles and everyone else I love in the next book, and I'm going to start it right after this.

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