There, it is also expected that he will be “synced” with an Architect, a process that creates a permanent mental bond so that the Reader can be controlled. I was really excited to read this standalone sequel to Winters Orbit, and I'm glad to say it measured up! It’s been a couple of days since I finished it, but my thoughts keep straying back to the book, even when I’m supposed to be doing other things. At the center of Ocean’s Echo is Tennal Halkana, the rich, smarmy nephew of a powerful legislator who fancies himself to be a charming rogue flirting his way across the galaxy.

Come for the worldbuilding, space politics, and a twisting turning mystery, and stay because you love the main characters so much. This book follows different characters and provides all the information on the world to understand the details of the story. My favorite thing about Maxwell’s writing is the way she manages to balance small-scale focus on the developing relationship between the two main characters and more large-scale focus on a societal conflict that has been plaguing their world for decades.Update December 7, 2023** Bought my own copy and re-read this because after The Hurricane Wars I needed to remember what a truly satisfying SFF + romance tale was like! No idea how I managed to finish; reading this felt like I was ejected into space myself, drifting, largely immobile: the pages left seemed to increase and go on forever, like space itself. Maybe the only redeeming feature here was the writing, but even that was offset by the sheer length of the book. Ocean's Echo is a stand-alone, romantic space adventure, set in the same universe as Everina Maxwell's hit debut, Winter's Orbit.

I am such a sucker for the whole trope of a person who's been shamed all their life for being officially "Too Much" finally meeting the person who looks at their "Too Much"ness and thinks: "WOW that is AMAZING. I would recommend this one to readers open to sci fantasy story with fast plot and a hot queer romance. When I read Winter’s Orbit I was blown away and so excited to hear another book in this universe was coming out. Both Tennal and Surit bear the legacy of the past: the weight of their planet’s history and the experimentations that led to architects and readers; the weight of their family’s legacies and the complicated history between these two families; the roles both have been assigned by their society and how each chooses to navigate these roles and that overbearing legacy—how history repeats itself, but also the power of choices and how sometimes it is possible to break the cycle and see the start of something new. This stand-alone set in the same universe as Winter’s Orbit is an exciting, fast-paced sci-fi adventure with great worldbuilding and complex characters.Everina Maxwell has a wonderful way of weaving a story with the perfect balance of feelings/emotions and vivid detail for the reader to imagine each scene. Tennalhin Halkana arrived at the party fashionably late, which might have meant something if he’d been invited in the first place. I stayed up all night reading, desperately rooting for Kiem and Jainan to finally hold hands and save the day. not entirely the book's fault but considering the plot in the first half was slow and a bit boring, i wish the author could've spent that time developing the relationship more before focusing on the plot again in the second half.