I remember seeing something D. T. Read had written about one of her Seventh Shaman novels. She thought a lot of fans might not like it because it was less action oriented. I can't remember which one it was (And this is a common failing of mine. ) but it focused on Ku, the main character of that series, and his coming terms with being a husband and a father during some leave time during a war. I kind of wonder if she thinks the same thing about Echoes of Issel. I hope not. Seriously, not all of Science Fiction has to be space battles and explosions. Echoes of Issel has both of those, but this is a really phenomenal character driven drama.
Some of you missed the first book in The Sergey Chronicles, Ganwold's Child. You should be ashamed of yourselves. That much having been said, Tristan, the main character of both books, kills his first person in combat at the end of Ganwold's Child. If you've done the reading (and I have) a lot of combat vets suffer from PTSD not from the horror and fear of combat, but because of what they were forced to do. A lot of Echoes is Tristan trying to recover from his PTSD related to that kill, and it makes sense.
A lot of Echoes of Issel is also Tristan and the rest of his nuclear family, his father Lujan and mother Darcie, as they try to become a family again after years of separation. As well as Read writes her action sequences, her forte really seems to be family interactions and bonding. She knocked it out of the park here. She obviously put some study in for this one. Some of what her psychologist character says sounds like it comes almost straight out of a textbook. I'm guessing it might. Seeing that study put into use as she takes us through Tristan's actions toward his father especially was amazing. Then add in a dash of a stranger in a new land (Darcie raised Tris among aliens) and things get really complicated. Read works through things with her typical aplomb and if I may have felt a desire to get in Tristan's face a couple of times that just means that:
A.) I'm a crusty old dude who doesn't deal with teenagers being teenagers any better than the crusty old man who raised me.
and
B.) Read got an emotional reaction out of her reader. Emotional response being the goal of any smart artist, that translates into "job well done."
None of that is to say that Echoes of Issel is all talk and no action. The second half of the book, following a training interlude, is almost a straight Military Science Fiction action novel. Tristan remains a civilian but goes to war as a civilian scout attached to a Special Operations unit. Things get hectic.
In fact, Echoes of Issel was part thriller, part medical drama and part Mil-SF. There is a lot here and it's actually impressive to see all of that in one book and have it work.
Totally non-spoilery hint:
Don't mess with that Sergey kid.
Anyway...
I had gone into Echoes of Issel with full knowledge of the fact that Tris would be joining a SpecOps unit, but I don't think I was totally prepared for it. Most of the combat in Read's books, at least the ones I've read, have been mainly space battles. Fighter versus fighter, ship versus ship, etc. The combat in Echoes is much more up close and personal. Tris is fighting on foot with a rifle for the combat sequences. I should have expected that, but for some reason it caught me by surprise.
Huh?
Goofball? Me? You're just noticing that? Seriously?
Your powers of observation are weak.
Continuing on...
Read, being a retired Lieutenant Colonel, has a ton of knowledge and experience with things military and it shows. She has the military feel down. I expected that. What I didn't expect as much of was how well she integrated a young man with no real military experience into a military unit and made it feel real and make sense. I would expect members of a SpecOps unit to have reservations about having a civilian into their ranks and they do. But Tris, being an intelligent young man, earns his place in the unit and it feels organic. I could actually believe it happened as I read it. It felt right. I don't know how else to put it.
And Read's background as an intelligence officer shows through. She not only displays knowledge of how to conduct a debriefing, she also shows how that intelligence is put into use. There's a bit of ops planning revealed here, and I'd be willing to bet she sat in as a consultant during her military career as well. Echoes of Issel was not just well conceived. It was well executed.
The best Military Science Fiction always includes some political intrigue. Wars are, after all, an extension of policy using other means. The most talented authors not only acknowledge this basic truth, they use it as a tool to move their stories along. Echoes gives us just enough of the political end of things to move the story along without becoming overwhelming and bogging things down. I won't say precisely why, but I have a feeling that there is a political angle coming up in the next book, which I'm totally looking forward to.
I'm going to admit to being a bit miffed at myself here as well. I, was aware that Read was going to attempt to sell this series to Chris Kennedy Publishing (Theogony Books being their MilSF imprint) and I didn't get this book before CKP did the smart thing and bought it. It was totally for sale months ago. I had read the first one. I could have just flopped down the cash for Echoes of Issel and the next book (the title of which escapes me) months ago and I didn't. That was a mistake of titanic proportions. I’m kicking myself about it, if only because I still don’t have the last one in my greedy little hands. This is a problem which will, of course, be solved in due time but which was totally preventable. I'm looking forward to finally putting that problem to bed.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Borbiks
Echoes of Issel
D.T. Read
Theogony Books, 2023
Echoes of Issel is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.
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